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ft  03  Cnglanti  ilibrarj)  of  ^^opular  BSiosrapfjies 


THIS    VOLUME    CONTAINS    SKETCHES    OF 


REPRESENTATIVE    WOMEN    OF 

NEW    ENGLAND 


COMPILED    BY 


Mary   Elvira  Elliot,  Mary  A.  Stimpson,  Martha  Seavey   Hoyt,  and  Others 
Under    the    Editorial    Supervision   of    JULIA     WARD     HOWE,    assisted    by    Mary    H.    Graves 


"  Honorable  women   not  a  few." 


BOSTON 

NEW    ENCJLAND    HISTORICAL    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

/904 


PUBLISHER'S    PREFACE. 


1 

N  presenting  this  book  to  our  patrons,  we  think  it  fitting  to  state  that  the 
publication  of  such  a  vohune  was  first  suggested  to  us  by  two  ladies  who 
have  been  since,  for  most  of  the  time,  closely  associated  with  us  in  its  com- 
pilation —  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Stimpson  and  Miss  Mary  E.  Elliot.  Their  labors 
have  been  ably  supplemented  in  this  department  and  otherwise  by  Mrs.  Martha  S.  Hoyt 
and  others,  to  all  of  whom  we  owe  a  debt  of  thanks  for  faithful  and  efficient  service.  Our 
thanks  are  also  due  in  high  measure  to  Miss  Mary  H.  Graves  for  her  thorough  and  pains- 
taking work  in  connection  with  the  editorial  department  and  the  verification  of  the  geneal- 
ogies herein  contained ;  and  to  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  the  editor-in-chief,  for  her  many 
wise  suggestions,  careful  oversight,  and  valuable  personal  contributions  of  biographical 
matter.  That  the  completion  of  the  work  has  been  delayed  somewhat  beyond  the  time 
at  first  anticipated  has  been  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  data  for  some  of  the  biog- 
raphies, promised  a  long  time  since,  were  not  furnished  to  us  until  quite  recently,  and 
also  to  the  careful  and  thorough  manner  in  which  every  department  of  the  work  has  been 
carried  on.  That  all  will  be  fully  satisfied  we  do  not  expect ;  yet  we  believe  that  our 
subscribers  in  general  will  find  little  real  cause  for  dissatisfaction,  and  in  particular  will 
this  be  true  of  those  who  readily  and  heartily  co-operated  with  us  in  the  preparation  of 
their  own  biographies.  The  few  who  failed  to  do  so  will  be  httle  entitled  to  complain  of 
any  errors  or  omissions  in  the  matter  personal  to  themselves  herein  printed.  We  believe 
the  book  will  fulfil  the  reasonable  expectations  of  all  those  who  have  taken  a  friendly 
interest  in  its  pubhcation. 

NEW  ENGLAND  •HISTORICAL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 

Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A., 
September,  1904. 


EDITOR'S    PREFACE. 


HE  Ijiogiaphical  sketches  presented  in  this  vohune  are  mostly  (j1'  an 
are   still   with   us  ami    engaged    in    active  pursuits  which  embrace 
variety  of  callings.     The  woman  minister,  doctor,  lawyer,  all  have  her" 
record,  and  with  them  the  writer,  the  teacher,  the  philanthropist,  the  general  care-; 
society. 

The  sketches  naturally  vary  in  importance  and  interest ;  bnt,  taken  all  together,  t: 
offer  a  laudable  report    of    the   work    of    New   F^ngland  women  in  many  departments  < 
pubhc  and  personal   service.     They  attest  the  active  interest  of  New  England's  daughtei 
in  the   welfare  of  the   State  and   in  all   that  most   vitally  concerns  its  citizens. 

JULIA    WARD  HOWE 


ELIZABETH    C.  AGASSIZ 


BIOSRAPHIGAb. 


ELIZABETH   CARY   AGASSIZ, 

the  first  President  of  Radcliffe 
College  and  its  constant  bene- 
factress, is  destined,  through 
the  scholarship  that  bears  her 
name  and  the  hall  which  is 
to  be  erected  in  her  honor  on 
the  college  grounds,  to  be  held  in  grateful, 
lasting  remembrance  as  a  pioneer  advocate 
and  promoter  in  the  nineteenth  century  of 
the  higher  education  of  women.  In  former 
years,  as  the  wife  and  helpmeet  of  a  naturalist 
of  world-wide  reputation,  and  later  as  the 
editor  of  his  Life  and  Correspondence,  she  was 
well  known  in  literary  and  scientific  circles. 
Her  subsecjuent  work  as  an  educational  leader 
brought  her  name  more  directly  before  the 
public;  and  the  celebration  in  Decembei',  1902, 
in  Sanders  Theati'e,  Cambridge,  of  the  eightieth 
anniversary  of  her  l)irth  was  widely  reportetl 
in  the  papers  as  an  occasion  of  general  interest. 
Born  in  Boston,  December  5,  1822,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Graves  and  Mary  (Perkins)  Cary, 
she  comes  of  long  lines  of  New  England  ancestry, 
and  personally  bears  witness  to  gentle  blood 
and  breeding.  Her  father,  Thomas  Graves 
Cary,  A.M.  (Harv.  Coll.  ISll"),  was  son  of 
Sanmel^  and  Sarah  (Gray)  Cary  and  grandson 
of  Saniuel'*  anil  Margaret  (Graves)  Cary,  all  of 
Chelsea,  Mass.  His  grandfather,  Sanmel'*  Cary, 
was  descended  from'  James'  Cary,  of  Charles- 
town,  through  Jonathan^  and  Samuel.^  James' 
Cary  came  from  England  and  settled  in 
Charlestown  in  1639.  He  was  the  seventh  son 
of  William  Cary,  who  was  Mayor  of  the  city 
of  Bristol,  England,  in  1611. 

SanuieP  Cary,  A.M.,  born  in  1713,  was  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  College  in  1731.  He  became 
a  sea-captain,  making  long  voyages.     He  mar- 


ried in  1741  Margaret  Graves,  daughter  of 
Thomas'  Graves,  of  Charlestown  (Harv.  Coll. 
1703),  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court;  grand- 
daughter of  Dr.  Thomas^  Graves  (Harv.  Coll. 
1656);  and  great-grand-daughter  of  Thomas' 
Graves,  who  settled  in  Charlestown  about  1637, 
was  master  of  various  vessels,  and  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  in  1653,  was  a  Rear- Admiral  in 
the  Engli.sh  navy. 

Mary  Perkins,  wife  of  Thomas  G.  Cary  and 
mother  of  Elizabeth,  was  a  daughter  of  Colonel 
Thomas  Handasyd  Perkins,  merchant  and  phi- 
lanthropist of  Boston  (born  1764,  died  1854), 
who  in  1833  gave  his  estate  on  Pearl  Street  to 
be  the  seat  of  the  school  for  the  blind  taught 
by  Dr.  Sanmel  G.  Howe.  This  act  of  public- 
spiritetl  generosity  is  commemorated  in  the 
name  which  the  school — now  in  South  Boston, 
marvellously  increased  in  size  and  eciuipment — 
bears  to  this  day,  "The  Perkins  Institution 
and  Massachusetts  School  for  the  Blind." 
Colonel  Perkins  was  also  a  liberal  contributor 
to  the  funds  of  the  Massachusetts  General 
Hospital,  the  Mercantile  Library  Association, 
and  the  Boston  Athenanmi,  and  a  helper  of 
many  other  worthy  causes.  One  of  his  sisters 
was  the  wife  of  Benjamin  Abbot,  IjL.D.,  for 
fifty  years  })rincipal  of  Phillips  Exeter  Acad- 
emy; another,  Margaret,  wife  of  Ralph  Bennett 
Forbes  and  mother  of  tlie  late  Hon.  John 
Murray  Forbes,  of  Milton.  Tliey  were  childi-en 
of  James  and  Elizabeth  (Peck)  Perkins,  and 
doubtless  inherited  some  of  their  sterling  traits 
of  character  from  their  mother,  who,  early  left 
a  willow,  showed  herself  a  woman  of  "great 
capacity  in  b\isiness  matters"  and  a  friend  to 
the  needy,  t'olonel  Perkins  was  named  for  his 
maternal  giandfather,  Thomas  Handasyd  Peck. 
His  paternal  grandparents  were  Eilnmnd  and 


RErRESKNTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Esther  f  (Frcifhingliain)  IVi'kins,  tlio  former, 
son  of  Captain  Kdimmd  Perkins,  the  first  of 
the  family  to  settle  in  Boston  (in  the  latter 
jxart  of  the  seventeenth  centvuy).  Colonel 
Perkins  married  the  daughter  of  Simon  Elliott, 
of  Boston,  and  had  two  sons — Thomas  H.,  Jr., 
and  deorge  C. — and  five  daughters. 

Elizabeth  Cabot  Cary  (nf>\v  ^Irs.  Agassiz) 
was  educated  at  home,  pur.suing  her  studies 
under  the  direction  of  a  governess.  She  was 
one  of  a  family  of  seven  children.  Her  younger 
brother,  Richard  Cary,  Captain  of  Company 
G,  Second  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Infantry, 
commissioned  May  24,  ISGl,  fell,  mortally 
wounded,  in  the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain,  "N'a., 
August  9,  1862.  Her  elder  sister,  Mary  Louisa, 
who  married  Cornelius  C.  Felton  (President  of 
Harvard  University  1S60-02),  died  in  1S64, 
having  survived  her  huslmnd  two  years. 

In  the  spring  of  1850  Elizabeth  C.  Cary  be- 
came the  wife  of  Louis  Agassiz,  profes,sor  of 
zoology  and  geology  in  Harvard  University, 
and  went  with  him  to  his  house  in  Oxford 
Street,  Cambridge,  to  make  a  home  for  him 
and  his  son  and  the  two  daughters  soon  to 
come  from  Switzerland,  and  "to  be,"  as  said 
his  biogra]ilier,  Mr.  Marcou,  writing  years  after, 
"  the  guardian  angel  of  Louis  Agassiz  and  his 
whole  family  of  children  and  grandchildren." 
Mrs.  Agassiz  not  oidy  directed  willi  discretion 
the  affairs  of  her  household,  Init  interested 
herself  in  natural  history  and  particularly  in 
zoological  studies,  and  .served  as  her  husband's 
secretary  and  literary  a.ssistant,  taking  copious 
notes  of  his  lectures  and  preparing  manuscript 
for  the  printer. 

Lifelong  student,  reverently  intent  to 

.  .  .  "Read  what  was  still  unread 
In  tlie  niainiscripts  of  (iod." 

unwearied  teacher,  rarely  eciualled  in  enthu- 
sia.sm  and  fitness  for  his  vocation.  Professor 
Agassiz,  as  everybody  knows,  had  "  no  time 
to  spare  to  make  money."  His  salary,  how- 
ever, fell  far  short  of  enabling  him  to  meet 
both  domestic  and  scientific  expenses.  Hence 
the  establishment  in  1855  (the  idea  originating 
with  his  wife)  of  the  Agassiz  School  for  young 
ladies,  which  had  a  prosperous  existence  of 
eight  years,  its  pupils,  attracted  by  the  fame 


of  the  great  naturalist,  coming  from  near  and 
from  far.  The  elder  Agassiz  children,  Alexander 
and  Ida,  were  helpers  from  the  first.  Mrs. 
Agassiz,  who  did  not  teach,  held  the  responsi- 
ble ])osition  of  director,  and  had  the  general 
management  of  the  school. 

In  the  summer  of  1859  Professor  and  Mrs. 
Agassiz  enjoyed  a  trip  to  Europe,  passing 
happy  weeks  with  his  mother  and  sister  at 
Montagny,  Switzerland.  In  April,  1865,  they 
went  to  South  America  on  the  scientific  ex- 
pedition whose  history  is  recorded  in  the  book 
entitled  "A  Journey  in  Brazil." 

In  December,  1871,  they  embarked  on  one 
of  the  vessels  of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey, 
the  "Hassler,"  fitted  out  for  deep-sea  dredg- 
ing, which  sailed  through  the  Strait  of  Magel- 
lan and  then  northward  along  the  Pacific  coast 
to  San  Francisco,  entering  the  Golden  Gate 
August  24,  1872.  During  this  voyage  a  journal 
of  scientific  and  personal  experience  was  kept 
by  Mrs.  Agassiz  under  her  hu.^band's  direction. 
A  part  of  it  was  published  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly. 

The  eighth  tlecade  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
which  witnesses!  in  July,  187.3,  the  opening  of 
the  School  of  Natural  History  at  Penikese,  and 
in  December  following,  the  funeral  of  "  the 
Master,"  was  the  decade  in  which  a  movement 
was  made  toward  securing  for  women  in  Cam- 
bridge the  real  Harvard  education  or  its  equiv- 
alent. The  initiative  appears  to  have  been  or 
was  taken  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  Gilman.  A 
plan  for  instituting  for  women,  outside  the 
college,  a  tluplicate  course  of  the  Harvard  in- 
struction was  received  with  favor  in  December, 
1878,  by  President  Eliot  and  by  some  of  the 
faculty  who  had  been  consulted.  On  February 
22,  1879,  was  issued  a  circular  headed  "Private 
Collegiate  Instruction  for  Women,"  setting 
forth  the  project.  It  was  signed  by  Mrs.  Louis 
Agassiz,  Mrs.  E.  W.  Gurney,  Mrs.  J.  P.  Cooke, 
Mrs.  J.  B.  Greenough,  Mrs.  Arthur  Gilman, 
Miss  Alice  M.  Longfellow,  Mrs.  Lillian  Horsford, 
and  Arthur  Gilman,  secretary.  Examinations 
for  admission  to  the  classes  were  held  in  Sep- 
tember, and  work  in  the  lecture  room  began 
at  once.  Twenty-five  students  completed  the 
first  year's  course.  On  October  16,  1882,  it 
having  become  necessary   to  raise  a   fund   to 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


purchase  the  Fay  House,  the  aljove-named 
ladies  and  others  who  had  joined  them  legally 
became  a  corporation,  with  the  title,  "The 
Society  for  the  Collegiate  Instruction  of 
Women." 

Ihider  the  popular  name  of  "The  Harvartl 
Annex,"  invented  by  one  of  its  students,  the 
institution  grew  and  flourished.  Twice  was 
the  Fay  House  enlargeil.  In  1894,  by  act  of 
the  State  Legislature,  the  name  of  The  Society 
for  the  Collegiate  Instruction  of  AVonien  was 
changed  to  Radcliffe  College,  the  bill  receiving 
the  signature  of  (ioveinor  Greenhalge,  March 
23,  1894.  It  authorized  Radcliffe  to  confer 
on  women,  with  the  ai)proval  of  the  President 
and  Fellows  of  Harvard,  all  honors  and  degrees 
as  fully  as  any  university  or  college  in  the 
Connnonwealth. 

President  of  Harvard  Annex  from  the  be- 
ginning, Mrs.  Agassiz  was  President  of  Rad- 
cliffe until  1900,  when  she  tenderetl  her  resig- 
nation. The  extent,  character,  and  value  of 
her  services  to  the  college  in  this  long  period 
are  known  only  to  those  who  have  been  asso- 
ciated with  her  in  its  management  or  have  at- 
teniled  as  students.  She  continued  as  Hon- 
orary President  of  the  Associates  of  Radcliffe, 
who  constitute  its  Corporation,  and  ex-officio 
member  of  the  Academic  Board  and  chairman 
of  the  Council,  until  the  close  of  the  academic 
year  1902-1903.  On  June  23,  1903,  she  pre- 
sided at  the  Commencement  exercises,  and 
conferred  degrees  on  ninety-nine  candidates — 
eighty  Bachelors  of  Arts,  and  nineteen  Masters 
of  Arts.  In  the  precetling  week  she  had  re- 
signed the  acting  presidency,  feeling  herself 
no  longer  equal  to  the  res])onsil:)ilities  of  the 
position;  and  Dr.  Le  Baron  Russell  IJriggs,  the 
second  officer  of  Harvard  University,  had  ac- 
cepted the  presidency  of  Radcliffe  College,  the 
choice  being  one  which  gave  Mrs.  Agassiz 
"much  pleasure  and  entire  satisfaction."  Mrs. 
Agassiz's  letter  of  withilrawal  closed  with  these 
words : — 

"I  am  grateful  for  the  length  of  years  which 
has  allowed  me  to  see  the  fulfilment  of  our 
cherished  hope  for  Radcliffe  in  this  closer  re- 
lation of  her  academic  life  and  government 
with  that  of  Harvard.  With  cheerful  confi- 
dence in  her  future,  which  now  seems  assured 


to  me,  with  full  and  affectionate  recognition 
of  all  that  her  Council,  her  Academic  Board, 
antl  her  Associates  have  done  to  bring  her  where 
she  now  stands,  I  bitl  farewell  to  my  colleagues. 
At  the  same  time  I  thank  them  for  their  un- 
failing support  and  encouragement  in  the  work 
which  we  have  shared  together  in  behalf  of 
Radcliffe  College." 

Released  from  her  former  responsibilities  as 
ex-officio  member  of  the  Coimcil  and  chairman 
of  the  Academic  Board,  Mrs.  Agassiz  remains 
(1903-04)  as  Honorary  President  of  the  Asso- 
ciates of  Radcliffe. 

Professor  Louis  Agassiz  is  survived  by  the 
three  children  above  named — Professor  Alexan- 
der, director  of  the  Agassiz  Museum:  Mrs. 
Quincy  A.  Shaw,  antl  l\Irs.  Henry  Lee  Higgin- 
son.  Mrs.  Agassiz  continues  to  make  her  home 
on  Quincy  Street,  Cambridge.  She  has  also  a 
summer  cottage  at  Nahant,  overlooking  the 
glacier-marked,  wave-beaten  cliffs  of  the  North 
Shore,  a  short  distance  from  the  stone  cottage 
built  by  her  grandfather  Perkins. 

Going  abroad  with  Miss  Mary  Felton,  her 
niece,  in  1895,  Mrs.  Agassiz  si)ent  a  number 
of  months  in  Italy,  journeyed  through  Ger- 
many, France,  antl  the  Tyrol,  and  in  England 
visited  Newnham  and  Girton  Colleges  for 
women. 

Mrs.  Agassiz  is  the  author  or  editor  of  the 
following  named  books:  "A  First  Lesson  in 
Natural  History,"  by  Acta-a,  1859,  republished 
in  1879  with  the  author's  name;  "Seaside 
Studies  in  Natural  History,"  by  Elizabeth  C. 
and  Alexander  Agassiz,  1865;  "Geological 
Sketches,"  18G6;  "A  Journey  in  Bi'azil,"  by 
Professor  antl  Mrs.  Louis  Agassiz,  1868;  "Louis 
Agassiz,  his  Life  antl  Correspontlence,"  in  two 
volumes,  editetl  by  Elizabeth  Cary  Agassiz, 
1885. 

M.    H.    G. 


EDNAH    DOW    CHENEY,    one    of    the 
founders  in   1862  of  the  New  England 
Htjspital,     Boston,     its     secretary     for 
twenty-seven   years   antl   president   fif- 
teen years,  is  numbered  among  the  veterans  of 
the  forward  movements  in  education,   philan- 
thropy, and  reform  of  the  nineteenth  century, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


who  happily  still  live  to  grace  by  their  presence 
and  help  by  their  wise  counsels  the  delibera- 
tive assemblies  and  budding  activities  of  the 
twentieth  century.  She  has  recently  given  to 
the  public  an  interesting  volume  of  "Reminis- 
cences." Born  in  Boston,  June  27,  1824, 
daughter  of  Sargent  Smith  and  Ednah  Parker 
(Dow)  Littlehale,  she  was  named  for  her  mother, 
and  until  her  marriage,  May  19,  1853,  to  the 
artist,  Seth  AVells  Cheney,  was  known  as  Ednah 
Dow  Littlehale. 

Her  father  was  for  thirty  years  a  Boston 
merchant.  His  native  place  was  Gloucester, 
Mass.  Born  in  1787,  he  died  in  1851.  He 
was  of  the  fifth  generation  of  the  Essex  Coufity 
family  founded  by  Richard  Littlehale,  who 
took  the  "oath  of  supremacy  and  allegiance  to 
pass  for  New  England  in  the  Mary  &  John  of 
London,  Robert  Sayres,  Master,  24th  March, 
1633,"  joined  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony 
at  Ipswich,  and,  eventually  settling  in  Haver- 
hill, was  Town  Clerk  for  twenty  years,  serving 
also  as  Clerk  of  the  Writs.  Richard*  Littlehale, 
of  Gloucester  (Joseph;''  Isaac,'  Richard'),  Mrs. 
Cheney's  grandfather,  was  a  Captain  of  militia. 
He  married  a  widow,  Mrs.  Sarah  Byles  Edgar, 
daughter  of  Captain  Charles  Byl^'-'^-  w^^o 
connnanded  a  company  at  the  siege  of  Louis- 
burg,  and  who  also  fought  at  Quebec  under 
Wolfe. 

Mrs.  Cheney's  mother,  Mrs.  Ednah  P.  Little- 
hale, a  native  of  Exeter,  N.H.,  born  in  1799, 
died  in  Boston  in  1876.  She  was  the  daughter 
of  Jeremiah  and  Ednah  (Parker)  Dow  and  on 
the  paternal  side  a  descendant  in  the  seventh 
generation  of  Thomas  Dow,  one  of  the  early 
.settlers  of  Newbury,  I\Ia,ss.,  freeman  in  1642. 
The  Dow  ancestral  line  is  Thomas,'  Stephen,- ' 
Nathaniel,*  Captain  Jeremiah,'^  Jeremiah,"  Ed- 
nah Parker  (Mrs.  Littlehale). 

Thomas'  Dow  removed  from  Newbury  to 
Haveihill,  where  he  died  in  1654.  Stephen," 
son  of  Thomas  and  his  wife  Phebe,  was  born 
in  Newlniry  in  1642.  Stephen,^  born  in  Haver- 
hill in  1670,  married  Mary  Hutchins.  Their 
son  Nathaniel,*  born  in  1()99,  married  Mary 
Hendricks,  and  lived  in  Haverhill  and  Me- 
thuen,  Mass.,  and  Salem,  N.IL,  formerly  a  part 
of  Haverhill,  Mass. 

Captain  Jeremiah,'^  l>orn  in  Haverhill,  Mass., 


in  1738,  married  Lydia  Kimball,  of  Bradford, 
daughter  of  Isaac*  Kimball,  a  lineal  descendant 
of  Richard'  Kimball,  of  Ipswich.  Captain 
Jeremiah^  Dow  died  in  Salem,  N.H.,  in  1826. 
His  name  is  in  the  Revolutionary  Rolls  of  New 
Hampshire  under  different  dates.  He  com- 
manded a  company  in  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Welch's  regiment,  which  marched  from  Salem, 
N.H.,  to  join  the  Northern  army  in  September, 
1777.  He  was  probably  the  Jeremiah  Dow  of 
New  Hampshire  who  was  private  in  Captain 
Marston's  company  in  the  expeflition  to  Crown 
Point  in  1762.  Retire  H.  Parker  marched  to 
Cambridge  as  a  minute-man  of  the  Second 
Bradford  Foot  Company  on  the  alarm  of  April 
19,  1775. 

Mrs.  Littlehale's  maternal  grandparents  were 
Lieutenant  Retire  H.  and  Ednah  (Hardy) 
Parker,  of  East  Bradford,  now  Groveland, 
Mass.  The  Parker  line  of  ancestry  began  with 
Abraham'  Parker,  who  married  at  Woburn 
in  1644  Rose  Whitlock,  and  about  the  year 
1653  removed  to  Chelmsford.  It  continued 
through  Abraham,^  who  married  Martha  Liver- 
more  and  settled  in  East  Bradford;  Abrahanr' 
antl  wife,  Elizal)eth  Bradstreet  (a  descendant 
of  Humphrey  Bradstreet,  of  Rowley) ;  Abi-a- 
ham*  and  his  second  wife,  Hannah  Beckett, 
daughter  of  Retire  Beckett,  of  Salem,  belonging 
to  a  noted  family  of  ship-builders;  to  Lieutenant 
Retire  H.  Parker  and  his  wife,  Ednah  Hardy, 
above  named. 

Martha  Livermore,  wife  of  Abraham^  Parker, 
of  East  Bradford,  was  a  daughter  of  John  Liver- 
more,  of  Watertown  (the  founder  of  the  family 
of  this  name  in  New  England),  and  his  wife 
Grace  (born  Sherman),  whom  he  married  in 
England,  and  who  was  closely  related  to  the 
immigrant  progenitors  of  the  most  prominent 
Sherman  families  of  America.  Mrs.  Grace 
Sherman  Livermore  was  a  useful  member  of 
the  colony,  being  an  obstetrician.  She  sur- 
vived her  husl)and,  and  died  in  Chelmsford  in 
1690,  aged  seventy-five  years  (gravestone). 

Judging  from  printed  records,  the  name  Ed- 
nah has  come  down  to  Mrs.  Cheney  not  only 
from  her  mother,  her  grandmother  Dow,  and 
her  great-grandmother  Parker,  but  from  a  more 
remote  ancestress,  Mrs.  Ednah  Bailey,  wife  of 
Richard'    Bailey,    o-'"   Rowley,    Mass.    Tracing 


REPRESENT ATRT:   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


backward,  we  find  that  Mrs.  Ednah  Hardy 
Parker,  born  in  1745,  was  the  daughter  of  Cap- 
tain EHphalef  and  Hannah  (Platts)  Hardy, 
grand-daughter  of  Jonas  Platts  and  his  wife, 
Anne'  Bailey,  and  great-grand-daughter  of 
Deacon  Joseph^  Bailey,  of  East  Bradford,  who 
was  son  of  Richard'  and  his  wife  Ednah. 
Richard  Bailey  was  one  of  the  company  that 
set  up  in  Rowley  the  first  cloth-mill  in  America. 
Mrs.  Ednah  Bailey's  maiden  name  is  thought 
to  have  been  Halstead. 

Mrs.  Cheney's  birthplace  was  on  Belknap 
Street,  now  Joy,  about  half-way  up  Beacon  Hill 
from  Cambridge  Street.  She  was  the  third 
chikl  born  to  her  parents.  Five  children  came 
after  her,  one  a  little  brother;  but  only  four — 
Ednah  and  three  sisters,  one  a  lifelong  invalid — 
lived  to  adult  age.  When  she  was  two  years 
old,  the  family  removed  to  Hayward  Place,  and 
six  years  later  they  took  up  their  abode  in  a 
new  house  on  Bowdoin  Street.  At  the  first 
school  she  attended,  kept  by  the  Misses  Pem- 
berton,  she  had  gootl  training  in  reatling,  spell- 
ing, arithmetic,  grammar,  anil  geography.  The 
second  was  Mr.  William  B.  P^owle's  Monitorial 
School,  which  she  entered  with  her  elder  sister, 
Mary  Frances.  Here  she  distinguished  herself 
by  her  knowledge  of  grannnar,  as  shown  by 
her  skill  in  "parsing,"  antl  her  ready  recitations 
in  other  studies  that  interested  her,  one  of  these 
being  French,  which  was  especially  well  taught. 
The  attraction  of  a  new  and  friendly  acquaint- 
ance, Miss  Caroline  Healey,  drew  her  to  the 
school  on  Mount  Vernon  Street  of  Mr.  Joseph 
H.  Abbot.  For  a  few  terms  she  continued  to 
advance  in  various  ways  of  learning,  more  or 
less  pleasurable,  in  the  meantime  successfully 
cultivating  independence  of  thought,  till,  feel- 
ing her-self  not  in  harmony  with  the  constituted 
authorities,  she  was  as  anxious  to  leave  the 
Abbot  school  as  she  had  been  to  enter  it.  Here 
ended  her  school-days — education  still  to  be 
won.  The  home  atmosphere  was  favorable  to 
mental  growth.  Love  of  learning,  with  a  taste 
for  good  literature,  was  an  inheritance.  The 
mother,  "a  beautiful  type  of  woman,  of  good 
practical  ability  and  great  tenderness  of  heart, 
was  very  fond  of  reading."  "Indeed,"  says 
Mrs.  Cheney,  "  I  can  never  remember  seeing 
either  her  or  my  father  sitting  down  to  rest 


without  a  book  in  their  hands."  Mr.  Littlehale 
had  a  good  knowledge  of  history,  especially 
American. 

The  period  of  time  now  arrived  at,  the  vivi- 
fying dawn  of  New  England  Transcendentalism, 
brought  golden  opportunities  to  the  young  as- 
pirant for  intellectual  culture.  A  great  awak- 
ening and  a  new  sense  of  the  surpassing  riches 
of  life  was  the  result  to  Ednah  D.  Littlehale  of 
attending  for  three  successive  seasons  the  con- 
versations of  Margaret  Fuller.  Few  teachers 
have  shown  to  such  a  degree  the  power  of  per- 
sonality. 

Mrs.  Cheney  writes:  "I  absorbed  her  life  and 
her  thoughts,  and  to  this  day  I  am  astonished 
to  find  how  large  a  part  of  what  I  am  when  I 
am  most  myself  I  have  derived  from  her.  .  .  . 
She  did  not  make  us  her  disciples,  her  blind 
followers.  She  opened  the  book  of  life  and 
helped  us  to  read  it  for  ourselves." 

Of  Mr.  Emer-son,  Mrs.  Cheney  says,  "  I  never 
missed  an  opportunity  of  hearing  him  or  read- 
ing his  works";  and  of  Mr.  Alcott,  not  all  of 
whose  theories  she  couUl  accept,  "But  he  gave 
me  an  insight  into  the  life  and  thoughts  of  the 
old  philosophers,  anil  moreover  gave  me  the 
constant  sense  of  the  spiritual,  the  supersen- 
sual  life  that  is  the  most  precious  of  all  posses- 
sions." 

It  is  significant  that  Mrs.  Cheney  and  her 
elder  sister,  Mary  F.,  were  among  the  first 
parishioners  of  Theodore  Parker  when  he  came 
from  West  Roxbury  to  Boston,  1846.  Inspirer, 
friend,  and  comforter  in  time  of  sorrow  he  ever 
remained. 

For  a  year  or  two  before  her  marriage  Mrs. 
Cheney  was  the  secretary  of  the  School  of  De- 
sign for  Women  in  Boston,  of  which  she  was 
one  of  the  founders.  Short-lived,  the  school 
yet  served  to  show  the  existence  of  talent  among 
American  women,  and  is  remembered  as  "one 
of  the  failures  that  enriched  the  ground  for 
success." 

Twin  ambitions,  art  and  literature,  were  na- 
tive to  Mrs.  Cheney.  Choosing  the  latter  for 
her  field  of  action,  she  ceased  not  to  cultivate 
her  taste  for  the  former.  As  an  artist's  wife 
she  maile  her  first  visit  to  Europe,  sailing  with 
her  husband  for  Liverpool  in  August,  1854. 
The  year  following  their  return  (in  June,  1855) 


10 


REFRESENTATIVK   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENC.LAND 


witnessed  the  hirth  of  a  daughter,  Margaret 
Swan,  in  September,  1S55,  and  the  death  of  Mr. 
Cheney  in  April,  1856,  in  South  Manchester, 
Conn.,  his  native  place.  He  was  one  of  the 
earliest  crayon  artists  in  America.  Mrs.  Howe 
thus  speaks  of  him:  "Seth  Cheney's  crayon 
portraits  were  among  the  delights  of  his  time. 
The  foremost  women  of  Boston  were  glad  to 
sit  to  him,  and  his  rendering  of  their  features 
has  now  for  us 

"'  The  tender  p;rare  of  a  day  that  is  dead.' 

Among  his  portraits  of  men,  I  especially  re- 
member one  of  Theodore  Parker  which  was 
highly  prized.  An  exhibition  of  a  number  of 
these  works  was  arranged  some  years  since  by 
Mr.  S.  R.  Koehler,  curator  of  engravings,  Art 
Museum,  at  the  Boston  Art  Museum.  It  was 
an  occasion  of  much  interest,  recalling  many 
lovely  and  distinguished  personalities,  inter- 
preted by  Mr.  Cheney  with  a  grace  and  simplicity 
all  his  own." 

Mrs.  Cheney  was  one  of  the  subscribers 
toward  the  establishment  in  1856,  under  the 
leadenship  of  Dr.  Zakrzewska,  of  the  first 
women's  hospital,  the  New  York  Infirmary  for 
Indigent  Women  and  Children.  A  few  years 
later  she  was  interested  with  others  in  the  ad- 
dition of  a  clinical  department  to  the  medical 
school  for  women  in  Boston,  now  merged  in 
Boston  University.  In  1863  she  was  one  of 
the  three  women  corporators  of  the  New 
England  Hospital,  which  they  had  started 
in  1862  in  a  house  on  Pleasant  Street.  "Ac- 
cepting the  position  of  secretary,  Mrs.  Cheney,"  to 
quote  the  words  of  Dr.  Zakrzewska,  "devoted 
herself  to  the  work,  and  became  one  of  the  most 
powerful  advocates  and  supporters  of  this  in- 
stitution— an  institution  now  firmly  established 
and  professionally  recognized,  and  which  by 
its' efficiency  and  conscientious  work  has  not 
only  educated  women  as  physicians  and  nurses, 
but  has  opened  the  way  for  the  former  to  a 
professional  equality  with  medical  men,  as  the 
Ma.ssachusetts  Medical  Society  was  tlie  first  to 
adnnt  women  as  members." 

Succeeding  Mi.ss  Lucy  Goddard  as  president 
of  the  hospital  in  1887,  Mrs.  Cheney  continued 
in  office,   discharging   the   duties   thereof  with 


zeal  and  efficiency  for  fifteen  years,  or  until  her 
resignation  on  account  of  failing  health  in  Oc- 
tober, 1902.     She  is  now  Honorary  President. 

Early  interested  in  the  work  of  the  Freed- 
man's  Aid  Society,  and  becoming  the  secretary 
of  the  teachers'  committee  on  the  resignation  of 
Miss  Stevenson,  Mrs.  Cheney  made  several 
visits  to  the  South  in  the  years  directly  follow- 
ing the  close  of  the  war  for  the  Union,  the  first 
time  going  with  Abby  M.  May  as  a  delegate  to 
a  convention  in  Baltimore.  Unexpectedly 
called  upon  there  to  address  a  meeting  com- 
posed largely  of  colored  people,  she  had  her 
first  experience  in  public  speaking.  During 
her  absence  on  one  of  these  Southern  trips  a 
society  was  formed  in  Boston,  of  which  she 
was  appointed  a  director,  being  now  Honorary 
President,  and  in  which  she  has  continued  to 
work — the  Free  Religious  Association,  "the 
freedom  and  inspiration  of  whose  first  meet- 
ings" she  finds  it  "impossible  to  report." 

In  1868  Mrs.  Cheney  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  New  England  Women's  Club,  which  soon 
came  to  be  recognized  as  a  forceful  influence  for 
good  in  the  community;  and  about  the  same 
time  she  identified  herself  with  the  woman  suf- 
frage movement.  For  some  years  she  was  Vice- 
president  of  the  Massachusetts  School  Suffrage 
Association.  Joining  the  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  W^omen  early  in  the  seven- 
ties, a  year  or  two  after  its  organization,  she 
became  one  of  its  most  valued  workers  and 
speakers.  Mrs.  Cheney  also  assisted  in  the 
founding  of  a  horticultural  school  for  women, 
of  which  Abby  W.  May  became  president.  It 
was  given  up  when  Bussey  College  opened,  and 
admitted  women  to  its  classes. 

Mrs.  Cheney's  second  visit  to  Europe  in  1877, 
in  company  with  her  sisters  and  her  daughter, 
was  saddened  in  Rome  by  the  death  of  her 
sister  Helen.  Returning  to  Boston  in  1878,  she 
respontled  to  an  invitation  to  give  a  course  of 
lectures  on  art  at  the  Concoril  School  of  Phi- 
losophy the  following  summer,  and  continued 
to  lecture  throughout  the  session. 

In  1882  Mrs.  Cheney  was  bereft  of  her  daugh- 
ter. She  had  been  a  student  of  great  ])romise 
at  the  Massachu-setts  Institute  of  Technology; 
and,  after  she  laid  down  her  books  and  her 
young  life,  a  room  in  the  Technology  building 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


11 


was  fitted  up  and  named  for  her  the  "Margaret 
Swan  Cheney  Reading  Room." 

Since  1863  Mrs.  Cheney  has  made  her  home 
in  Jamaica  Plain.  Her  interest  in  things  that 
make  for  Imman  welfare  and  progress  con- 
tinues unabated.  Her  voice  in  these  later 
days  is  yet  occasionally  heard  in  pulilic,  and 
her  pen  is  still  that  of  a  ready  if  not  constant 
writer. 

Mrs.  Howe,  speaking  from  the  standpoint  of 
long  and  intimate  acquaintance,  says:  "Mrs. 
Ednah  Dow  Cheney  is  one  of  the  marked  per- 
sonalities of  the  last  fifty  years  in  her  native 
town  of  Boston.  In  ail  this  period  of  time  she 
has  been  prominent  in  movements  of  sound 
and  needed  reform.  Naturally  averse  to  per- 
sonal publicity,  she  has  not  shunned  it  where 
her  name  and  word  could  add  weight  to  the 
atlvocacy  of  a  just  cause.  In  the  education 
and  health  of  the  comnmnity  she  has  shown 
the  most  lively  interest.  She  has  been  a  strenu- 
ous champion  of  the  claims  of  the  colored  race 
to  political  and  social  justice.  She  has  hatl 
much  at  heart  the  spread  of  religious  tolera- 
tion and  the  enfranchisement  of  her  own  sex. 
One  who  has  been  proud  and  glad  to  work  with 
her  may  say  that  she  has  always  found  her  a 
woman  of  good  counsel  and  of  reliable  judg- 
ment. Motives  of  i)ersonal  advancement  are 
foreign  to  her  nature.  Her  life  has  been  en- 
riched by  true  culture,  by  the  love  of  all  that 
is  beautiful  in  art, -literature,  and  character. 
The  good  work  which  she  has  contributed  to 
the  tasks  of  her  day  and  generation  will  surely 
endure,  and  should  be  held,  with  her  imme,  in 
loving  and  lasting  remembrance." 

Among  the  books  that  Mrs.  Cheney  has  writ- 
ten or  edited  may  be  named  the  following: 
"Handbook  for  American  Citizens"  (written 
for  the  freedmen  of  the  South),  1864;  "Faith- 
ful to  the  Light,"  1872;  "Sally  Williams," 
1872;  "Child  of  the  Tide,"  1874;'  "Gleanings 
in  the  Fields  of  Art,"  1881;  Life,  Letters,  and 
Journals  of  Louisa  M.  Alcott,  1889;  Memoirs 
of  her  husband,  Seth  W.  Cheney,  of  her  daugh- 
ter, Margaret  S.  Cheney,  and  of  the  distinguished 
engraver,  John  Cheney;  "Stories  of  the  Olden 
Time,"  1890;  "Life  of  Ranch,  the  Sculptor"; 
"Reminiscences,"  December,  1902. 

M.    H.    G. 


ELIZABI'.TH  PORTER  GOULD,  author 
ami  lecturer  of  -witle  reputation,  now 
a  resident  of  Boston,  is  a  native  of 
Essex  County,  Massachusetts.  The 
eldest  daughter  of  John  Averell  and  Elizabeth 
Cheever  (Leach)  Gould,  she  comes  of  substan- 
tial New  England  stock,  numbering  among  her 
ancestors  two  colonial  governors,  the  first  woman 
j)oet  of  New  England,  eight  or  more  ministers  of 
the  gospel,  and  several  Revolutionary  patriots. 
She  can  trace  her  descent  from  over  thirty  early 
settlers  of  Essex  County.  Through  the  public 
services  of  nine  of  her  forbears  she  is  eligible 
to  membership  in  the  Society  of  Colonial  Dames. 

The  Gould  ancestral  line  is:  Zaccheus,'  John,-^ 
Solomon,^  John,^ "  John  Averell' — showing  Eliza- 
beth P.  to  be  of  the  eighth  generation  in  New 
England.  Zaccheus  Gould  came  to  the  Bay 
Colony  about  the  year  1638,  and  somewhat  later 
settleil  in  Topsfield. 

The  line  of  descent  from  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley  and  his  wife,  Dorothy  Yorke,  is  through 
his  daughter  Anne,  wife  of  Governor  Simon 
Bradstreet;  their  son,  John  Bradstreet,  born  in 
Andover,  Mass.,  in  1652,  who  married  Sarah 
Perkins  and  lived  in  Topsfield;  his  son,  Simon 
Bradstreet,  who  married  Elizabeth,  ilaughter 
of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Capen,  of  Topsfield;  Eliza- 
beth Bradstreet,  who  married  Joseph  Peaboily; 
Priscilla  Peabody,  married  Isaac  Averell;  Elijah 
Averell,  married  Mary  Gould ;  and  their  daughter, 
Mary  Averell,  who,  marrying  John"  Gould, 
named  above,  became  the  mother  of  John 
Averell  Gould  and  grandmother  of  Elizabeth 
Porter  Gould. 

Mary  Goukl,  wife  of  Elijah  Averell  and  ma- 
ternal grandmother  of  John  Averell  Gould,  was 
a  daughter  of  Captain  Joseph  Gould,  of  Tops- 
field,  and  his  wife  l']lizal)eth,  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  John  Emerson,  of  Maiden.  Her  maternal 
grandfather,  the  Rev.  John  Iilmerson,  was  a 
son  of  Edward  and  Rebecca  (Waldo)  Emerson, 
grandson  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  and  Elizabeth 
(Bulkeley)  ]<]mer.son,  Elizabeth  Bulkeley  being 
the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Edwartl  Bulkeley  and 
grand-daughter  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkeley, 
the  first  minister  of  Concord,  Mass.  (Edward 
Emerson  and  his  wife,  Rebecca  Waldo,  were 
great-grandparents  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.) 

Miss  Gould's  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Ben- 


12 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


jaiiiin,'  Jr.,  and  Susan  (Cheever)  Leach,  of  Man- 
chester, Mass.,  and  on  the  paternal  side  a  de- 
scendant of  Robert^  Leach,  an  early  settler  of 
that  town,  and  his  father,  Lawrence  Leach,  who 
is  said  to  have  come  to  Boston  from  Scotland 
in  162S.  Susan  Cheever  Leach,  Miss  Gould's 
maternal  grandmother,  was  a  grand-daughter 
of  the  Rev.  Ames^  Cheever,  of  Manchester,  and 
his  wife,  Sarah  Choate,  and  great-grand-flaugh- 
ter  of  the  Rev.  Sanuicf-  Cheever,  of  Marble- 
head,  who  was  son  of  Ezekiel'  Cheever,  the  fa- 
mous schoolmaster  of  the  olden  time  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut,  for  forty  years  the 
head  of  the  Boston  Latin  School. 

In  Chelsea,  whither  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  A. 
Gould  removed  when  their  children  were  young, 
they  resided  for  about  thirty  years,  the  city 
then  being  noted  for  its  gootl  society,  number- 
ing among  its  leading  families  the  Osgoods, 
Frosts,  Fays,  Sawyers,  Shillabers,  and  others. 
Mr.  Gould  for  a  number  of  years  served  as  one 
of  the  School  Committee,  also  as  a  member  of 
the  Common  Council,  and  was  chairman  of 
the  Music  Committee  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church.  Mrs.  Gould  was  one  of  the  fore- 
most in  works  of  benevolence,  and  was  nmch 
loved  and  respected.  She  died  in  Chelsea  in 
1893.  A  daughter  Susie,  who  had  unusual 
musical  talent,  was  the  "little  rosebud  of  a 
Chelsea  girl"  who  sang  at  one  of  the  public 
readings  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  in  1872, 
being  thus  mentioned  in  Mrs.  Fields'  biography 
of  Mrs.  Stowe. 

Elizabeth  Porter  Gould,  the  eldest  daughter, 
was  named  for  her  grantimother  Gould's  sister 
Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  Dr.  John  Porter,  of 
"Fairfields,"  the  old  Porter  estate  in  Wenham. 
With  Miss  Gould  the  possession  of  talent  has 
been  a  call  for  its  improvement.  The  pleas- 
ant paths  of  learning  in  which  her  mental  powers 
were  developed  easily  led  into  equally  pleasant 
fields  of  useful  activity.  Whenever  congrat- 
ulated upon  the  many  patriotic  services  she 
has  rendered,  she  has  always  declared  with  her 
kinsman.  Dr.  Benjamin  Apthorp  Gould,  that 
her  "ancestry  made  it  a  necessity."  And  so 
in  regard  to  her  many  acts  of  kindness,  her  in- 
telligent sympathy  in  behalf  of  so  many  causes, 
she  simply  says:  "I  was  born  in  a  house  dedi- 
cated to  God  and  humanity.     I  can't  go  back 


on  that."  Questioned,  she  tells  how  the  house 
in  Manchester-by-the-Sea,  where  she  first  saw 
the  light  of  this  world,  .June  8,  1848,  was  dedi- 
cated like  a  church  by  a  kinsman  of  her  mother's, 
who,  on  its  completion,  called  together  people 
frojn  far  and  near  for  a  service  of  prayer  and 
praise. 

An  inspiring  leader  and  adviser  of  clubs  tlur- 
ing  her  long  residence  in  Chelsea,  after  the  club 
era  began,  she  was  also  for  years  an  intelligent 
power  among  the  society  women  of  Boston, 
Brookline,  Newton,  and  other  places,  by  her 
"Topic  Talks,"  opportunities  for  which  came 
to  her  wholly  urtsolicited.  In  fact,  they  seemed 
to  be  thrust  u])on  her,  for  it  was  clearly  noted 
that  this  author  of  varied  learning  and  reserve 
force  had  the  power  of  expressing  herself  in 
extemporaneous  speech,  as  well  as  on  paper, 
a  rather  rare  gift. 

•As  an  officer  in  philanthroiMc  and  educational 
organizations,  she  has  struck  important  chords 
in  the  line  of  reform.  Her  brochure,  "  How 
I  became  a  Woman  SufTragist,"  preluded  a 
membership  in  the  Massachusetts  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association,  and  led  to  the  casting  of  her 
annual  ballot  at  school  board  elections.  As 
a  director  from  the  first  of  the  Massachusetts 
Society  for  Good  Citizenship,  she  entered  by 
voice  and  pen  into  the  good  government  work 
of  that  organization.  As  an  officer  for  years 
of  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  the  University 
Education  of  Women,  her  good  judgment  and 
wise  counsel  have  been  of  service.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
she  is  able,  as  she  says,  to  become  a  seed-sower 
in  behalf  of  the  broader  education  of  foreign 
women.  She  has  written  convincingly  in  the 
interests  of  the  American  college  on  the  Bos- 
phorus  and  in  other  lands.  Her  article  in  the 
Century  for  1889  on  "  Pundita  Ramabai"  was 
but  an  outline  of  the  lecture  which,  with  those 
on  "John  and  Abigail  Adams,"  "John  and 
Dorothy  Hancock,"  "Holland  and  the  United 
States,"  "The  Brownings  and  America,"  and 
others,  she  has  delivered  before  numerous 
women's  clubs  and  other  organizations.  Her 
gratuitous  platform  work  in  behalf  of  the  George 
Washington  Memorial  Association  led  her  as 
far  south  as  Richmond.  Her  lecture  in  Char- 
lottesville   was    the    first    ever    delivered    at 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


13 


the  University  of  Mrgiiiia  by  a  woman.  As 
seen  in  her  poems  and  speeches  in  behalf  of  the 
restoration  of  "Old  Ironsides,"  her  plea  for 
the  Lincoln  memorial  collection  at  Washing- 
ton, D.C.,  and  in  the  brochure,  "An  Offering 
in  behalf  of  the  Deaf,"  concerning  speech  edu- 
cation, many  another  cause  has  had  her  helping 
hand. 

Miss  Gould  is  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Castilian  Club  of  Boston,  having  contributed 
one  of  the  ablest  papers  to  volume  xxvii.  of 
members'  essays,  presented  by  the  club  to  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  Her  right-to-the- 
point  speeches  on  a  variety  of  subjects  also 
made  her  an  honorary  member  of  the  Wednes- 
day Morning  Club  of  Boston.  She  was  the 
only  woman  speaker  upon  the  erection  of  the 
Abigail  Adams  cairn,  June  17,  1896,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Atlams  Chapter,  Mrs.  Nelson 
V.  Titus,  Regent,  and  was  the  poet  of  the  Web- 
ster Centennial  at  Fryeburg,  Me.,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1902,  having  been  made  some  time  be- 
-  fore,  for  articles  written  on  Webster,  an  hon- 
orary member  of  the  Boston  Webster  Histori- 
cal Society. 

Her  conscientious  antl  extensive  research 
in  historical  realms  is  seen  in  her  interesting 
book,  "John  Adams  and  Daniel  Webster  as 
Schoolmasters,"  for  which  the  Hon.  Charles 
Francis  Adams  wrote  an  introduction.  This, 
with  its  companion,  "Ezekiel  Cheever:  School- 
master," will,  it  is  said,  become  the  final  word 
on  the  respective  subjects,  to  be  more  and 
more  valued  as  the  years  go  by.  Her  versa- 
tility has  led  to  her  being  the  poet  of  occasions 
and  of  movements.  Her  "Endeavor  Rally 
Hymn,"  to  which  her  nephew,  Willard  Gould 
Harding,  composed  the  music,  has  been  widely 
scattered.  Her  "Columbia — America,"  set  to 
music  by  Adeline  Frances  Fitz,  which  is 
played  by  Sousa's  Band,  is  the  accepted  song 
of  the  Massachusetts  Daughters  of  the  Revo- 
lution. Two  of  her  Children's  Songs,  set  to 
music  and  published  by  Clement  Ryder,  are 
in  demand  for  Children's  Sunday.  Her  verses 
on  the  Mountain  Laurel,  on  its  proposal  as 
the  State  flower,  were  dedicated  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Floral  Emblem  Society.  Perhaps  Miss 
Gould  is  most  potnilarly  known  by  her  single 
stanza,  "Don't  AVorry,"  which  has  been  copied 


far  and  near,  even  a  little  Alaska  paper  having 
caught  its  sunshine,  and,  widely  scattered  in 
leaflet  form,  has  been  a  comfort  to  many  a 
troubled  soul.  Not  to  mention,  for  lack  of  space, 
the  "Songs  of  the  Months"  and  verses  to  nota- 
ble contemporaries  and  friends,  it  may  here 
be  stated  that  all  that  Miss  Gould  wishes 
saved  of  her  poetry  has  been  recently  collected 
under  the  name  "  One's  Self  I  sing,  and  Other 
Poems."  A  story,  "A  Pioneer  Doctor,"  a*nd 
"The  Brownings  in  America,"  have  been 
recently  published. 

A  book  of  selections,  her  "Gems  from  Walt 
Whitman,"  published  in  1889,  called  forth 
warm  response  from  "the  good  gray  poet":  "I 
want  to  thank  you  as  a  woman,"  he  said,  "for 
the  capacity  of  understanding  me;  for,"  he 
added,  somewhat  meditatively,  "only  the  com- 
bination of  the  pure  heart  and  the  broad  mind 
makes  this  possible."  The  publication  of  her 
"Anne  Gijchrist  and  Walt  Whitman"  in  1900 
gave  further  evidence  of  her  generous  capacity 
for  friendship  and  her  appreciation  of  that  gra- 
cious quality  in  others.  An  official  connection 
with  the  Walt  Whitman  International  Asso- 
ciation was  accorded  to  Miss  Gould  in  recog- 
nition of  her  labors  of  love  in  that  direction. 

Educated  in  music,  "brought  up,"  as  she 
once  said,  "on  symphony  concerts,"  a  sym- 
pathetic student  also  in  other  realms  of  art, 
she  has  been  both  a  musical  and  an  art  critic. 
Her  tastes  are  nowhere  more  plainly  seen  than 
in  the  collection  of  choice  paintings,  and  literary 
treasures — signed  photographs,  autograph  books, 
letters,  stamps,  and  souvenir  cards — which  her 
wide  acquaintance  with  famous  men  and 
women  in  this  country  and  abroad  has 
brought  to  her. 

An  extensive  traveller  in  this' country  and 
in  Europe,  Miss  Gould,  like  some  other  tourists, 
has  made  a  practice  of  dipping  her  hands  in 
the  water  of  various  places  she  has  visited, 
her  list  including  the  Atlantic  antl  Pacific 
Oceans,  and  the  chief  rivers,  lakes,  bays,  falls, 
of  our  own  land  and  a  number  of  the  most  fa- 
mous abroad.  The  hot  geysers  of  the  Na- 
tional Park  and  the  icy  waters  of  the  Muir 
Glacier  in  Alaska  mark  the  extremes  of  tem- 
perature she  has  encountered  in  pursuing  this 
"hobby."    The  highest  water  she  has  reached 


14 


REPRESENTATIVE    WO.MK.N    ol'    NlOW    ENGLAND 


is    that    of    the   Yellowstone    Lake,   and    the 
lowest,  that  of  Holland. 

In  concluding  this  brief  notice  of  Miss  Gould 
and  her  work,  it  may  be  said  she  lives  in  the 
atmosphere  of  her  own  lines: — 

''  One  (lay  at  a  tinic 
For  ]iuiiiaiiitv's  ulimh  — 
One  day  at  a  time." 


LOUISE  CHANDLER  MOULTON.  The 
picture  of  Louise  Chandler  Moulton 
__J  as  she  was  described  to  me  by  one 
who  saw  her  on  her  wedding-day, 
standing  on  the  church  porch,  in  the  magic 
moment  that  is  neither  sunset  nor  twilight, 
like  Helen's,  her  beauty  shadowed  in  white 
veils,  a  britle  blooming,  blushing,  full  of  life  and 
love  and  joy,  has  alwaj's  been  a  radiant  vision 
to  my  mind's  eye. 

Hardly  more  than  a  child  though  she  was — 
her  school-days  just  six  weeks  over — she  had 
then  printed  one  book,  and  had  written  another, 
"Juno  Clifford,"  a  novel,  issued  anonymously 
a  few  months  after  her  marriage  to  William 
Upham  Moulton,  the  publisher  of  a  weekly 
paper  to  which  she  had  been  a  contributor. 

From  the  beginning  she  was  a  child  of  genius: 
it  was  only  through  the  intuitive  force  of  genius 
that  she  was  able  to  know  the  hearts  of  men 
and  women  as  she  did  at  that  very  early  period 
of  her  life — a  genius  that  has  ever  since  grown 
steadily  as  day  grows  out  of  dawn,  and  that 
reached  its  culmination  in  lyrics  and  in  sonnets 
that  have  few  superiors  in  our  language. 

[The  daughter  of  Lucius  L.  and  Louisa  R. 
(Clark)  Chandler,  she  was  born  in  Pomfret, 
Conn.  Her  father  was  son  of  Charles  and 
Hannah  (Cleveland)  Chandlei',  and  was  de- 
scended from  William'  Chandler,  an  early  set- 
tler of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  through  his  son  John, 
who  was  about  two  years  of  age  when  the  fam- 
ily came  from  England.  John^  Chandler  in 
1686  removed  from  Roxbury,  Mass.,  to  Wood- 
stock, Conn.  He  was  one  of  the  twelve  Rox- 
bury men  who  bought  the  territory  known  as 
Mashamoquet  (now  Pomfret),  he  being  one 
of  the  six  grantees  in  May,  16(S6.  His  wife, 
Elizabeth  Douglas,  was  the  daughter  of  \^'\\\- 


iam  Douglas,  who  was  horn  in  1610,  "without 
doubt  in  Scotland,"  came  to  New  England  in 
1640,  and  in  1660  settled  in  New  London, 
Conn.,  where  he  was  a  deacon  of  the  church. 

Mrs.  Hannah  Cleveland  Chandler  was  born 
at  Pomfret  in  1783,  daughter  of  Solomon'  and 
Hannah  (Sharpe)  Cleveland.  Her  father  was 
a  soldier  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Her 
mother  (great-grandmother  of  Mrs.  Moulton), 
described  as  "a  woman  of  rare  intelligence  and 
wonderful  gift  of  language,"  was  a  notable 
student  of  Greek  literature.  Solomon'  Cleve- 
land was  a  descendant  in  the  fifth  generation 
of  Moses  Cleveland,  of  Woburn,  Mass.,  the 
immigrant  i:)rogenitor  of  the  New  England 
family  of  this  surname,  the  line  being  Mo.ses,' 
Edward,^''  Silas,^  Solomon.'*  EdwanP  Cleve- 
land's wife  was  Rebecca  Paine,  daughter  of 
Elisha  and  Rebecca  (Doane)  Paine  and  grand- 
daughter of  Thomas  and  Mary^  (Snow)  Paine. 
Mary  Snow  was  a  daughter  of  Nicholas'  Snow, 
who  came  over  in  the  "Ann"  in  1623,  and  his 
wife  Constance,  who  came  with  her  father, 
Ste]:)hen'  Hopkins,  in  the  "Mayflower"  in 
1620.  See  Snow,  Paine,  Doane,  Cleveland, 
Chandler,  and  Douglas  Genealogies.] 

The  childhood  of  Mrs.  Moulton  was  one  that 
fostered  her  imaginative  power.  Her  parents 
still  clung  to  the  strictest  Calvinistic  princii)les. 
Games,  dances,  romances,  were  things  forbid- 
den; and,  as  playmates  were  few,  the  child 
lived  in  a  worUl  of  fancy.  "I  was  lonely," 
she  has  said,  "and  I  sought  companions.  What 
was  there  to  do  but  to  create  them?" 

Indeed,  before  her  eighth  year  her  active 
mind  was  creating  a  world  of  its  own  in  a  little 
unwritten  play,  which  it  pleased  her  fancy  to 
call  a  Spanish  drama,  and  with  which  she  be- 
guiled all  the  summer,  filling  it  with  person- 
ages as  real  and  as  tlear  to  her  as  those  she  met 
every  day.  Dwelling  in  such  surroundings, 
her  existence  and  her  powers  were  as  anoma- 
lous as  if  a  nightingale  or  a  tropic  bird  of  para- 
dise were  found  in  the  nest  of  our  home-keep- 
ing birds.  Yet  in  her  lovely  mother's  heart 
there  nmst  have  been  the  elelicate  music  of  the 
song-sparrow's  strain;  and  never  could  she  have 
carried  her  power  so  triumphantly  l)Ut  for  the 
strength  she  inherited  from  her  father. 

The  rigid  Calvinism  of  the  family  had  un- 


LOUISE   CHANDLKH    MOULTON 


REPRESENTATIVE    WOMEN    OK    NKW    i:.\(il.AM) 


15 


doubtedly  a  very  stinuilating  effect  on  tlie 
emotions  of  the  sensitive  child,  and  to  its  far- 
reaching  influence  may  be  ascribed  the  tinge 
of  melancholy  found  in  many  of  her  pages. 
Not  that  they  are  not  often  illuminated  with 
all  the  joy  of  being,  but  that,  whenever  the 
sun  is  bright,  she  has  seen  and  felt  the  shadow. 
"One  would  not  ignore,"  she  says,  "the  glad- 
ness of  the  dawn,  the  strong  splendor  of  the 
midday  sun;  but,  all  the  .same,  the  shadows 
lengthen,  and  the  day  wears  late.  And  yet 
the  dawn  comes  again  after  the  night;  and 
one  has  faith — or  is  it  hope  rather  than  faith? — 
that  the  new  world,  which  swims  into  the  ken 
of  the  spirit  to  whom  death  gives  wings,  may 
be  fairer  even  than  the  dear  familiar  earth, 
.  .  .  this  mocking  sphere,  where  we  have  never 
been  quite  at  home,  because,  after  all,  we  are 
but  travellers,  and  this  is  our  hostelry,  and  not 
our  permanent  abode." 

The  child  Louise  had  a  great  vitality,  and, 
when  free  from  the  liurdens  ami  terrors  of 
"election"  and  "damnation,"  she  exulted  in 
the  breath  she  drew.  Running  in  the  face  of 
a  great  wind  was  one  of  her  joys,  feeling  how 
alive  she  was;  and  she  realizeil  the  reverse  of 
such  emotion  in  listening  to  the  sountl  of  the 
wind  through  an  outer  keyhole,  which  seemed 
to  her  the  calling  of  trumpets,  the  crying  of 
lost  souls.  She  lived  all  this  time  so  nuieh  in 
a  world  of  her  own  that  when,  in  her  fifteenth 
year,  she  first  sent  some  verses  to  a  ncwspai)er 
she  felt  it  a  guilty  secret. 

Her  home  in  Boston,  after  her  marriage,  was 
a  delightful  one.  Her  house  was  soon  a  centre 
of  attraction;  and,  surrounded  by  friends,  she 
exercised  there  a  gracious  hosjjitality,  and  met 
the  brilliant  men  and  women  who  made  the 
Boston  of  that  epoch  famous.  Here  was  born 
her  daughter,  the  golden-hairetl  Florence,  who 
is  now  the  wife  of  Mr.  William  Schaefer,  of 
South  Carolina.  Here  her  husband  died, 
and  here  she  has  remained  through  the  days 
of  her  widowhood  till  the  house  has  become 
historic. 

She  continued  her  literary  work  through  all 
these  years.  Besides  writing  her  stories  and 
essays  and  poems,  she  sent  to  the  New  York 
Tribune  a  series  of  interesting  anil  brilliant 
letters  concerning  the   literary   life  of  Boston, 


giving  advance  reviews  of  new  tjooks  and  tell- 
ing of  the  affairs  of  the  Radical  Club,  of  which 
Mr.  Emerson,  Colonel  Higginson,  Jolin  Weiss, 
Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  and  others  of  eminence 
were  members.  In  all  the  six  years ,  during 
which  these  letters  appeared  she  never  made 
in  them  any  unkind  statement,  or  wrote  a  sen- 
tence that  could  cause  pain.  Through  all  her 
critical  work,  indeed,  she  has  exercisetl  a  tender 
regard  for  the  feelings  of  others,  as  well  as 
great  generosity  of  praise,  preferring  rather 
to  be  silent  than  to  utter  an  unkindness. 

Contributing  poems  and  stories  of  power 
and  grace  to  the  leading  magazines.  Harper's, 
the  Atlantic,  the  Galaxy,  the  first  Scribner's, 
she  also  published  a  half-dozen  very  success- 
ful books  for  children,  "Bedtime  Stories," 
"Firelight  Stories,"  "Stories  Told  at  Twi- 
light," and  others  that  have  always  held  the 
popular  taste;  and  she  collectetl  a  few  of  her 
many  atlult  tales  into  volumes,  "Miss  Eyre  of 
Boston"  and  "Some  Women's  Hearts." 

Her  first  voyage  across  the  sea  was  made 
in  the  January  of  1876.  Pausing  in  London 
long  enough  to  see  the  Queen  open  Parliament 
in  person  for  the  first  time  after  the  Prince 
Consort's  death,  she  hastened  through  Paris 
on  her  way  to  Rome  and  to  raptures  of  old 
palaces  and  gardens  and  galleries,  touched  to 
tears  b)'  the  Pope's  benediction,  abandoned 
to  the  gayety  of  the  Carnival,  enjoying  the 
hospitality  of  the  studios  of  \'edder,  Story, 
Rollin  Tilton,  anil  others,  and  of  the  gracious 
and  charming  social  life  of  Rome.  Her  de- 
scriptions of  all  this,  overflowing  with  the 
sensitiveness  to  beauty  which  is  a  part  of  her 
nature,  make  her  "Random  Rambles"  most 
enchanting  reading.  After  Rome  she  visited 
Florence,  and  then  Venice,  feeling  to  the  quick 
its  mysterious  anil  elusive  spell,  and  then 
again  Paris,  and  again  London  and  the  Lon- 
don season. 

Entertained  by  Lord  Houghton,  she  met 
Browning  and  Swinburne,  George  Eliot,  King- 
lake,  Theodore  Watts-Dunton,  and  a  host  of 
others,  seeing  especially  a  great  deal  of  Brown- 
hig  —  her  personal  beauty  and  charm,  her 
exquisite  manners  and  modest  self-possession, 
her  unerring  tact,  her  voice,  of  which  an  Eng- 
lish poet  said,  "Her  voice,  wherein  all  sweet- 


16 


REPRESENTATIVE    WOMEN    OF    NEW    ENGLAND 


nesses  abide,"  having  as  much  to  do  with  all 
this  as  her  hterary  excellence. 

It  was  the  next  winter  that  the  Macmillans 
brought  out  her  first  volume  of  poems,  "Swal- 
low Flights";  and,  althovigh  she  had  trembled 
to  think  of  its  fate  at  the  hands  of  alien  critics, 
she  betrayed  no  elation  at  the  chorus  of  praise 
with  which  it  was  received.  The  Examiner 
spoke  of  the  power  and  originality  of  the  verses, 
of  the  music  and  the  intensity  as  surpassing 
any  verse  of  George  Eliot's,  declaring  that  the 
sonnet  entitled  "One  Dread"  might  have  been 
written  by  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

"  No  depth,  dear  Love,  for  thee  i.s  too  iirofound, 
There  is  no  farthest  height  thou  mayst  not  dare, 
Nor  shall  thy  wings  fail  in  tlie  upper  air  : 
In  funeral  robe  and  wreath  my  past  lies  bound  : 
No  old-time  voice  assails  me  with  its  sound 
When  thine  I  hear — no  former  joy  seems  fair, 
Since  now  one  only  thing  could  bring  despair. 
One  grief,  like  compassing  seas,  my  life  surround, 
One  only  terror  in  my  way  be  met. 
One  great  eclipse  change  my  glad  day  to  night, 
One  phantom  only  turn  from  red  to  wliite 
The  lips  whereon  thy  lips  have  once  been  set: 
Thou  knowest  well,  dear  Love,  what  that  must  be  — 
The  dread  of  some  dark  day  unshared  by  thee." 

The  Athenceum  also  dwelt  on  the  vivid  and 
subtle  imagination  and  delicate  loveliness  of 
these  verses  and  their  perfection  of  technique. 
The  Academy  spoke  warndy  of  their  felicity  of 
epithet,  their  healthiness,  their  suggestiveness, 
their  imaginative  force  pervaded  by  the  depth 
and  sweetness  of  perfect  womanhood;  and  the 
Tattler  pronounced  her  a  mistress  of  form  and 
of  artistic  j)erfection,  saying  also  that  England 
had  no  ppet  in  such  full  sympathy  with  woods 
and  winds  and  waves,  finding  in  her  the  one 
truly  natural  singer  in  an  age  of  s'sthetic  imi- 
tation. "  She  gives  the  effect  of  the  sudden 
note  of  the  thrush,"  it  said.  "She  is  as  spon- 
taneous as  Walter  von  Vogelweide."  The 
Timea,  the  Mornhuj  Po.^t,  the  Literary  World, 
all  welcomed  the  book  with  eciually  warm  praise, 
and  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  spoke  of  her  lyrical 
feeling  as  like  that  which  gave  a  unique  charm 
to  Heine's  songs.  Very  few  of  these  critics 
had  she  ever  met,  and  their  cordial  recognition 
was  as  surprising  to  her  as  it  was  delightful. 
Among  the  innumerable  letters  which  she  .re- 
ceived, filled  with  admiring  warmth,  were  some 


from  Matthew  Arnold,  Austin  Dobson,  Freder- 
ick Locker,  William  Bell  Scott,  and,  in  fine, 
most  of  the  world  of  letters  of  the  London  of 
that  day.  Her  songs  were  set  to  music  by 
Francesco  Berger  and  Lady  Charlcsmont,  as 
the^  have  been  later  on  by  Margaret  Lang, 
Arthur  Foote,  Ethelbcrt  Nevin,  and  many 
others.  Philip  Bourke  Marston  wrote  her, 
"Much  as  we  all  love  and  admire  your  work, 
it  seems  to  me  we  have  not  yet  fully  realized 
the  unostentatious  loveliness  of  your  lyrics,  as 
fine  for  lyrics  as  your  best  sonnets  are  for  son- 
nets. 'How  Long'  struck  me  more  than  ever. 
The  first  verse  is  eminently  characteristic  of 
you,  exhibiting  in  a  very  marked  degree  what 
runs  through  nearly  all  of  your  poems,  the 
most  exquisite  and  subtle  blending  of  strong 
emotion  with  the  sense  of  external  nature.  It 
seems  to  me  this  perfect  poem  is  possessed  by 
the  melancholy  yet  tender  music  of  winds 
sighing  at  twilight,  in  some  churchyard,  through 
okl  trees  that  watch  beside  silent  graves.  Then 
nothing  can  be  more  subtly  beautiful  than  the 
closing  lines  of  the  sonnet,  'In  Time  to  Come': — 

"  '  Which  was  it  spoke  to  you,  the  wind  or  I  ? 
I  think  you,  musing,  scarcely  will  have  heard.' 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  measuring  by 
quality,  not  quantity,  your  place  is  in  the 
very  foremost  rank  of  poets.  The  divine  sim- 
plicity, strength  and  subtlety,  the  intense,  fra- 
grant, genuine  individuality  of  your  poems  will 
make  them  imperishable.  And  as  they  are  of 
no  school  they  will  be  fresh,  as  the  old  delights 
of  earth  are  ever  fresh."  And  again  the  same 
poet  wrote  her  concerning  "The  House  of 
Death"  that  it  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful, 
the  most  powerful  poems  he  knew.  "  No  poem 
gives  me  such  an  idea  of  the  heartlessness  of 
Nature.  The  poem  is  Death  within  and  Sum- 
mer without — light  girdling  darkness — and  it 
leaves  a  picture  and  impression  on  the  mind 
never  to  be  effaced." 

"  Not  a  hand  has  lifted  the  latchet 
Since  siie  went  out  of  the  door  — 
No  footstep  shall  cross  the  threshold 
Since  she  can  come  in  no  more. 

"  There  is  rust  upon  locks  and  hinges, 
And  mould  and  blight  on  the  walls. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


17 


And  silence  faints  in  the  chambers, 
And  darkness  waits  in  the  halls  — 

"  Waits  as  all  things  have  waited 

Since  she  went  that  day  of  spring, 
Borne  in  her  pallid  splendor 

To  dwell  in  the  Court  of  the  King  : 

"  With  lilies  on  brow  and  bosom, 
With  robes  of  silken  slieen. 
And  her  wonderful  frozen  beauty 
The  lilies  and  silk  between. 

"  Ked  roses  she  left  behind  her, 
But  they  died  long,  long  ago  : 
'Twas  tlie  odorous  ghost  of  a  blossom 
That  seemed  through  the  dusk  to  glow. 

"  The  garments  she  left  mocked  the  shadows 
With  hints  of  womauly  grace, 
And  her  image  swims  in  the  mirror 
That  was  so  used  to  her  face. 

"  The  birds  make  insolent  nmsic 

Where  the  sunshine  riots  outside. 
And  the  winds  are  merry  and  wanton 
With  the  sunnner's  pomp  and  pride. 

"  But  into  this  desolate  mansion, 
Where  Love  has  closed  the  door, 
Nor  sunshine  nor  sunnner  shall  enter, 
Since  she  can  come  in  no  more." 

The  reader  must  agree  with  the  critic  that 
this  poem  of  "The  House  of  Death"  is  un- 
equalled in  its  tragic  beauty  and  sweetness. 

It  was  apropos  of  this  volume  that  in  one  of 
his  letters  to  her  Robert  Browning  said  he  had 
closed  the  book  with  music  in  his  ears  and 
flowers  before  his  eyes,  and  not  without  thoughts 
across  his  brain.  And  it  was  concerning  a 
later  poem,  "Laus  \'eneris,"  inspired  by  a  paint- 
ing of  his  own,  that  Burne-Jones  said  it  made 
him  work  all  the  more  confidently  and  was  a 
real  refreshment. 

"  Pallid  with  too  much  longing, 
White  with  passion  and  prayer, 
Goddess  of  love  and  beauty. 
She  sits  in  the  picture  there  — 

"  Sits  with  her  dark  eyes  seeking 
Something  more  subtle  still 
Than  the  old  delights  of  loving 
Her  measureless  days  to  fill. 

"  She  has  loved  and  been  loved  so -often 
In  her  long  immortal  years 
That  she  tires  of  the  worn-out  rapture, 
Sickens  of  hopes  and  fears. 


"  No  joys  or  sorrows  move  her, 
Done  with  her  ancient  pride; 
For  her  head  she  found  too  heavy 
The  crown  she  has  cast  aside. 

"  Clothed  in  her  scarlet  splendor. 
Bright  with  her  glory  of  hair, 
Sad  that  she  is  not  mortal  — 
Eternally  sad  and  fair  — 

"  Longing  for  joys  she  knows  not, 
Athirst  with  a  vain  desire, 
There  she  sits  in  the  picture. 
Daughter  of  foam  and  fire!  " 

Could  anything  be  in  stronger  or  more  glori- 
ous contrast  to  the  "House  of  Death"  or  to 
"Arcady"  or  to  that  great  sonnet,  "At  War," 
or  show  more  varied  power? 

Few  people  coukl  have  met  such  praise  and 
appreciation  as  Mrs.  Moulton  received,  so 
calmly,  so  sedately  and  gently,  without  one 
flutter  of  gratified  vanity.  Indecil,  she  is 
to-day  the  most  modest  and  most  humble- 
minded  of  women. 

With  the  exception  of  the  two  years  immedi- 
ately following  Mr.  Moulton's  death,  when  she 
remained  at  liome  and  in  seclusion,  Mrs.  Moul- 
ton has  every  summer  sailed  away  for  the 
foreign  shores  where  she  is  so  welcomed  and 
so  loved.  Although  possibly  few  Americans 
have  had  such  a  social  as  well  as  literary  suc- 
cess abroad,  the  hospitality  she  has  received 
has  never  been  violated  by  her  in  pen  or  word: 
she  has  printed  no  letters  and  uttered  no  gos- 
sip concerning  the  houses  in  which  she  has 
been  a  guest.  She  has  been,  through  all  antl 
everything,  a  woman  of  unerring  sense  of  right 
and  courtesy,  of  whom  all  other  Americans 
may  be  proud.  Every  winter  sees  her  back 
in  Boston,  where  her  house  is  a  centre  of  liter- 
ary life,  and  where  one  is  sure  to  find  every 
stranger  of  distinction.  For  her  acquaintance 
among  English  people  of  prominence  is  as  ex- 
tensive as  among  those  of  our  own  country. 
The  friend  of  Longfellow  and  AVhittier  and 
Holmes  in  their  lifetime,  the  acquaintance  of 
Boker,  and  Emerson,  and  Lowell,  and  Boyle 
O'Reilly,  and  of  Sarah  Helen  Whitman  (the 
fiancee  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe),  of  Rose  Terry  and 
Nora  Perry,  as  she  is  still  of  Stedman  and  Stod- 
dard, Mrs.  Howe,  Arlo  Bates,  Edward  Everett 
Hale,  Howells,  William  Winter,  Anne  Whitney, 


18 


RErRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Alice  Brown,  Louise  Guiney,  and,  in  fact,  of 
almost  every  one  of  any  interest  or  achieve- 
ment here,  her  English  acquaintance  was  and 
is  e(]ually  extensive,  as  she  has  been  on  pleas- 
ant terms  with  Sir  Walter  Besant,  ^\'iliiam 
Sharp,  Dr.  Honler,  Mathilde  Blind,  Holman 
Hunt,  Mrs.  Clifford,  Mrs.  Campbell-Praed, 
Coulson  Kernahan,  John  Davidson,  Kenneth 
Ctrahame,  Richard  Le  Gallienne,  Anthony  Hope, 
Robert  Hichens,  William  Watson,  George  Mere- 
dith, Thomas  Hardy,  and  Alice  Meynell,  not 
to  speak  of  Christina  Rossetti,  William  Morris, 
Jean  Ingelow,  William  Black,  and  many 
another  of  both  the  living  and  the  dead. 

It  is  in  Boston  that  she  has  done  the  greater 
part  of  her  work,  collated  and  collected  a  few 
of  her  many  stories  and  of  her  essaj's  into  vol- 
umes, written  her  books  of  travel,  "Random 
Rambles"  and  "Lazy  Tours,"  books  full  of 
interest,  published  her  four  volumes  of  poetry, 
and  edited  and  prefaced  with  biographies  "A 
Last  Harvest"  and  "Garden  Secrets,"  and  the 
"Collected  Poems"  of  Philip  Bourke  Marston, 
and  also  a  selection  from  Arthur  O'Shaugh- 
nessy's  verses,  generous  with  her  time,  her 
effort,  her  money,  and  her  praise. 

Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  once  wrote  Mrs. 
Moulton  that  he  was  touched  with  the  pas- 
sionate sincerity  of  her  poems.  "  I  cannot  see," 
he  added,  "  that  the  life  of  anient  youth  is 
dying  out  of  you,  or  Hke  to."  Sincerity,  in- 
deed, is  the  keynote  both  of  her  nature  and  her 
work.  She  is  not  methodical  in  her  processes, 
never  finding  herself  able  to  work  through 
mere  intellectual  endeavor,  unless  some  strong 
emotion  stirs  her  to  the  tleeps.  Thomas  Hardy 
speaks  of  the  poems  in  "  The  Garden  of  Dreams  " 
as  being  penetrated  "by  the  supreme  quality, 
emotion."  "It  is  not  art  but  nature  that 
gave  her,"  said  William  Minto,  "the  spon- 
taneity and  directness  which  are  so  marked 
characteristics  of  most  of  her  poems,  or  that 
epigrammatic  concision  which  enables  her 
often  to  express  in  a  sentence  a  whole  problem 
or  experience." 

One  of  Mrs.  Moulton's  most  appreciative, 
scholastic,  and  discriminating  critics  was  Pro- 
fcs.sor  Meiklejohn,  who  for  twenty-seven  years 
occupied  a  chair  in  the  University  of  St.  An- 
drews, Scotland,   and   who  was  the  author  of 


a  translation  of  Kant,  of  "The  Art  of  Writing 
English,"  and  other  books  of  importance. 
He  has  said  with  authority  that  she  deserved 
to  be  classed  with  the  best  Elizabethan  lyrists 
in  her  lyrics, — with  Herrick  and  Campion  and 
Shakespeare, — while  in  her  sonnets  she  might 
rightly  take  a  place  with  Milton  and  Words- 
worth and  Rossetti.  "I  cannot  tell  you  how 
keen  and  great  enjoyment  (sometimes  even 
rapture),"  he  wrote  her,  "I  have  got  out  of 
your  exquisite  lyrics."  In  a  series  of  "Notes," 
following  the  poems,  line  by  line,  he  asserted 
that  the  poet  won  her  success  liy  the  simplest 
means  and  plainest  words,  as  true  genius  always 
does,  and  that  her  pages  were  full  of  emotional 
and  imaginative  meaning.  Nature  and  Poetry 
uniting  in  an  indissoluble  whole;  and  Shelley 
himself,  he  said,  would  have  been  proud  to 
own  certain  of  the  lines.  The  poem  "Quest" 
he  found  so  beautiful  that,  in  his  own  words, 
it  was  "difficult  to  speak  of  it  in  perfectly 
measured  and  unexaggerated  language."  Of 
the  poem  "Wife  to  Husband"  he  said  that 
"  the  tenderness,  the  sweet  ami  compelling 
rhythm,  are  worthy  of  the  best  Elizabethan 
days."  The  sonnet,  "A  Summer's  Growth," 
"unites,"  he  says,  the  "passion  of  such  Italian 
poets  as  Dante  with  the  imagination  of  modern 
English."  This  was  in  relation  to  her  first 
voUune,  "Swallow  Flights";  and  in  conclusion 
he  said:  "This  poet  must  look  for  her  brothers 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
among  the  noble  and  intense  lyrists.  Her  in- 
sight, her  subtlety,  her  delicacy,  her  music, 
are  hardly  matched,  and  certainly  not  sur- 
passed by  Herrick  or  Campion  or  Crashaw  or 
Carew  or  Herbert  or  Vaughan." 

Of  poems  in  the  next  volume,  "The  Garden 
of  Dreams,"  Professor  Meiklejohn  affirmed  that 
the  perfect  little  gem,  "Roses,"  was  worthy  of 
Goethe,  and  that  "As  I  Sail"  had  the  firnmess 
and  imaginativeness  of  Heine,  the  perfect  sim- 
plicity containing  magic.  "Wordsworth  never 
wrote  a  stronger  line,"  he  said  of  one  in  "Voices 
on  the  Wind." 

In  "At  the  Wind's  Will"  again  the  same 
critic  recognized  the  strong  style  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  noble  and  daring  rhythms,  the 
"(luintessence  of  passion,"  successes  gained  by 
the  "courage  of  simplicity,"  rare  specimens  of 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENfil.AND 


19 


compression  as  well  as  of  sweetness.  "The 
Gentle  Ghost  of  Joy"  he  thought  "a  wonderful 
voluntary  in  the  best  style  of  Chopin."  In  a 
line  of  one  of  the  sonnets,  "Yet  done  with 
striving  and  foreclosed  of  care,"  he  finds  some- 
thing as  good  as  anything  of  Drayton's.  He 
pronounced  the  two  sonnets  called  "Great 
Love"  worthy  of  a  "place  among  Dante's  and 
Petrarch's  sonnets,"  antl  of  the  sonnet,  "Were 
but  my  Spirit  loosed  upon  the  Air,"  he  wrote, 
"It  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  finest  sonnets 
in  the  English  language." 

I  think  every  one  who  knows  and  loves 
poetry  in  its  highest  form  and  expression  will 
agree  with  all  this,  and  will  feel  that  the  critic 
spoke  of  very  great  verse.  Many  other  critics 
have  been  to  the  full  as  appreciative,  and  have 
felt,  as  I  do,  the  constant  delight  of  splenditl 
phrase  and  Shakespearian  vigor  ami  utterance 
in  Louise  Chandler  Moulton's  sonnets,  anil  the 
atmosphere  of  warmth  and  beauty  that  bathes 
the  thought  and  fancy  of  each  page. 

But  in  spite  of  the  largeness  and  high  quality 
of  her  work  it  is  quite  as  much  the  woman  as 
the  poet  who  is  to  be  loved  and  admired. 
Large-hearted  and  large-souled,  of  a  religious 
spirit  unfettered  by  dogma,  most  tender,  most 
true,  most  compassionate,  genial,  ingenuous, 
of  an  absolute  integrity  antl  an  absolute  un- 
worldliness,  she  has  the  warm  affection  of  all 
who  are  fortunate  enough  to  know  her  at  all 
clo,sely.  Men  and  women,  young  and  old,  come 
to  her  for  the  pleasure  of  the  passing  hour,  for 
advice,  for  sympathy  in  joy  or  trouble.  From 
all  over  the  country  people  write  to  her,  con- 
fiding their  perplexities  and  sorrows,  craving 
intellectual  or  spiritual  comfort,  and  always 
receiving  it.  Her  wortls  of  cheer  are  given 
from  the  heart,  and  she  has  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  the  support  and  strength  some  of  her 
written  words  have  been  to  those  like  the 
young  girl  who,  confined  to  her  bed  for  three 
years  and  too  weak  to  listen  to  prayers,  could 
be  helped  by  murmuring  to  herself: — 

"  We  lay  us  down  to  sleep. 
And  leave  to  God  the  rest, 
Whether  to  wake  and  weep 
Or  wake  no  more  be  best."' 

Mrs.  Moulton's  home  in  Boston  is  full  of  in- 


teresting souvenirs,  autographs,  signed  pictures, 
and  sculptures  given  Ijy  the  artists.  At  every 
turn  there  is  association  with  famous  or  cher- 
ished names,  and  here  her  guests  find  their 
welcome  generous  and  delightful,  her  manner 
gracious,  her  directness  reassuring,  her  conver- 
sation full  of  sparkle,  and  her  presence  full  of 
charm.  In  her  youth  of  a  remarkable  beauty, 
a  wild-rose  bloom,  biack-lashed  and  black- 
browed  hazel  eyes,  bright  hair,  fine  features, 
and  the  oval  lines  of  the  antique  in  the  outline 
of  cheek  and  chin,  much  of  that  charm  of  her 
youth  she  still  retains,  the  same  soft  yet  fear- 
less glance,  the  same  heart-warming  smile,  the 
same  grace  of  manner,  always  the  same  grace 
of  nature,  the  same  confident  assurance  of  the 
goodness  of  every  one  in  the  world,  loving  God 
in  humanity,  and  spending  herself  for  others. 
Harriet  Prescott  Spofford. 


MRS.  LILLIAN  M.  N.  STEVENS.— 
"  As  sweet  and  wholesome  as  her 
own  ])iny  wood"  was  Frances  E. 
WiUard's  epigrammatic  description 
of  the  woman — above  named — who  succeeds  her 
as  leader  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  hosts.  Mi,ss  ^^'il!ard  and  Mrs.  Stevens 
first  met  in  1875  at  Old  Orchard,  Me.,  and  the 
friendship  there  begun  ripenetl  into  the  deepest 
alTection  as  the  years  passed. 

Mrs.  Stevens  was  born  in  Maine,  and  her 
home  has  always  been  within  the  borders  of 
that  State.  Her  parents  were  Nathaniel  and 
Nancy  Fowler  (Parsons)  Ames.  Her  first  pub- 
lic work  was  in  the  school-room  as  teacher, 
when  she  was  Miss  Ames.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  she  married  Mr.  M.  Stevens,  of  Stroud- 
water,  a  charming  suburb  of  Portland.  Her 
husband  is  in  full  accord  with  her,  and  is  one 
of  the  most  genial  of  hosts  to  the  multitude  of 
her  co-workers  who  are  entertained  in  their 
hospitable  home.  Their  only  child,  Mrs.  Ger- 
trude Stevens  Leavitt,  is  an  ardent  white  rib- 
boner  and  one  of  the  State  super intenilents  in 
the  Maine  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Mrs.  Stevens  possesses  keen  business  ability 
and  indomitable  will  power.  She  is  a  woman 
of  culture,  gentle  in  manner,  and  the  embodi- 
ment of  kindness. 


20 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


The  old  home,  which  has  been  for  a  centur}' 
in  the  Stevens  fainily,  resounds  constantly  to 
the  music  of  children's  voices,  for,  although 
Mrs.  Stevens  has  been  prominently  connected 
with  the  child-saving  institution  of  her  State, 
she  believes  most  ardently  that  an  institution 
can  never  be  a  substitute  for  a  home;  and,  while 
she  urges  her  Maine  women  to  open  their  doors 
to  Gotl's  homeless  little  ones,  she  herself  sets 
them  a  practical  example. 

Mrs.  Stevens  has  been  one  of  the  prime 
movers  in  woman's  temperance  work  ever 
since  the  historic  crusade  of  1873  in  Hillsboro, 
Ohio.  In  1874  she  assisted  in  the  organization 
of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  in  her  native  State.  For 
three  years  she  acted  as  treasurer,  and  she  has 
since  been  continuously  its  president,  unani- 
mously chosen.  For  thirteen  years  she  was 
assistant  recording  secretary  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  for  one  year  its  secretary,  and 
at  the  Cleveland  convention  in  1894  she  was, 
on  nomination  of  Miss  Willard,  elected  vice- 
president-at-large  of  the  National  Union,  suc- 
ceeding to  the  presidency  in  1898. 

Besides  filling  these  offices  and  leading  the 
women  of  Maine  as  president  of  the  constantly 
growing  State  W.  C.  T.  U.,  working  and  speak- 
ing for  it  untiringly,  Mrs.  Stevens  has  carried 
on  a  great  amount  of  work  connected  with 
the  charities  of  Maine,  having  been  officially 
connected  with  several  homes  for  the  depend- 
ent classes.  For  years  she  has  been  the  Maine 
representative  in  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction.  She  was  one  of  the 
lady  managers  of  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position. 

No  woman  in  the  organization  which  she 
leads  is  more  loyal  to  its  fundamental  princi- 
ples. None  possesses  in  a  greater  degree  the 
confidence  of  its  friends  and  the  good  will  of 
its  opponents  than  Mrs.  Stevens,  of  Maine. 
Only  those  who  best  know  her  realize  the  depth 
of  her  religious  nature.  Her  creed  is  truly  the 
creed  of  love,  her  life  one  of  peace  and  good 
will.  Her  Bible  always  lies  close  at  hand  vipon 
her  desk,  and  .shows  much  reading.  From  the 
well-worn  New  Testament  lying  upon  her 
couch  we  copied  the.se  words:  "Tell  our  white 
ribboners  to  study  the  New  Testament.  I  love 
the    New    Testament.     No    human    being   lias 


ever  conceived  as  he  should  what  the  New- 
Testament  means  by  'loyalty  to  Christ.' 
Among  the  last  words  spoken  bv  Miss  Willard, 
February  13,  1898."  "  Loyalty  to  Christ "  may 
well  be  calleil  the  keynote  to  Lillian  Stevens's 
life,  and  more  clearly  than  do  most  people 
she  finds  Christ  always  among  "his  brethren" 
in  poor,  sin-stained,  sorely  burdened  humanity. 

Mrs.  Stevens  has  said  that  any  written  ac- 
count of  her  would  have  little  meaning  could 
there  not  be  combineil  with  it  a  sketch  of  the 
organization  which  has  meant  so  much  to  her 
in  her  life  work.  In  fact,  it  was  with  this  un- 
derstaniling  that  Mrs.  Stevens  consented  to 
have  a  sketch  of  her'  life  prepared  for  this  vol- 
ume. 

Perhaps  no  question  is  asked  more  frequently 
than  "  What  has  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  done?"  and  few  questions  are 
more  difficult  to  answer  with  any  degree  of 
satisfaction.  This  is  not  for  lack  of  material, 
but  rather  becau.se  of  an  over-abundance 
thereof.  A  few  of  the  more  general  facts 
of  its  history  may  here  be  presented. 

The  National  AVoman's  Christian  Temperance 
LTnion  is  the  crystallized  effort  of  the  Women's 
Crusatle  of  1873-74.  It  was  organized  in 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  November  18-20,  1874. 
Its  characteristics  are  simplicity  aiul  unity, 
with  emphasis  upon  individual  responsibility. 
It  is  organized  by  State,  district,  county,  and 
local  unions.  Every  State  and  Territory  in 
the  United  States,  including  Alaska  and  Hawaii, 
has  a  State  or  Territorial  union,  and  there  is  a 
beginning  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  Ten  thou- 
sand towns  and  cities  have  local  unions. 

Twenty-five  national  organizers,  fourteen  na- 
tional lecturers,  and  twenty-one  national  evan- 
gelists are  constantly  in  the  field,  besides  those 
of  the  several  States  and  Territories.  One  thou- 
sand new  unions  were  organized  in  1900.  One- 
fifth  of  all  the  States  gained  more  than  five 
hundred  members  over  and  above  all  losses 
in  the  year  1900. 

Organization  among  the  young  women  has 
grown  into  a  branch,  with  its  own  general  sec- 
retary and  field  workers.  It  is  an  integral 
part  of  the  W.  T.  C.  U.,  and  is  known  as  the 
Young  Woman's  ('hristian  Temperance  Union, 
or  the  Y.  ^\^  C.  T.  U. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


21 


Organization  of  the  children  into  Loyal  Tem- 
perance Legions  is  also  a  branch,  and  numbers 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Seniors  and 
Juniors.  Organization  among  colored  people 
has  secured  nine  separate  State  unions  and 
many  members.  Organization  among  the  Ind- 
ians is  well  begun  in  the  Indian  schools  and 
among  the  more  civilized  adult  Indian  women. 
The  department  of  organization  among  foreign- 
speaking  people  circulates  literature  in  eighteen 
different  languages,  and  keeps  a  missionary  at 
the  port  of  New  York.  It  is  not  unusual  for 
a  national  organizer  to  travel  ten  thousand 
miles  m  one  year.  This  work  is  largely  mis- 
sionary. In  1883  Miss  Willard  and  Miss  Gor- 
don visited  every  State  and  Territory  in  the 
l^nion,  anil  completetl  an  itinerary  which  in- 
cluded every  city  of  ten  thousand  or  more 
inhabitants  by  the  census  of  1870.  Eight 
round-the-world  missionaries  have  been  sent 
by  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Through  Miss  Willard  the  National  was  in- 
strumental in  organizing  the  World's  W.  C. 
T.  L".,  which  now  includes  fifty-eight  different 
countries  and  five  hundred  thousand  members. 

The  W.  C.  T.  U.  originated  the  idea  of  scien- 
tific temperance  instruction  in  the  public  schools, 
and  has  secured  mandatory  laws  in  every  State 
in  the  Union  and  ;i  federal  law  governing  the 
District  of  Columbia,  the  Territoi'ies,  and  all 
Indian  and  military  schools  supported  by  the 
government.  Under  these  laws  twenty  mill- 
ion in  the  public  schools  receive  instruction 
as  to  the  nature  and  effects  of  alcohol  and  to- 
bacco and  other  narcotics  on  the  human  sys- 
tem. Sixteen  million  children  receive  tem- 
perance teaching  in  the  Sunday-schools,  and 
two  hundred  and  ninety-six  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  sixty-four  of  these  are  pledged 
total  abstainers.  The  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  an  im- 
portant factor  in  securing  the  insertion  of  the 
quarterly  temperance  lesson  in  the  Interna- 
tional Sunday-school  Lesson  Series,  1884,  and 
in  securing  a  world's  universal  temperance  Sun- 
day. Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  children 
are  taught  scientific  reasons  for  temperance  in 
the  Loyal  Temperance  Legions,  and  all  these 
children  are  pledged  to  total  abstinence  and 
trained  as  temperance  workers.  The  educa- 
tional value  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  to  its  own  mem- 


bers through  courses  of  study  and  practical 
work  is  immense.  Before  any  other  temper- 
ance society  had  taken  up  mothers'  meetings, 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  had  organized  in  thirty-seven 
States  and  Territories,  and  two  thousand  meet- 
ings were  held  in  Illinois  in  one  year.  W.  C. 
T.  U.  schools  of  methods  are  held  in  all  Chau- 
taucjua  gatherings.  Indiana  held  a  W.  C.  T.  U. 
school  (jf  methods  in  every  one  of  its  counties 
in  1900. 

The  W.  C.  T.  U.  has  largely  influenced  the 
change  in  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  social 
drinking,  equal  suffrage,  equal  purity  for  both 
sexes,  equal  remuneration  for  work  equally 
well  done,  equal  educational,  professional,  and 
industrial  opportunities  for  men  and  women. 
Through  its  efforts  thousands  of  girls  have  been 
rescued  from  lives  of  shame,  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  men  have  signed  the  total  abstinence 
pledge  and  been  redeemed  from  inebriety. 

The  several  States  tlistributed  nine  million 
four  hunilred  and  forty-four  thousand  three 
hundred  and  fifty  pages.  The  National  W.  C. 
T.  U.  printed  and  distributed  in  1901  fifty-five 
thousand  annual  leaflets  of  sixty-six  pages 
each,  which,  with  its  annual  reports  and  other 
literature  given  away,  amounts  to  over  five 
million  pages. 

The  Union  Siynol,  the  official  organ  for  the 
National  and  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.,  a  sixteen- 
page  weekly,  has  a  large  circulation.  The  Cru- 
mdcr,  a  sixteen-page  monthly,  the  official  organ 
of  the  Loyal  Temperance  Legion,  has  a  large 
and  increasing  circulation.  One  thousand 
colunms  are  filled  weekly  in  other  newspapers 
by  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixteen 
superintendents.  Thirty-two  States  publish 
State  papers  devote<l  entirely  to  W.  G.  T.  U. 
interests. 

The  W.  C.  T.  U.  has  been  the  chief  factor  in 
State  campaigns  for  statutory  prohibition,  con- 
stitutional amendments,  reform  laws  in  gen- 
eral, and  those  for  the  protection  of  women  and 
children  in  particular,  and  in  securing  anti- 
gambling  and  anti-cigarette  laws.  It  has  been 
instrumental  in  raising  the  age  of  protection 
for  girls  in  every  State  but  two.  The  age  is 
now  eighteen  years  in  thirteen  States,  sixteen 
years  in  nineteen  States,  and  from  twelve  to 
fifteen  years  in  the  other  States.     Through  its 


22 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


influence  scientific  temperance  instruction  laws 
have  been  secured  in  every  State  and  Territory. 
Curfew  laws  have  been  secured  in  four  huntlred 
towns  and  cities.  It  aided  in  securing  the  anti- 
canteen  amentlment  to  the  army  bill,  which 
prohibits  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  all 
army  posts.  It  secured  the  appointment  of 
police  matrons,  now  required  in  many  of  the 
large  cities  of  the  United  States.  It  keeps  a 
superintendent  of  legislation  in  Washington  dur- 
ing the  entire  session  of  Congress,  to  look  after 
reform  bills. 

Eight  thousand  petitions  have  lately  been 
sent  by  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  to  the  physicians  of 
the  United  States,  asking  that  their  medical 
practice  and  teaching,  as  well  as  their  personal 
example,  be  upon  the  side  of  safety  in  regard  to 
the  use  of  alcohol.  By  petitions  and  protests 
Congressman-elect  Roberts,  the  polygamist,  was 
prevented  from  taking  his  seat  in  the  United 
States  Congress.  Similar  elTort  was  made  by 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  to  retire  Mr.  Smoot,  and  the 
influence  of  this  organization  helped  to  bring 
about  the  Congressional  investigation  concern- 
ing modern  Mormonism  and  polygamy.  Because 
of  protests  the  prohibitory  law  in  Indian  Terri- 
tory was  not  repealed  nor  openly  attacked.  For 
the  same  reason  the  prohibitory  constitution  of 
Maine  was  not  resubmitted.  The  National 
W.C.T.U.  secures  more  petitions  than  any  other 
society  in  the  world.  It  is  estimated  that  not 
fewer  than  twenty  million  of  signatures 
and  attestations  have  been  secured  by  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  including  the  polyglot  petition. 
Other  societies  work  largely  through  W.  C.  T.  U. 
machinery  in  circulating  petitions.  The  thought 
of  the  polyglot  petition  originatetl  with  Miss 
Willartl,  and  it  was  written  by  her.  It  has 
seven  million  signatures  and  attestations. 

The  W.  C.  T.  U.  will  continue  to  petition  for 
federal  legislation  to  protect  native  races  in 
our  own  territory  and  in  foreign  lands.  It  will 
continue  to  protest  against  the  bringing  of 
Chinese  girls  to  this  country  for  immoral  pur- 
poses, and  against  the  enslaving  of  the  same, 
and  against  the  legalizing  of  all  crime,  especially 
that  of  prostitution  and  liquor  selling.  It  will 
continue  to  protest  against  the  sale  of  li(iuor 
in  Soldiers'  Homes,  where  an  aggregate  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand  and  twenty- 


seven  dollars  is  spent  annually  for  intoxicating 
drinks,  only  about  one-fifth  of  the  soldiers' 
pension  money  being  sent  home  to  their  fami- 
lies. It  will  continue  to  protest  against  the 
United  States  government  receiving  a  revenue 
for  liquors  sokl  within  prohibitory  territory, 
either  local  or  State,  and  against  all  complicity 
of  the  federal  government  with  the  liquor  traffic. 
It  will  continue  to  protest  against  lynching,  and 
will  lend  its  aid  in  favor  of  the  enforcement  of 
law.  It  will  continue  to  work  for  the  highest 
well-being  of  our  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  espe- 
cially for  suitable  temperance  canteens  and 
liberal  rations. 

It  will  continue  to  work  for  the  protection  of 
the  home  against  its  enemy,  the  liquor  traffic, 
and  for  the  redemption  of  our  government  from 
this  curse,  which  redemption  can  only  come, 
it  believes,  by  the  prohibition  of  the  manufact- 
ure and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  for  beverage 
pui-poses.  It  is  pledged  to  the  highest  interests 
of  the  great  institutions  of  the  world — the  home, 
the  school,  the  Church,  the  State. 


ABBY  KELLEY  FOSTER  was  the 
/\  descendant  of  a  long  line  of  Quaker 
_/  ^  ancestry,  English  on  the  mother's 
side,  Irish  on  the  father's.  From  the 
former  came  her  unflinching  determination, 
her  almost  dogged  persistence,  her  unyielding 
will  where  a  principle  was  at  stake,  her  .severe 
judgment  of  all  who  failed  to  reach  her  lofty 
stantlards  of  morality.  With  the  Celtic  blood 
came  her  cheerfulness,  her  ingenuousness,  her 
childlike  simplicity,  and  utter  lack  of  self- 
consciousness.  Her  inability  to  keep  a  secret, 
even  when  of  an  important  character,  was  the 
source  of  much  amusement  and  occasional 
annoyance  to  lier  friends.  Of  Irish  wit  she 
had  not  a  trace,  though  she  could  thoroughly 
enjoy  a  joke  when  it  was  explained  to  her. 

Mrs.  Foster  hail  a  clear,  though  perhaps, 
an  unusual,  conception  of  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  possible  and  the  impossible.  What- 
ever was  right  and  just  she  firmly  believed  to 
be  possible.  To  right  a  wrong  or  to  accom- 
jilish  an  important  object,  she  would  move 
lieaven  and  earth;  but  she  wasted  no  energy 
in  useless  repining  over  the  inevitable.     It  was 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


23 


this  philosophic  resignation  to  the  necessary 
ills  of  life,  combined  with  a  remarkable  elas- 
ticity of  temperament,  which  enabled  her  to 
endure  the  intense  nervous  strain  to  which 
she  was  for  numy  years  unavoidably  subjected, 
and  helped  to  prolong  Ijeyond  threescore  years 
and  ten  a  life,  in  childhood  frail,  in  youth  and 
middle  age  constantly  overburdened  with  se- 
vere mental  and  physical  t(jil. 

Soon  after  her  birth  in  the  little  town  of 
Pelham,  Mass.,  January  15,  1811,  her  parents, 
Wing  and  Diama  (Daniels)  Kelley,  removed 
to  Worcester,  where  the  little  Abigail,  because 
of  her  delicate  health,  was  allowed  to  grow  up 
in  comparative  freedom  from  the  restraint 
imposed  upon  the  girls  of  her  day.  But,  in 
spite  of  this,  she  used  to  tell  me  that  she  con- 
stantly rebelled  against  the  limits  set  to  the 
physical  activity  of  girls.  She  felt  it  a  humili- 
ation to  be  permitted  to  go  on  the  ice  only  in 
tow  of  some  condescending  boy  who  might  offer 
to  tlrag  her  behind  him  by  a  stick.  But  she 
would  climb  trees  and  fences,  and  coast  down 
hills  on  barrel  staves,  undeterred  by  the  epi- 
thets "hoyden"  and  "tomboy,"  heaped  upon 
her  by  the  girls  who  only  played  with  dolls 
in  the  house.  Thus  early  did  she  exhibit  that 
love  of  freedom  which  was  her  leading  trait 
through  life. 

Her  mother,  the  strictest  of  orthodox 
Friends,  taught  her  children  to  follow  with 
unquestioning  obedience  the  leadings  of  "the 
Spirit,"  that  inner  voice  which  the  world  calls 
conscience.  It  was  to  this  early  training  of 
the  conscience  and  the  will  that  Mrs.  Foster 
attributed  her  moral  strength  in  later  life.  The 
severe  discipline  of  the  household  was  miti- 
gated, however,  by  the  genial  influence  of  the 
warm-hearted,  impulsive  father,  whose  kindly 
nature  found  expression  in  tender  affection 
toward  his  children  and  aliounding  hospitality 
to  a  large  circle  of  friends. 

Pecuniary  misfortunes  reduced  the  family 
income  by  and  by,  and  put  to  the  test  the 
character  of  the  young  girl  who  was  just  now 
beginning  to  realize  the  serious  meaning  of 
life.  She  had  learned  all  that  the  best  private 
school  for  girls  in  Worcester  could  teach  her. 
Her  parents  coukl  not  afford  to  sentl  her  away 
to  school,  so  at  the  age  of  fourteen  she  bor- 


rowed money  of  an  elder  sister  to  pay  her 
expenses  for  a  year  at  the  Friends'  School  in 
Providence,  R.I.  Though  not  (as  she  declared) 
a  brilliant  scholar,  she  was  a  most  faithful 
student,  often  working  so  hard  over  her  lessons 
that  the  perspiration  would  stand  out  on  her 
face  as  if  from  hard  physical  exertion.  She 
took  a  high  rank  in  her  class,  and  was  there- 
fore able  to  obtain  from  her  teachers  a  recom- 
mendation which  secured  her  a  school  the  next 
year,  though  she  was  only  fifteen  years  old. 
Having  paid  her  debt  and  earned  a  little 
beside,  she  returned  to  school;  and  for  three 
years  she  alternately  taught  and  studied,  until 
she  had  finished  the  most  advanced  course  of 
instruction  which  New  England  then  offered 
to  women.  From  the  age  of  fourteen  she 
paid  all  her  own  expenses. 

She  was  fond  of  dress,  and  indulged  to  the 
full  in  the  few  frivolities  -allowed  by  her  sect, 
which  did  not  altogether  frown  upon  rich  silks 
anil  satins,  if  plainly  fashioned  and  of  subdued 
tints.  Abby  (I  think  she  had  already  dropped 
the  "gail")  had  an  eminently  social  nature, 
and  did  not  disdain  the  pomps  and  vanities  of 
parties  and  balls,  with  their  attendant  beaux, 
among  whom  her  slentler,  giaceful  figure  and 
beautiful  dancing  made  her  a  favorite. 

Miss  Kelley  nmst  have  been  about  nineteen 
when  she  went  to  Lynn,  where  for  several  years 
she  had  charge  of  the  private  school  of  the 
Friends'  Society.  It  was  while  here  that  she 
first  heard  the  subject  of  slavery  discussed. 
She  listened  to  the  burning  words  of  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  and  to  the  strong  Quaker  utter- 
ance of  Arnold  Buffum.  The  "inner  voice" 
began  to  call  to  her,  and  she  replied  by  accept- 
ing the  secretaryship  of  the  Lynn  Female  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  just  formed.  Her  own  words, 
taken  from  the  letter  to  which  I  have  referred, 
give  a  vivid  picture  of  the  strong  impression 
which  the  reform  had  already  made  upon  her. 

"  From  this  time  I  did  what  I  could  to  carry 
forward  the  work,  by  circulating  petitions  to 
tur  legislative  bodies,  scattering  our  publica- 
oions,  soliciting  subscriptions  to  our  journals, 
and  raising  funds  for  oiu-  societies,  in  the  mean- 
time by  private  conversations  enforcing  our 
principles  and  our  measures  in  season  and  out 
of  season,  taking  more  and  more  of  the  time 


24 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


left  from  my  scliool  duties.  At  length  my 
whole  soul  was  so  filled  with  the  subject  that 
it  would  not  leave  me  in  school  hours,  and  I  saw 
I  was  giving  to  this  duty  less  than  its  due. 
This  decided  me  to  resign.  I  had  been  wanting 
to  pass  a  season  with  my  mother,  who  was  in 
failing  health.  My  resignation  was  not  ac- 
cepted, but  I  persisted,  and  after  two  more 
terms  I  was  released.  My  mother  was  in  sym- 
pathy with  me  on  the  slavery  question,  and  I 
told  her  fully  the  state  of  my  mind,  saying 
that,  but  for  the  fact  that  I  had  so  little  com- 
mand of  language  and  no  training  in  public 
speaking,  I  should  think  I  had  a  divine  call 
(as  understood  by  Friends)  to  go  forth  and 
lecture. 

"About  this  time  there  was  a  pressbig  call 
for  funds  from  the  anti-slavery  societies,  anrl 
I  sold  some  of  tlie  most  expensive  articles  of 
my  wardrobe,  and  forwarded  the  proceeds  to 
the  treasury,  feeling  that  I  could  not  withhold 
even  a  feather's  weight  of  help  that  might 
hasten  the  downfall  of  the  terrible  system  which, 
by  crushing  and  cursing  the  slave,  had  de- 
prived the  whole  country  of  the  liberty  of 
speech  and  the  press,  and  the  right  of  peaceable 
assemblage  and  petition." 

(It  should  be  said  at  this  point  that  Miss 
Kelley  had  alreadj'  given  to  the  society  all  her 
accumulated  earnings  and  the  small  inheri- 
tance recently  received  from  her  father's  estate.) 
"  Not  long  after  tliJs,  in  one  of  our  Scripture  read- 
ings at  breakfast,  I  read  from  a  chapter  con- 
taining these  words:  'Not  many  wise  men 
after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many 
noble,  are  called:  but  God  hath  chosen  the 
fftolish  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  wise; 
and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  things  which  are  mighty; 
and  base  things  of  the  world,  and  things  which 
are  despised,  .  .  .  and  things  which  are  not, 
to  bring  to  naught  things  that  are:  that  no 
flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence.'  I  closed 
the  book  and  said  to  my  mother:  'My  way  is 
clear  now:  a  new  light  has  broken  on  me.  How 
true  it  is,  as  history  records,  that  all  great 
reforms  have  been  carried  forward  by  weak 
and  despised  means!  The  talent,  the  learning, 
the  wealth,  the  Church,  and  the  State,  are 
pledged  to  the  support  of  slavery.     I  will  go 


out  among  the  honest-hearted  common  people, 
into  the  highways  and  byways,  and  cry,  "Pity 
the  poor  slave!"  if  I  can  do  nothing  more.' 
My  mother  still  hoped  that  I  might  be  spared 
from  taking  up  so  heavy  a  cross;. but  I  told  her 
I  had  counted  the  cost,  and  though,  as  an  abo- 
litionist, I  must  take  my  life  in  my  hand,  and, 
as  a  public-speaking  woman,  must  .suffer  more 
than  the  loss  of  life,  yet  all  I  could  give,  and  all 
I  was,  was  but  as  dust  in  the  balance,  if  my 
efforts  could  gain  over  to  our  cause  a  few  honest 
souls. 

"I  had  a  sister  living  in  Connecticut,  who 
was  quite  in  accord  with  me,  and  at  her  house 
I  now  made  my  home,  going  out  as  oppor- 
tunities were  offered  me  by  the  few  abolitionists 
of  that  vicinity.  I  was  entirely  unknown  and 
uidicard  of,  except  as  some  New  York  paper, 
in  its  denunciation  and  ridicule  of  the  anti- 
slavery  meetings,  might  refer  to  me  as  'that 
monstrosity,  a  public-speaking  woman.'  I  had 
no  endorsement  from  any  society,  none  but 
a  few  of  my  most  intimate  friends  knowing  of 
my  purpose.  The  reason  for  my  going  out 
thus  was  my  doubt  of  being  able  to  serve  the 
great  cause  in  this  way;  and  I  did  not  wish 
to  involve  any  other  person  in  the  trials,  perils, 
and  tribulations  to  which  I  should  be  liable." 

Miss  Kelley  finally  received  an  invitation  to 
hold  meetings  in  Washington,  Conn.  She  says 
of  them:  "The  first  meeting  was  well  attended, 
and  another  was  called  for,  then  still  another 
and  another,  each  with  deepening  interest 
and  larger  attendance.  When  a  fifth  was  pro- 
po.sed,  as  I  had  engagements  elsewhere,  I 
promised  to  return  in  two  weeks  and  speak 
again.  It  may  seem  remarkable  that  no  oppo- 
sition was  manifested;  but  those  who  invited 
me  were  all  members  of  the  church,  and  Mr. 
Gunn  was  the  superintendent  of  the  Sabbath- 
school,  and  Mr.  Piatt  a  sheriff  of  the  county.  .  .  . 
I  was  treated  with  much  consitleration,  receiv- 
ing hospitality  from  those  who  stood  first  and 
best.  But,  when  I  returned,  lo,  what  a  change! 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gunn  met  me  with  sorrowful 
faces  and  told  me  that  in  my  absence  Mr.  H., 
the  minister,  had  preached  a  sermon  from  the 
text.  Rev.  ii.  20:  'I  have  a  few  things  against 
thee,  because  thou  sufferest  that  woman 
Jezebel  to  teach  and  to  seduce  my  servants.'  .  .  . 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF  ^ NEW   ENGLAND 


He  set  forth  the  powers  and  artifices  of  Jezebel, 
her  learning,  her  marvellous  blandishments, 
with  the  neglect  of  the  minister  to  forbid  her 
preaching  until  she  had  acquired  such  an  influ- 
ence that  he  daretl  not  interfere.  Then  Mr. 
H.  charged  that  another  Jezebel  had  arisen, 
and,  with  fascinations  exceeding  even  those  of 
her  Scripture  prototype,  was  aiming  to  entice 
and  destroy  this  church.  ...  He  added:  'Do 
any  of  you  ask  for  evidence  of  her  vile  character? 
It  needs  no  other  evidence  than  the  fact  that 
in  the  face  of  the  clearest  commands  of  God, 
"  IjCt  your  women  keep  silence  in  the  churches, 
for  it  is  not  permittetl  unto  them  to  speak," 
she  comes  here  with  brazen  face,  a  servant 
of  Satan  in  the  garb  of  an  angel  of  light,  and 
tramples  this  connnand  under  her  feet.'  This 
is  the  purport  of  his  discourse  as  reported 
to  me. 

"My  friends  invited  me  to  go  with  them  to 
the  weekly  prayer-meeting  that  afternoon. 
We  hoped,  though  with  little  faith,  to  have 
an  opportunity  for  my  friend  to  say  a  few  words 
in  reply  to  the  Sunday's  sermon.  But  no  one 
was  allowed  to  speak  except  by  the  minister's 
invitation,  and  the  meeting  was  soon  closed. 
We  stood  near  the  door  as  the  i)eople  passed 
out.  With  one  exception,  not  one  of  those 
whom  I  had  met  on  my  first  visit,  not  even  those 
who  had  hospitably  entertained  me,  gave  me 
a  hand  or  a  look,  but  all  passed  me  as  if  I  hatl 
been  a  block.  I  doubt  not  that  many  of  the 
members  of  that  church  thanketl  Mr.  H.  for 
his  timely  warning,  by  which  they  were  saved 
from  being  led  to  death  and  hell.  At  my  lect- 
ure that  evening  few  were  present,  and  tho.se 
mainly  from  surrounding  towns.  I  went  to 
my  chamber  that  night,  but  not  to  sleep.  In 
agony  of  prayer  and  tears,  my  cry  was,  'Oh 
that  my  head  were  waters,  and  mine  eyes  a 
fountain  of  tears,  that  I  might  weep  day  and 
night  for  the  slain  of  the  daughter  of  my  people! ' 
My  anguish  was  not  because  of  anything  per- 
sonal to  myself,  but  because  I  was  thus  cut 
off  from  the  people  who  might  rise  up  for  the 
defence  of  the  slave.  The  friends  at  whose 
house  I  was  stood  by  me  nobly,  but  we  all 
saw  that  nothing  more  could  be  done  at  that 
time. 

"Soon  after  this  I  was  invited  to  speak  in 


Torrington,  where  a  Methodist  church  was 
opened  to  me,  the  minister  being  absent.  I 
remained  there  about  a  week,  holding  several 
meetings,  which  created  great  interest,  so  that 
people  came  in  from  surrounding  towns.  There 
were  many  questions  asked  and  answered, 
but  very  little  opposition  was  apparent.  At 
one  of  the  last  meetings,  though  nothing  had 
been  said  about  money,  the  people  in  passing 
out  left  contril)utions  on  the  desk  before  me. 
No  one  said  a  word  except  an  aged  man,  who, 
dropping  a  gold  coin,  remarked,  'The  laborer 
is  worthy  of  his  hire.'  The  amount  was  sev- 
eral  dollars. 

"When  I  started  on  my  mission,  my  funds 
were  low.  I  could  not  ask  for  help,  but  de- 
cided that,  when  my  supply  should  fail,  it  would 
be  sufhcient  reason  for  my  going  home.  At  one 
time  I  had  but  ten  cents  left  in  my  purse,  ant! 
was  about  to  write  home  for  a  loan,  when  a 
letter  from  an  intimate  friend  was  brought  me, 
containing  a  five-dollar  bill." 

Among  the  iJaces  which  Miss  Kelley  visited 
was  Norfolk,  Conn.  Arriving  in  the  absence 
of  her  host,  several  of  the  principal  men  of  the 
town  called  on  her,  and  informetl  her  with 
threats  that  if  she  persisted  in  her  attempt 
it  would  be  at  her  own  peril.  With  no  friend 
at  hand  she  had  to  yield;  but  it  was  Saturday 
night,  and  she  could  not  get  away  before  Mon- 
day. Her  hostess  was  evidently  in  sympathy 
with  the  mob  element,  and  Miss  Kelley  there- 
fore tried  to  get  lodgings  at  the  hotel.  She 
was  told  that  the  innkeeper  would  as  willingly 
entertain  the  vilest  woman  from  New  York 
as  herself.  "Language,"  she  writes,  "cannot 
ilescribe  that  long  day  and  night  of  spiritual 
anguish  and  utter  desolation."  Monthly  morn- 
ing saw  her  depart.  She  went  to  the  house 
of  a  friendly  Quaker  farmer  in  Canaan.  "Once 
more  I  breathed  freely.  A  terrible  burden  fell 
off  me.  When  left  alone  I  went  into  the  or- 
chanl  back  of  the  house"  (remeniber  she  was 
still  young,  only  about  twenty-five)  "and  ran 
about  like  a  colt  let  loose.  I  hopped,  skipped, 
and  danced.  I  climbetl  the  trees  and  sang  with 
the  birds.  Such  ecstasies  of  delight  come 
rarely." 

In  this  town  she  held  good  meetings,  but  in 
Salisbury   her   meeting   was   broken   up   by   a 


26 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


mob   which   rang   the   church   hell,    tooted    tin 
horns,  and  beat  on  tin  pans. 

At  Cornwall  Bridge  Miss  Kelley  barely  es- 
caped personal  injury.  The  politics  of  the 
town  were  controlled  liy  a  charcoal  manufact- 
urer, a  drunken,  profane  fellow,  who  had  a 
similar  following.  "When  we  entered  the 
house,  we  found  it  well  filled  and  lighted,  with 
a  candle  on  the  desk,  and  several  candles  and 
oil  lamps  on  the  box  stove  in  the  centre.  The 
audience  appeared  respectable;  but  from  with- 
out smutty  faces  looked  in  through  the  open 
windows,  and  ominous  mutterings  were  heard. 
Directly  there  strode  in  a  burly,  led-faced 
fellow,  with  glaring  eyes,  who  brandished  a 
huge  club,  shouting  with  an  oath,  'Where's 
the  nigger  wench?'  A  shudder  ran  through 
me.  A  feeble,  trembling  voice  in  a  far  corner 
of  the  room  replied,  'Perhaps  she  has  not 
come.'  Down  fell  his  club,  right  and  left,  jKit- 
ting  out  and  smashing  lamps  and  candles. 
That  on  the  desk  followed  in  an  instant,  while 
I  was  seized  by  my  friends,  and  in  the  dark- 
ness was  hurried  to  the  door,  amid  the  sounds 
of  the  falling  club,  the  screams  of  the  wounded, 
and  the  horrible  oaths  of  the  drunken  wretch." 
Another  attempt  to  hold  a  meeting  was  foiled 
by  the  appearance  of  this  man  with  a  loaded 
gun. 

If  anything  more  than  the  terrible  campaign 
in  Connecticut  were  needed  to  convince  Miss 
Kelley  that  she  had  a  divine  call  for  public 
speaking,  it  was  found  in  the  effect  produced 
by  the  short  but  eloquent  appeal  which  she 
made  in  Pennsylvania  Hall,  Philadelphia,  on 
the  memorable  evening  of  its  destruction  at 
the  hands  of  a  pro-slavery  mob,  May  IG,  1838. 
At  the  close  of  that  meeting,  her  friend,  Theo- 
dore D.  Weld,  strongly  urged  her  to  join  the 
lecture  corps,  adding,  "Abby,  if  you  don't, 
God  will  smite  you."  But,  before  a  woman 
could  go  forth  as  the  accredited  agent  of  the 
Anti-slavery  Society,  a  battle  had  to  be  fought 
within  its  own  ranks.  Witness  a  letter  dic- 
tated by  Mrs.  Foster  two  or  three  years  licfore 
her  death: — 

"  Long  before  there  was  any  organized  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  equal  rights  of  women, 
the  battle  for  the  recognition  of  their  equality 
was  fought  and   won,   as  an   incidental   issue, 


on  the  anti-slavery  platform.  In  1837  Sarah 
and  Angelina  (irimke,  of  South  Carolina,  were 
invited  to  New  England  to  lecture  to  women 
on  slavery.  Meetings  were  appointed  for  them 
in  Boston,  at  which  a  few  men  looked  in  from 
the  vestibule,  and  finally  entered  ami  took 
seats.  No  objections  being  made  to  this  in- 
vasion, their  sub.seciuent  meetings  were,  largely 
attended  by  men  as  well  as  women.  Meetings 
were  held  in  many  towns  in  New  England,  fre- 
quently in  influential  churches,  the  pastors 
opening  with  prayer  and  otherwise  giving  coun- 
tenance to  the  movement.  Among  the  most 
important  hearings  given  the  Grimkes  were 
those  before  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
on  petitions.  They  created  an  interest  that 
had  never  been  felt  before,  as  witness  the 
action  of  the  Congregational  A.'jsociation,  which 
in  1838,  by  a  pastoral  letter,  written  by  a  com- 
mittee of  which  the  Rev.  Nehemiah  Adams 
was  chairman,  warned  its  various  churches 
against  giving  countenance  to  women's  speak- 
ing in  public  assemblies,  a  movement  which 
was  anti-scriptural,  umiatural,  indecent,  and 
ruinous  to  the  best  interests  of  the  comnuuiity. 

"These  lectures  and  the  action  of  the  Con- 
gregational Association  resulted  in  a  great  agi- 
tation, extending  throughout  New  England, 
especially  in  the  anti-slavery  ranks.  No 
woman  hail  hitherto  taken  part  in  a  mixed 
convention  of  any  of  the  anti-slavery  societies 
by  speaking  or  serving  on  committees;  but  in 
May,  1838,  at  the  New  England  Convention, 
Abby  Kelley  said  a  few  words  from  her  seat 
in  the  hall,  and  was  afterward  nominated  and 
elected  a  member  of  a  conmiittee  to  memorial- 
ize the  religious  associations  of  Massachusetts 
in  regard  to  slavery. 

"This  action,  hastily  taken  in  the  closing 
moments  of  the  first  .evening,  was  next  day 
violently  opposed  by  ministers  ami  others, 
among  them  several  who  had  been  prominent 
in  aiding  the  Grinike  sisters  in  their  mixed 
meetings,  but  who  now,  under  the  influence 
of  the  i)astoral  letter  and  hostile  jiublic  .senti- 
ment, had  joined  the  opposition.  These  mem- 
bers, having  in  vain  requested  Miss  Kelley 
to  withdraw  from  the  connnittee,  introduced 
a  resolution  excusing  her  from  serving.  An 
intensely    exciting    discussion    followed.     The 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF    NEW   ENGLAND 


27 


resolution  was  defeated,  a  large  majority  taking 
tlic  ground  that  women,  being  members  of  the 
society,  were  entitled  to  all  the  rights,  privi- 
leges, and  duties  pertaining  to  membership.  In 
May,  1839,  the  question  again  came  up,  this 
time  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American 
Anti-slavery  Society,  in  New  York.  An  excit- 
ing discussion  followeil  the  appointment  of 
Miss  Kelley  to  a  committee,  the  fiuestion  being 
decided  as  before.  The  next  year  it  was  set- 
tled, once  for  all,  that  in  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  and  its  auxiliaries  throughout 
the  country  the  women  should  take  part  as 
freely  as  the  men  in  all  the  work  of  the  public 
meetings,  even  to  the  point  of  presiding  on 
important  occasions." 

It  was  in  1839  that  Miss  Kelley's  recognized 
career  as  a  lecturer  began.  She  had  alreatiy 
been  baptized  with  the  terrible  flame  of  per- 
secution in  the  solitary  Connecticut  campaign, 
and  whatever  of  abuse  and  vilification  now 
assailed  her  she  could  bear  with  comparative 
equanimity,  supported  by  the  strong  band  of 
brave  and  loyal  souls  who  had  pledged  to  the 
cause  of  the  slave  their  lives,  their  fortunes, 
and  their  sacred  honor.  From  this  time  till 
her  marriage,  in  1845,  Miss  Kelley  devoted 
herself  untiringly  to  anti-slavery  work.  She 
spoke  in  conventions  not  only,  but  nuide  long 
trips  through  remote  country  districts,  speak- 
ing in  churches,  whenever  they  could  be  ob- 
tained; when  not,  in  school-hou.ses.  Some- 
times arrangements  were  made  by  the  society's 
agent;  but  she  often  had  to  be  her  own  agent, 
learning  from  her  last  host  who  in  the  surround- 
ing towns  would  help  her  to  get  up  meetings, 
and  who  would  receive  her  at  their  houses,  for 
she  had  no  money  to  pay  hotel  bills.  For 
many  years  she  received  no  salary,  her  trav- 
elling expenses  only  being  paid  by  the  society, 
and  her  most  pressing  needs  for  clothing  being 
supplied  by  her  friends.  Many  annising  anec- 
dotes might  be  related  of  these  lecture  tours. 
She,  like  Dickens,  was  given  her  choice  of 
"corn  bread  and  common  doin's"  or  "white 
bread  and  chicken  fixin's."  In  the  new  settle- 
ments of  the  West,  where  the  kitchen  sink  or 
the  well  was  the  common  bath-room  for  the 
family,  and  a  single  dish  (sometimes  the  iron 
skillet)  served  each  in  turn  as  a  wash-basin, 


her  hostesses  discovered  that  an  occult  con- 
nection existed  between  a  woman  lecturer 
and  a  pan  of  water — a  luxury  which  Miss  Kelley 
always  insisted  upon  having  in  her  room.  In 
those  days  of  pork  and  bacon  it  was  extremely 
difficult  to  get  suitable  food,  but  eggs  and 
potatoes  could  usually  be  obtained.  Travelling 
was  a  terrible  undertaking.  At  first  no  rail- 
roatls,  then  only  a  few  between  the  larger  cities, 
stage-coaches  or  wagons,  and  roails  of  every 
degree  of  muddiness  or  roughness,  with  the 
corduroy  road  of  logs  as  the  extreme  of  torture — 
these  were  the  only  means  of  conveyance  for 
the  pioneers  of  the  anti-slavery  cause. 

About  the  time  that  Abby  Kelley  became 
known  to  the  public,  another  lecturer  appeared 
on  the  anti-slavery  platform,  one  who  exciteil 
more  animosity,  if  less  ridicule,  than  she.  This 
was  Stephen  S.  Foster,  who  out-Garrisoned 
even  the  famous  leader.  In  his  ability  to  por- 
tray in  vivid  anil  terrible  language  the  sin  of 
the  sla\T-holder  and  the  wickedness  of  the 
church  and  clergy  in  lending  countenance 
to  the  system,  he  was  without  a  rival.  No 
meeting  was  dull  where  he  spoke.  Indeed,  a 
mob  was  the  not  imjirobable  outcome,  before 
which  Mr.  Foster  never  quailed.  A  non- 
resistant,  he  carried  always  with  him  two 
invaluable  weapons — a  piercing  eye,  with  which 
he  transfixetl  liis  assailants,  and  a  wonderful 
magnetic  power,  which  enabled  him  to  hokl  an 
audience,  though  they  writhed  under  his  ter- 
rible denunciations.  But  he  was  sometimes 
roughly  handled,  and  several  times  received 
serious    injuries. 

This  brave  martyr  spirit  was  the  mate  for 
whom  destiny  had  preserved  Abby  Kelley 
from  her  many  youthful  adn\irers.  Marriage 
had  never  attracted  her;  for  marriage,  at  that 
time,  meant  the  absolute  submission  of  the 
wife,  her  entire  loss  of  identity.  To  such  a 
union  such  a  woman  could  never  consent.  But 
when  this  wooer  came  there  was  a  difference. 
The  great  principle  of  human  freedom  which 
he  applied  to  the  black  slave  he  applied  also 
to  the  white  woman,  who  was  a  subject,  if  not 
a  chattel.  He  had  the  same  great  cause  at  heart 
as  Miss  Kelley.  Like  her,  he  had  labored  with- 
out money  and  without  price,  had  given  up 
his  profession  ami  his  creed  for  the  slave.     Mar- 


28 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


riage  to  such  a  man  seoined  to  her  the  realiza- 
zation  of  an  ideal,  and  so  it  proved.  But 
there  was  one  condition:  three  entire  years 
must  be  devoted  to  the  sacred  cause.  So  the 
travellinj;;  and  lecturing  went  on.  T^p  and 
down,  from  Maine  to  Ohio,  always  with  some 
woman  for  a  travelling  companion.  Miss  Kelloy 
toiled  almost  without  rest.  One  sununer  she 
spoke  every  day  for  six  weeks  and  sometimes 
twice  a  day.  The  meetings  (some  of  them 
large  conventions)  were  often  held  in  groves, 
and  it  was  this  severe  strain  which  broke  the 
voice,  before  so  strong  and  clear. 

In  December,  1845,  Abby  Kelley  and  Stephen 
S.  Foster  were  married.  For  a  year  or  two 
previously  they  had  consented  to  receive  the 
small  salary  then  usually  paid  to  lecturei's. 
They  felt  that  they  owed  something  to  the 
new  relation  and  duties  they  were  soon  to 
assume.  Mr.  P''oster  had  also  realized  some- 
thing from  an  anti-slavery  work  which  he  wrote 
about  that  time.  With  this  small  sum  the 
husband  and  wife  purchased  a  farm  in  the 
suburbs  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  which  continued 
to  be  their  home  till  Mr.  Foster's  death  in  1881. 
But  their  public  work  was  not  given  up.  Mr. 
Foster  was  usually  absent  during  the  winter 
on  lecturing  tours,  while  Mrs.  Foster  made 
several  long  campaigns  in  the  West,  besides 
often  attending  conventions  or  giving  lectures 
nearer  home.  When  asked  how  she  could 
bear  to  leave  her  little  daughter,  she  would 
reply,  "  I  leave  my  child  in  wise  and  loving 
hands  and  but  for  a  little,  while  the  slave 
mothers  daily  have  their  daughters  torn  from 
their  arms  and  sold  into  torture  and  infamy." 

Never  was  mother  more  devoted,  more  self- 
sacrificing  than  she.  Had  she  been  less  noble, 
less  brave,  less  tender  of  her  child,  she  would 
have  remained  at  home  to  enjoy  her  mother- 
hood at  the  expense  of  other  mothers.  She 
once  exclaimed,  "The  most  precious  legacy 
I  can  leave  my  child  is  a  free  country!" 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  woman's 
rights  cause  came  up  as  an  independent  reform. 
Mrs.  Foster  had  fought  the  battle  for  the  right 
of  women  to  speak  in  public,  and  had  gained 
it  for  herself  and  for  all  women.  Now  came 
the  broader  cpiestion  of  the  right  to  vote, 
which  involves  all  other  rights.     She  was  ear- 


nest in  its  advocacy,  and  came  to  see  th;it  it 
was  a  much  more  comprehensive  reform  than 
even  the  anti-slavery  movement.  But  she 
felt  that  her  life  was  consecrated  to  the  slave, 
and  that  her  failing  voice  and  broken  health 
nuist  be  husbanded  for  that  service.  Yet  she 
was  thoroughly  identified  with  the  suffrage 
movement,  and  was  recognized,  with  the 
Grimkes,  as  the  pioneer  who,  with  bleeding 
feet,  smoothed  the  path  through  which  the 
women  of  the  suffrage  movement  might  lead 
their  sex  to  the  light. 

Mrs.  Foster's  last  jniblic  work  was  devoted 
to  raising  money  for  rousing  public  sentiment 
to  the  necessity  of  carrying  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment.  With  the  other  loyal  friends  of 
the  freedmen,  she  felt  that  freedom  without  the 
ballot  was  an  empty  name.  She  could  no 
longer  speak  from  the  platform,  but  her  earnest 
pleading  in  private  rarely  failed  to  convince 
her  listener  that  justice  was  the  only  safe 
course  for  the  nation  to  pursue.  Hundreds, 
perhaps  thousands,  of  dollars  were  contributed 
through  her  to  be  spent  in  holding  meetings 
throughout  the  North  and  in  publishing  and 
distributing  documents  for  the  enlightenment 
of  the  public.  This  amendment  at  last  carried, 
she  felt  that  she  had  at  last  earned  a  discharge 
from  the  army  of  workers. 

Those  who  listened  to  Abby  Kelley  in  the 
days  of  her  young  womanhood  have  told  me  of 
her  wonderful  power.  This  consisted,  I  imag- 
ine, in  her  intense  earnestness,  in  her  utter 
self-forgetfulness  and  consecration.  Her  lan- 
guage was  of  Quaker  simplicity,  unadorned 
with  figures  or  imagery.  She  never  wrote 
her  speeches,  and  rarely  spent  any  time  in  their 
l)reparation ;  but  the  eloquence  of  a  heart  on 
fire,  words  lighted  at  the  altar  of  Cod's  truth, 
were  hers.  Her  audience  felt  that  she  "  re- 
membered those  in  bonds  as  bountl  with  them." 
Such  a  passion  for  freedom,  such  unselfish 
devotion,  could  not  fail  to  inspire  admiration 
and  win  converts. 

Though  Miss  Kelley's  featiires  were  not  beau- 
tiful, she  had  an  attractive  personality.  Her 
lithe,  graceful  figure  was  crowned  with  a  head 
of  fine  outlines,  well  poised  on  a  beautiful  neck, 
and  covered  with  abundant  dark  brown  hair, 
hardly  gray,  even  at  her  death.     The  Quaker 


LURA   C.  PARTINGTON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENOl.AND 


29 


kerchief,  laid  in  folds  around  her  neck,  was  tlie 
one  article  of  personal  adornment  to  which  she 
clung.  Its  simplicity  was  perhaps  its  special 
charm,  so  completely  did  it  harmonize  with 
the  purity  and  sincerity  of  the  wearer. 

Mrs.  Foster  was  noted  far  and  near  for  her 
good  housekeeping.  She  had  had  almost,  no 
experience  in  this  department  before  her  lijar- 
riage,  but  (as  she  confided  to  me  a  short  time 
before  her  death)  she  was  tletermined  to  dis- 
prove the  assertion  that-  a  "strong-minded 
woman"  would,  of  course,  neglect  her  house 
and  family.  As  a  poor  farmer's  wife. sfee  had 
a  hard  task,  but  she  accomplished  it-  success- 
fully, though  her  health  was  often  far  from 
robust.  From  kitchen  to  jjlatform  was  per- 
haps not  an  easy  transition,  yet  it  was  one 
which  she  often  ma<le  with  little  apparent  _diffi- 
cuity.  ..  ■     . 

The  five  years  of  Mrs.  Foster's  life  from  1876 
to  1881  were  saddened  by  the  illness,  of  her 
husband,  which  was  attended  with  intense 
suffering  and  which  terminated  fatally.  But 
throughout  this  time  of  trial  and  for  the  suc- 
ceetling  five  years  preceding  her  own  death, 
January  14,  1887,  her  brave  and  cheerful  spirit 
triumphed  over  her  frail  body,  and  she  lived 
on  the  serene  heights,  happy  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  a  life  well  spent  and  ready  for  that  im- 
mortal existence  which  she  was  convinced 
would  bring  her  renewed  strength  and  further 
opportunity  to  work  toward  the  ultimate  good 
which  to  her  meant  God. 

A  sketch  of  Mrs.  Foster  would  be  incomplete 
without  a  word  upon  the  character  of  her  hus- 
band, which  cannot  be  better  said  than  by  his 
lifelong  friend,  Parker  Pillsbury,  in  his  "Acts 
of  the  Anti-.slavery  Apostles  ":-7- 

"  Distinguished  abolitionists  were  often  called 
men  with  one  idea.  Anti-slavery,  in  its  im- 
measurable importance  to  all  the  interests  of  the 
country,  material,  mental,  moral,  and  social, 
as  well  as  religious  and  political,  was  one  idea 
far  too  great  for  ordinary  minds,  even  without 
any  other.  But  the  sturdy  synnnetry  and  con- 
sistency of  Mr.  Foster's  character  were  as  won- 
ilerful  as  were  his  vigor  and  power  in  any  one 
direction.  Earliest  and  bravest  among  the 
temperance  reformers,  when  even  that  cause 
was  almost  as  odious  as  anti-slavery  became 


afterward;  a  radical  advocate  of  peace  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
'Resist  not  evil,'  seconded  by  the  apostolic 
injunction,  'Avenge  not  yourselves';  a  cham- 
pion in  the  woman  suffrage  enterprise  from 
its  inception;  an  intelligent,  earnest  advocate 
of  the  rights  of  labor  and  deeply  interested  in 
•all  the  moral,  social,  and  philanthropic  associ- 
ations of  the  city  and  neighl)orhood  where  he 
lived — he  left  behind  hini  a  record  ami  a  mem- 
ory to  grow  brighter  as  the  years  sweep  on.  .  .  . 
The  beauty  and  harmony  of  his  home  were- 
unsurpassed.  It  was  sacred  to  peace  and  love. 
Its  unostentatious  Ixut  elegant  antl  generous 
hospitality  was  the  admiration  of  all  who  ever 
enjoyed  it." 

James  Russell  Low.ell,  in  a  rh}-nied  letter 
descriptive  of  the  principal  figures  in  the  anti- 
slavery^  bazaar  hehl.  in;  Boston  in  1840,  pays 
a  charming  tribute  to  Mrs.  Foster; — 

"  A  Judith  there,  tinned  Quakeie.ss, 
Sits  Abby  in  her  modest  dress, 
Serving  a  table  quietl}', 
As  if  tliat  mild  and  downcast  eye 
Flashed  never  with  its  scorn  intense, 
•More  than  Medea's  eloquence. 

No  nobler  gift  than  heart  or  brain. 
No.  life  more  white  from  spot  or  stain, 
Was  e'er  on  Freedom's  altar  laid 
Than  hers  —  the  simple  Quaker  maid." 

Alla  Wright  Foster. 


LURA  CHASE  PARTINGTON,  the  first 
woman  to  hold  the  office  of  Grand 
_J  Worthy  Patriarch  of  the  Grand  Divi- 
sion of  Maine,  Sons  of  Temperance, 
is  a  native  of  the  State  of  Maine.  She  was 
born  in  Cornville,  Somerset  County,  August  11, 
1831,  daughter  of  Reuben  Moore  and  Lydia 
Hewitt  (Woodcock)  Smiley. 

Her  father  was  born  in  Sidney,  Me.,  De- 
cember 10,  1803.  He  died  in  Gardiner,  Me., 
September  7,  1882.  Seven  of  his  ancestral 
kin  were  niin\ite-men  of  the  Re^olution.  His 
father,  William  Smiley,  born  in  Sidney,  No- 
vember 30,  1757,  was  the  son  of  Hugh  and 
Marcy  (Park)  Smylie,  who  were  married  Octo- 
ber   23,    1745.     Marcy    was    the    daughter    of 


30 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Alexander  Park,  ulio  died  January  26,  1760, 
and  "Margrat"  Park,  who  died  May  11,  1752. 
William  Smiley  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety- 
seven  years,  his  death  being  caused  by  an  acci- 
dent. He  had  a  sister  who  reached  the  age  of 
one  hundred  and  two,  well  known  as  "Aunt 
Sally  Webber."  Sarah  Moore  Smiley,  the 
wife  of  William,  died  several  years  before  her 
husband;  and  her  funeral  was  attended  by 
their  fourteen  children.  Seven  of  these  chil- 
dren lived  to  be  nearly  eighty  years  old,  and 
one,  a  daughter,  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-six. 

The  Smiley  armorial  ensign  was  conferred 
upon  the  ancestors  of  one  John  Smylie,  barris- 
ter, resident  of  Dulilin.  Ireland,  probalily  in 
the  seventeenth  century. 

Description:  "Azure  a  chevron,  ermine,  be- 
tween three  pheons,  argent;  for  crest,  on  a 
wreath  of  the  colors,  an  armed  arm  embowed 
proper,  the  hand  holding  a  pheon  by  the  point 
thereof,  gules;  and  for  motto,  Virihuf<  virhtf;." 

Explanation:  The  chevron,  or  saddle  bow. 
denotes  military  valor.  The  crest,  aliove  the 
wreath,  is  a  mark  of  special  honor.  The  armed 
arm  signifies  courage  or  might,  and  was  prob- 
ably awarded  for  great  liravery.  The  wreath 
is  symbolic  of  a  victor.  The  pheons,  or  iron 
dart-heads,  indicate  royalty  or  defence  of 
crown  property.  Azure  (blue)  denotes  inno- 
cence; ermine  (argent  tufted  with  black),  dig- 
nity; argent  (white),  purity;  gules  (red),  cour- 
age. The  motto  means  \^alor  in  arms,  or  \'irtue 
with  power. 

Mrs.  Lydia  H.  Smiley,  Mrs.  Partington's 
mother,  was  the  daughter  of  Liberty  and  Su- 
sannah Woodcock.  Born  in  Winthrop,  Me., 
March  2,  1804,  she  died  March  25,  1865.  Mrs. 
Partington  says  of  her:  "She  was  a  perfect 
housekeeper  and  a  devoted  mother.  She  be- 
lieved that  children  should  obey  their  parents, 
and  not  parents  obey  their  children.  When 
I  was  three  years  old,  she  sent  me  to  the  infant 
Sabbath-school.  I  was  given  a  little  card  with 
one  verse  on  it  for  my  lesson.  Monday  morn- 
ing I  wanted  to  go  out  and  play  with  my  little 
playmates,  but  mother  said  I  nuist  get  one 
line  of  my  lesson  first.  I  began  to  think  tliat 
Sabbath-school  was  a  nuisance,  and  I  replied, 
'I'm  not  going  any  more.'  Mother  said,  'Yes, 
you  vill  go';  and  I  knew  that  I'd  have  to  go. 


She  taught  me  one  line  of  my  verse  every  day, 
and  then  had  me  repeat  the  whole  verse  till 
I  could  say  it  perfectly.  Of  my  mother's  an- 
cestry I  know  but  little.  They  were  of  Scotch 
descent,  and  many  of  them  in  the  Revolution- 
ary W'ar." 

While  living  in  Gardiner,  Me.,  Reuben  M. 
.Smiley  was  warden  of  the  Episcopal  church 
and  leader  of  the  choir.  He  was  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  Sons  of  Temperance  in  Maine. 
His  daughter  Lura  attended  the  Gardiner  pub- 
lic schools  until  she  was  twelve  years  old,  then 
was  sent  to  a  private  school  or  academy  in 
Gardiner  called  the  "Lyceum."  When  only 
six  years  old,  .she  signed  the  pledge  at  a  tem- 
perance meeting  in  the  Methodist  Kpiscopal 
church  in  Gardiner,  Me.,  and  two  years  later 
she  joined  the  "Cold  W'ater  Army,"  which  was 
then  popular  throughout  the  country.  In 
1846,  the  family  having  removed  that  year  to 
Lowell,  Mass.,  where  her  father  was  engaged 
in  putting  turbine  wheels  into  the  mills,  she 
there  joined  the  Daughters  of  Temperance,  and, 
although  so  very  young,  was  chosen  chaplain 
of  the  L'nion.  This  society  was  afterward 
merged  in  the  Sons  of  Temperance.  She  has 
held  an  unbroken  membership  for  fifty-six 
years,  and  is  now  (1903)  Grand  Worthy  Patri- 
arch of  the  Grand  Division  of  Maine. 

In  1849  she  joined  the  Baptist  church  in 
Lowell,  of  which  the  Rev.  Daniel  C.  Eddy  was 
pastor.  In  1851  her  parents  moved  to  Port- 
land, Me.  This  city  she  has  ever  since  called 
her*  home,  although  temporarily  residing  in 
New  York  and  other  cities. 

On  March  7,  1853,  she  married  Jo.«eph  Part- 
ington, a  native  of  Islington  Parish,  London. 
Born  August  9,  1831,  he  came  to  this  covmtry 
when  seven  years  old,  and  settled  in  New  York, 
but  moved  to  Portland  in  1851. 

Mr.  Partington  was  a  thorough  American, 
and  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  enlisted 
in  the  Twenty-fifth  Maine  Regiment,  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Francis  Fessenilen.  This 
regiment  having  completed  the  nine  months' 
service  for  which  it  enlisted,  Mr.  Partington 
again  joine'd  the  army,  this  time  with  a  three 
years'  regiment,  the  Thirtieth  Maine,  which 
was  commanded  by  the  same  colonel,  who 
afterward   became   a   prominent   general.     Mr. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


31 


Partington  saw  active  service  in  Louisiana  and 
Texas,  and  was  also  with  Sheridan's  anny  at 
Winchester.  He  reniained  with  the  Thirti- 
eth until  its  consolidation  with  other  regiments, 
when  he  was  honorably  discharged  and  re- 
turned home.  Owing  to  tiie  hardships  of  army 
life  Mr.  Partington's  health  failed,  and  he  died 
December  13,  1867.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Chestnut  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Portland.  Mrs.  Partington  also  joined  that 
church  after  their  marriage,  and  she  retains 
her  membership  therein. 

In  the  spring  of  1S61  Mrs.  Partington  united 
with  the  Intlependent  Order  of  Good  Templars, 
joining  Arcana  I>odge,  of  Portland,  the  first 
lodge  organized  in  the  vState.  She  has  retained 
her  membership  and  interest  for  more  than 
forty  years.  Elected  Grand  Worthy  Vice- 
Templar  of  the  State  in  the  early  days  of  the 
order,  she  organized  lodges  and  conducted 
effective  missionary  work.  In  1871  she  was 
engaged  in  gospel  temperance  work  in  Eng- 
land, giving  many  lectures.  Returning  home 
in  the  fall  of  1872,  she  was  chosen  State  dele- 
gate to  the  International  Supreme  Lodge,  In- 
dependent Onler  of  Good  Templars,  whicli  met 
in  London  early  in  1873.  At  the  close  of  its 
sessions  she  was  engaged  by  the  Hon.  Joseph 
Malins,  the  head  of  the  order,  as  Grand  Lodge 
lecturer  for  England.  For  more  than  two 
years  she  contiuned  her  work  in  England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales,  lecturing  to 
crowded  and  appreciative  audiences.  Among 
pleasant  incidents  she  related  the  following: — 

"While  travelling  through  Ireland,  I  stopped 
at  a  little  whitewashed  cottage,  and  asked  if 
the  woman  living  there  could  give  me  a  supper 
of  bread  and  milk.  The  woman  replied,  'Walk 
in  and  sit  down  in  j'our  own  place.'  As  I  en- 
tered, I  noticed  in  the  centre  of  the  room  a 
large  pine  table,  around  which  the  family  had 
gathered.  The  only  chairs  at  the  table  were 
the  ones  occupied  by  the  father  and  mother. 
The  three  elder  children  were  seated  upon 
stools,  while  the  two  younger  were  standing. 
Yet  at  the  table  was  an  empty  stool,  and  before 
it  a  plate  turned  down.  That  was  what  the. 
woman  had  calletl  my  'own  place.'  I  asked 
her  why  she  had  called  it  my  place.  She  re- 
plied, 'We  have  a  little  superstition   that,   if 


we  always  keep  the  stranger's  j)late  on  our 
table,  the  dear  Lord  will  always  sentl  enough 
to  fill  ours.  And  he  generally  does,'  she  added. 
It  was  a  beautiful  thought,  and  it  would  be 
well  if  we  followed  the  example  of  that  poor 
Irish  peasant  woman. 

"While  in  Scotland  I  was  invitetl  Ui  speak 
ill  Lord  Kinnard's  castle.  There  I  had  an 
audience  which  never  would  have  come  to  any 
public  hall.  They  all  seemed  interested  and 
well  pleased.  I  spent  five  weeks  on  the  Isle 
of  Jersey,  the  guest  of  Sir  Philip  de  Carteret, 
the  last  of  that  old  baronial  family." 

While  abroad,  she  was  the  recipient  of  many 
gifts,  among  them  elegant  regalia  from 
friends  in  Ireland.  On  her  first  trip  to  Edin- 
burgh she  lecturetl  seventy-four  consecutive 
nights,  and  conducted  services  four  times  on 
Sunday.  On  her  second  visit,  when  leaving 
the  city,  she  was  escorted  to  the  station  by  a 
band  of  music;  and,  as  the  train  rolled  away, 
sixty  members  of  the  band  united  in  singing 
"Will  ye  no'  come  back  again?"  A  local 
paper  thus  referred  to  her  meetings:  "Mrs. 
L.  C.  Partington,  of  Portland,  Me.,  one  of  the 
representatives  of  the  recent  Right  Worthy 
Grand  Lodge  session,  has  again  visited  Edin- 
burgh. Although  upon  this  occasion  an  in- 
valid, seeking  rest,  she  managed  during  her 
nine  days'  visit  to  address  with  great  accept- 
ance nineteen  meetings,  and  left  with  the  cry 
ringing  in  her  ears,  '  Will  3'e  no'  come  back 
again?'"  The  Dundee  Courier  reported  her 
lectures,  and  added:  "Dundee  is  enjoying  a 
rich  treat  in  listening  to  the  stirring  addresses 
of  Mrs.  Partington,  of  Portland,  United  States. 
The  enthusiasm  with  which  she  is  everywhere 
received  increa,ses  nightly.  .  .  .  Her  whole  heart 
is  in  the  work."  The  Londonderry  (Ireland) 
Neivs  and  the  Ballymena  (Ireland)  Advertiser 
referred  in  complimentary  terms  to  her  work, 
the  editor  of  the  latter  stating  that  he  had 
never  heard  "  better  argument  or  more  con- 
vincing and  eloquent  advocacy  of  any  cause." 

Upon  returning  again  to  America,  Mrs.  Part- 
ington travelled  in  twenty-two  States,  giving 
lectures  from  Maine  to  California.  The  Balti- 
more American  said  of  her:  "One  of  the  largest 
and  most  enthusiastic  temperance  meetings 
ever  held  in  this  city  was  conducted  by  Mrs. 


32 


REPRESENTATn  r:   W()MP:N   of   NP]W   ENGLAND 


Partington.  She  proved  herself  to  be  one  of 
the  best  speakers  in  the  cause  of  temperance 
that  have  ever  appeared  in  Baltimore,  and 
spoke  with  an  earnestness,  distinctness,  pathos, 
and  Inmior  that  held  the  close  attention  of  the 
assemljlage  to  the  last." 

In  her  own  State;  her  friends  are  legion;  and 
the  Portland  Transcript  voiced  the  sentiments 
of  all  when  it  declared  that  "among  the  many 
sjx'aker!^  none  made  a  deeper  impression  than 
Mrs.  Partington,  of  this  city." 

In  recent  years  Mrs.  Partington  has  devoted 
most  of  her  time  to  furthering  temperance  in- 
struction among  the  children.  She  is  District 
Su])erintendent  of  the  Juvenile  Templars  in 
Cumberland  County,  Maine.  On  her  seven- 
tieth birthday  she  was  given  a  public  recep- 
tion in  Portland,  which  v/as  largely  attended. 
Among  the  many  gifts  of  love  and  resi)ect 
which  the  occasion  called  forth  is  an  "Illus- 
trated Life  of  Queen  Victoria"  from  the  Juve- 
nile Templars. 

Since  the  first  organization  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  she  has  been  an 
active  member.  Her  name  is  on  the  roll  of 
the  Union  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  where  she  often 
makes  her  headquarters.  She  is  rei)resenta- 
tive  at  large  from  Kings  County  Union,  and 
has  held  other  positions  of  responsibility. 

P^or  several  years  Mrs.  Partington  has  been 
a  member  of  the  Woman's  Rcli(-f  Corps,  auxil- 
iary to  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  Pro- 
gressive and  patriotic,  she  is  a  firm  believer 
in  the  principles  of  eqviality  and  justice,  and 
takes  a  deep  interest  in  all  the  prominent  (jues- 
tions  of  the  day.  She  is  a  cheerful  coiupan- 
ion  and  a  loyal  friend.  When  she  was  four- 
teen years  old,  she  became  aceiuainted  with 
Lucy  Stone,  whose  influence,  she  says,  was 
an"  inspiration  which  has  helped  her  through 
life. 

Mrs.  Partington  has  one  son,  Frederick  Eugene, 
l)orn  May  18,  1S54.  Her  only  daughter,  Har- 
riet Davis,  born  Septendwr  28,  185S,  died  when 
three  years  and  six  months  old. 

Frederick  I^ugene  Partington,  after  several 
years  at  the  high  school  of  Portland,  went 
abroad  with  his  mother,  and  travelled  two 
years,  spending  the  winters  in  Brussels.  He  at- 
tended .school  and  studied  (he  French  language 


in  Paris.  After  his  return  he  became  a  teacher 
in  Pike  Seminary,  New  York,  and  later  he 
taught  in  Goshen,  N.Y.  Entering  Brown 
University,  Providence,  R.I.,  in  1875,  he  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1879,  of  which  he  Wiis 
chosen  class  historian.  He  then  went  to  Ger- 
many, where  he  studied  for  a  year  and  a  half. 

In  1881  he  accepte<l  a  position  as  principal 
of  New  Paltz  Academy,  New  York.  After 
the  building  was  burned,  in  1884,  he  was 
chosen  i)rincii)al  of  Staten  Island  Academy, 
now  one  of  the  most  popular  educational  in- 
stitutions in  New  York.  Through  the  efforts 
of  Mr.  Partington  a  new  building  has  been 
erected,  valued  at  seventj'-five  thousand  dollars. 

Mr.  Partington  is  a  writer  and  lecturer  upon 
educational  topics.  He  has  crossed  the  ocean 
many  times,  visiting  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  and 
other  foreign  countries;  and  his  lectures  upon 
his  travels  are  very  popular,  especially  the  one 
on  "The  Land  of  the  Midnight  Sun." 

On  June  12,  1890,  he  married  Miss  Elizabeth 
Hamilton  Baten\an,  of  Portland,  who  was  edu- 
cated at  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary. 


EVELYN  GREENLEAF  SUTHER- 
IjAND,  writer,  playwright,  and  critic, 
the  only  daughter  of  James  Baker,  for- 
merly a  prominent  wholesale  merchant 
of  Boston,  and  his  wife,  Rachel  Arnold  Green- 
leaf,  was  born  and  breil  in  Boston,  as  were  her 
paternal  ancestors  for  three  or  four  generations. 
Her  mother,  who  died  in  1896,  was  a  daughter 
of  Spencer  and  Pamela  (Adams)  Greenleaf,  of 
AViscasset,  Me. 

Mrs.  Sutherland  is  descended  on  both  sides 
from  fighting  stock,  and  inherits  many  inter- 
esting traditions.  Her  mother's  paternal  ances- 
try she  traces  to  Captain  P^dniund  Greenleaf, 
who  came  from  England  and  settled  at  New- 
bury in  1635,  the  line  being;  Edmund,' 
Stephen,^  ^  *  Samuel,'^  Benjamin,"  Spencer.' 
Edmund  Greenleaf  marched  against  the  Ind- 
ians in  1637.  From  that  time  to  the  death  in 
1857  of  her  grandfather,  Spencer  Greenleaf 
who  served  in  the  War  of  1812,  there  was  but 
one  break  in  the  military  service  of  the  family. 
Captain  Stephen^  Greenleaf,  son  of  Captain 
Edmund,'  was  one  of  the  purchasers  of  Naii- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


33 


tucket  island  in  1659.  He  niairied  in  1651 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Tristram  ("ofhn,  tlieii 
of  Newbury,  Mass.,  afterward  the  chief  magis- 
trate, also  one  of  the  owners  of  Nantucket. 
Ste})hen-  Greenleaf  was  drowned  while  engaged 
in  the  honorable  discharge  of  liis  military  iluty 
in  the  expedition  against  Port  Royal  in  Decem- 
ber, 1690.  His  son,  Stephen,^  known  as  the 
"great  Indian  fighter,"  was  engaged  in  King 
Philip's  War,  and  in  the  contest  with  the  French 
anil  Indians  in  1090  he  commanded  a  companj' 
at  Wells,  Me.  Mrs.  Sutherland's  great-grand- 
fathei',  Benjamin"  Greenleaf,  was  a  soldier  in 
the  Revolution. 

Several  of  these  progenitors  were  seafarers, 
and  were  well  known  in  New  England  as  mas- 
ter ship-builders.  It  is  recordetl  that  the  origi- 
nal Greenleafs  in  England,  ancestors  of  Edmund, 
were  Huguenots  (name  in  French  Feuillevert), 
who  had  fled  from  France  to  escape  religious 
persecution. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  one  of  the  family, 
many  generations  back,  while  in  France,  mar- 
ried a  Spanish  Romany  girl,  or  Gitana,  and 
that  the  Gipsy  blood  now  and  then  appears  in 
her  descendants.  To  this  inheritance  Mrs. 
Sutherland  whimsically  attributes  her  love  of 
Bohemia  and  the  freedom  of  outdoor  life. 

Noteworthy  also  is  the  part  which  the 
colonial  Bakers  took  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 
Captain  Joseph  Baker,  a  surveyor,  shared  in 
the  famous  Lovewell  hght  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. His  wife  Hannah  was  the  only  daugh- 
ter of  the  noted  Captain  John  Lovewell,  who 
was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Pigwacket,  May  8, 
1725.  Mrs.  Baker  received  a  share  in  the 
lands  awardetl  to  the  survivors  and  heirs  of 
those  engaged  in  the  fight,  and  .settled  with 
her  husband  on  this  land,  where  the  Baker 
homestead  now  stands,  in  the  town  of  Pem- 
broke, N.H.  Their  son,  Jose]jh  Baker,  Jr., 
was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolution,  and  was 
on  the  Conunittee  of  Safety  for  the  town  of 
Bow,  N.H. 

As  shown  by  family  records  and  remem- 
brances, supplementing  the  genealogy  in  the 
i?.s.sex  Antiquarian,  vol.  ii.,  Mrs.  Sutherland's 
maternal  grandmother,  Pamela  Adams  Green- 
leaf, was  a  daughter  of  Nathan  Adams  and  his 
wife,  Johanna  Batchelder,  and  a  descendant  in 


the  sixth  generation  of  Robert  Adams  and  his 
wife  Eleanor,  early  .settlers  of  Newbury,  Mass. 
From  Robert'  the  line  continued  through  his 
son  Abraham,-'  who  married  Mary  Pettingell; 
Abraham,'  and  his  wife  Anne,  daughter  of 
William  and  Anne  (Sewall)  Longfellow  and 
niece  of  Judge  Sewall;  and  Henry^  and  his  first 
wife,  Sarah  Emery,  who  were  the  parents  of 
Nathan^  Adams,  of  Newbury,  Mass.,  and  Wis- 
casset,  Me. 

James  Baker,  of  Boston,  was  a  devoted  anti- 
slavery  worker  and  a  warm  personal  friend  of 
Theodore  Parker.  He  died  when  his  daughter 
I'^velyn  was  only  three  years  of  age.  Her  edu- 
cation was  carefully  looked  after  by  her  mother, 
her  earliest  training  being  received  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  She  was  later  placed  in  the  quaint 
little  "dame"  school  of  Miss  Rebecca  Lincohi 
on  Pinckney  Street,  where  the  old  house  is  still 
standing.  She  next  attended  Miss  Caroline 
Johnson's  celebrated  school  on  Ashburton 
Place,  completing  her  education  by  two  years' 
study  in  Geneva,  Switzerland.  She  showed 
literary  tastes  when  but  a  child,  by  writing 
little  rhymes  and  tales;  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
she  was  awarded  a  prize  for  an  essay  on  "What 
is  a  Gentleman?"  by  Our  Young  Folka,  now 
known  as  Si.  Nicholas.  Since  then  her  writings, 
ver.se  or  pro.se,  have  been  much  before  the  pub- 
lic, appearing  in  Puck,  Life,  the  Cotiniopolitan, 
and  other  magazines.  In  1894,  under  the  name 
of  Dorothy  Lundt,  a  nam  de  plume  which  she 
used  for  twenty  years,  she  won  one  of  the 
prizes  offered  by  McClure'f^  Magazine  by  an 
army  tale,  "Diccon's  Dog."  Through  this 
little  product  of  her  pen  has  come  a  happy  ex- 
perience. A  noted  novelist,  at  a  reception 
shortly  after  the  publication  of  the  story, 
spoke  of  it  in  highest  praise,  not  knowing  that 
she  was  addressing  the  author  herself.  A  con- 
fession followed,  and  the  friendship  thus  begun 
between  the  two  women  has  been  lasting. 

For  many  years  Mrs.  Sutherland  was  a  writer 
on  the  staff  of  the  Boston  Transcript,  from 
the  autunm  of  1887  contributing  to  its  colunuis 
both  book  reviews  and  draniartic  criticisms. 
Her  success  in  the  latter  line  is  well  known. 
She  heartily  attributes  all  cretlit  for  what  she 
has  acconiplishetl  in  dramatic  criticism  to  her 
training   under   Mr.    Francis   Jenks,   for   many 


;j4 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


years  the  dramatic  editor  of  the  Transcript. 
In  her  first  assignment  under  Mr.  Jenks  he 
gave  her  a  lesson  which  served  as  a  basis  for 
all  her  future  work  in  that  line.  He  asked, 
"Do  you  know  what  the  word  critic  means?" 
Somewhat  confused,  she  answered,  "Perhaps 
not  in  the  sense  you  mean."  "Go  to  the  dic- 
tionary and  find  out,"  he  said.  She  found  the 
original  Greek  word  meant  one  who  discerns. 
Mr.  Jenks  said,  tersely,  "Always  bear  that  in 
mind,  and  don't  confuse  the  discerner  with 
the  fault-finder."  Under  his  teaching  her  abili- 
ties developetl,  and  in  1889  and  1890,  while 
Mr.  William  Apthorp  was  in  Europe,  she  wrote 
most  of  the  first-night  criticisms  for  the  Tran- 
script. During  her  connection  with  the  Tran- 
script she  conducted  a  very  interesting  column 
called  "Library  and  Foyer,"  signed  "Dorothy 
Lundt."  It  was  original  and  cle.ver,  and  was 
much  appreciated  by  Transcript  readers.  Her 
work  on  this  paper  continued  uninterruptedly 
for  seven  years,  when,  in  1894,  she  suffered 
from  acute  nervous  prostration,  and  for  eleven 
months  lived  out  of  the  city  and  retired  from 
active  life.  Upon  her  return  she  was  greatly 
shocked  to  learn  of  the  recent  sudden  death 
of  her  beloved  "Father  in  Journalism,"  Mr. 
Jenks. 

For  a  number  of  years  Mrs.  Sutherland  was 
dramatic  editor  of  the  Boston  Conuno)ncealth, 
and  since  her  return  to  active  work,  in  1896, 
has  contributed  to  many  newspapers,  being 
dramatic  critic  of  the  Daily  Journal  for  several 
years.  Most  of  her  time,  however,  has  been 
occupied  with  another  line  of  work,  that  of 
short  story  and  play  writing.  One  of  her  first 
plays  presented  was  given  performance  at  the 
Hollis  Street  Theatre  in  October,  1895,  by 
Charles  Frohman's  Empire  Theatre  Company. 
It  was  a  one-act  Southern  play,  entitled  "Mars'r 
Van,"  and  was  written  in  collaboration  with 
Mrs.  Emma  Sheritlan  Fry.  It  afterward  ran 
for  four  weeks  at  the  Empire  Theatre,  New 
York,  and  was  also  successfully  given  through- 
out the  West.  "  Rohan  the  Silent"  was  written 
for  Alexander  Salvini,  and  was  accepted  by 
him,  to  be  used  in  connection  with  "The  Fool's 
Revenge,"  which  it  was  his  intention  to  in- 
clude in  his  repertoire  for  the  season  of  1896 
and  1897.     It  was  produced  by  him  at  a  trial 


performance  at  the  Tremont  Theatre,  Boston, 
May  28,  1896,  and  it  is  a  notable  fact  that 
Rohan  was  the  last  role  ever  created  by  this 
actor  of  great  promise.  "Fort  Frayne,"  her 
next  attempt,  an  emotional  drama  in  four  acts, 
was  written  in  collaboration  with  Mrs.  Fry 
and  General  Charles  King.  Its  possibilities  as 
a  novel  appealed  to  General  King,  and,  with 
Mrs.  Sutherland's  consent,  he  worked  the  plot 
into  one  of  his  fascinating  stories.  It  met 
with  a  large  sale,  reaching  its  fifth  edition. 
The  play  itself,  on  account  of  Mrs.  Sutherland's 
illness,  was  not  completed  until  1895,  and  soon 
afterward  was  produced  in  both  the  East  and 
the  West.  Its  first  presentation  was  in  the 
fall  of  1895  at  the  Schiller  Theatre,  Chicago, 
where  it  had  a  four  weeks'  run.  In  1897  and 
1898  six  one-act  dramas  bj'  Mrs.  Sutherland 
were  put  on  the  stage,  the  initial  performance 
of  each  being  in  Boston.  The  first  of  these, 
"  Po  White  Trash,"  was  produced  by  Henrj' 
Woodruff  (for  whom  the  role  of  Drent  Dury 
was  written)  at  a  special  matinee  at  the  Bijou 
Theatre,  Boston,  and  later  at  the  Lyceum 
Theatre,  New  York.  It  was  also  given  in  the 
season  of  1898  and  1899  by  the  Frawley  com- 
pany in  the  West.  The  other  dramas  are  "In 
Far  Bohemia,"  "A  Comedie  Royal,"  "A  Bit 
of  Instruction,"  and  "At  the  Barricade." 
These,  with  three  plays  which  have  not  been  pro- 
duced, were  published  in  book  form  in  1900. 
They  deal  with  varying  phases  of  life,  and  some 
have  won  marked  popularity  and  favor.  In 
1900,  collaborating  with  Mr.  Booth  Tarkington, 
she  helped  to  dramatize  the  latter's  novel, 
"Monsieur  Beaucaire,"  which  was  brought 
out  by  Richard  Mansfield  in  October,  1901, 
and  enjoyed  long  and  exceedingly  successful 
seasons  in  America  and  I']nglaiid. 

Many  of  Mrs.  Sutherland's  writings  have 
tlealt  with  army  life,  and  she  has  many  frieniis 
in  both  the  army  and  the  navy.  She  has  sjient 
nuich  time  "in  garrison."  At  one  time  when 
some  especially  dear  friends  were  stationed  at 
Fort  Warren,  she  had  a  den  fitted  up  for  her- 
self in  one  of  the  old  casemates  which  was  used 
as  a  prison  dming  the  Civil  War. 

In  s])ite  of  her  busy  life  she  has  found  time 
for  social  affiliations,  and  her  home  on  Com- 
monwealth Avenue   is  a   literary   and   artistic 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


35 


centre.  She  was  a  charter  member  of  the  New 
England's  Woman's  Press  Club,  anil  has  for  ten 
years  held  some  office  on  the  Executive  Board. 
She  also  belongs  to  the  Authors'  Club,  the 
Pentagon  Club,  and  the  Professional  Woman's 
League.  Her  pajier  on  "The  Making  of  a 
Critic,"  which  has  been  given  several  times  in 
Boston  before  prominent  clubs,  was  also  given 
at  the  Congress  of  Women's  Clubs  at  the  W^orld's 
Fair. 

In  1879  she  became  the  wife  of  Dr.  John  P. 
Sutherland,  her  friend  from  childhood,  the  mar- 
riage taking  place  immediately  after  his  gradu- 
ation from  the  Medical  School  of  Boston  Uni- 
versity. After  several  months'  travel  in  Eu- 
rope, Dr.  Sutherland  began  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  while  she  continued  her  literary 
work.  In  1888  her  husband  became  a  member 
of  the  faculty  of  the  Medical  School  of  Boston 
University,  and  since  then  he  has  been  actively 
connectecl  with  that  institution,  succeeding  Dr. 
I.  Tisdale  Talbot  as  Dean  of  the  Medical  School 
in  1899.  Dr.  Sutherland  is  one  of  the  leading 
physicians  of  Boston,  and  is  an  ex-president 
of  the  Massachusetts  Homoeopathic  Medical  So- 
ciety. For  fourteen  years  he  edited  the  Neir 
England  Medical  Gazette. 

By  birth  and  education,  ami  as  wife  of  the 
Dean  of  Boston  University  Medical  School, 
Mrs.  Sutherland  holds  a  distinct  and  individual 
position  in  Boston,  while  her  work  as  playwright 
and  critic  takes  her  often,  and  very  congenially, 
over  the  borders  of  Bohemia.  She  counts  some 
of  her  warmest  frientls  among  the  leaders  in  the 
dramatic  world.  A\'here  she  sees  talent,  she  is 
always  eager  to  recognize  and  foster  it. 

Her  Sunday  evenings  are  the  property  of 
her  "boys,"  not  only  of  Boston  University,  but 
of  Harvard  and  Tech  also.  At  her  home  they 
find  on  Sunday  nights  a  "picnic  supper,"  a 
warm  welcome,  and  an  "open  parliament," 
whose  leader  is  often  the  honoreil  anil  beloved 
Dean. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Sutherland  have  two  sunmier 
residences,  one  at  Nantucket,  home  of  Mrs. 
Sutherland's  kinsfolk  two  centuries  ago,  and 
one,  "Clanshome,"  at  Marlow,  N.H.,  between 
which  homes,  when  not  in  Dr.  Sutherland's  na- 
tive Scotland,  she  and  her  husband  ilivide  their 
summer  days. 


MARY  JOHNSON  BAILEY  LIN- 
COLN, widely  known  as  Mrs.  Mary 
J.  Lincoln,  writer  and  lecturer  on 
household  science,  was  born  in  South 
Attleboro,  Mass.,  July  8,  1844.  Her  father, 
the  Rev.  John  Burnham  Milton  Bailey,  pastor 
of  the  Congregational  church  in  that  place,  was 
the  son  of  William  and  Susannah  (Burnliam) 
Bailey.  His  mother,  who  ilied  in  1816,  was  a 
daughter  of  Deacon  Samuel  and  Mary  (Perkins) 
Burnham,  of  Dunbarton,  N.H.,  and  sister  to 
the  Rev.  Abraham  Burnham,  of  Pembroke. 
Deacon  Sanmel  Burnham  was  a  native  of  Essex, 
Mass.,  formerly  Chebacco  parish,  Ipswich,  and 
was  of  the  fifth  generation  (Samuel,*  John^^') 
of  that  branch  of  the  family  founded  by  John' 
Burnham,  who  came  from  England  with  hi.-? 
brothers  Robert  and  Thomas,  and  was  living  at 
Chebacco  as  early  as  1638. 

The  Rev.  John  B.  M.  Bailey  died  in  1851. 
His  wife,  Sarah  Morgan  Johnson  Bailey,  Mrs. 
Lhicoln's  mother,  born  in  1810,  died  June  7, 
1885.  She  was  the  second  daughter  of  Deacon 
Caleb  and  Hannah  (Butler)  Johnson,  of  Man- 
chester, N.H. 

Mrs.  Johnson,  Mrs.  Lincoln's  maternal  granil- 
mother,  was  tlie  fourth  tlaughter  of  Jacob''  and 
Sally  (Morgan)  Butler,  of  Pelham,  N.H.,  and 
a  descendant  of  James'  Butler,  of  Woburn, 
Ma.ss.,  the  line  continuing  from  James'  through 
his  son.  Deacon  Johm  (born  in  Woburn,  1677, 
died  in  Pelham,  1721);  Jacob'  (born  in  1718), 
who  married  Mary  ICames;  to  Jacob*  (Mrs. 
Lincoln's  great-grandfather),  born  in  1747,  who 
married  his  cousin,  Sally  Morgan,  daughter  of 
Jonathan  Morgan  and  his  wife,  Sarah'  Butler, 
sister  of  Jacob'  Butler,  Sr. 

Jaines'  Butler,  the  immigrant  progenitor  of 
the  family,  came  to  New  England  less  than  forty 
years  after  tiie  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  being 
at  Lancaster,  Mass.,  says  the  historian,  as 
early  as   1659  ami  at  Woburn  in  1676. 

"Jonathan  Morgan,  Sr.,"  above  named,  great- 
great-grandfather  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  "was  En- 
sign of  Captain  Dow's  company,  Colonel  Me- 
serve's  regiment,  which  was  sent  to  Crane's 
Point  in  1756.  He  was  killed  in  the  massacre 
attending  the  surrender  of  Fort  ^^'illiam  Henry, 
August  10,  1757." 

Jjike  Lucy  Larcom  and  many  other  daugh- 


;i6 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ters  of  New  England  in  that  early  time,  Mrs. 
Bailey,  before  her  marriage,  worked  in  the 
cotton-mills  of  Lowell  and  Manchester,  earning 
thereby  money  to  pay  for  a  year  of  study  at 
Derry  Academy,  as  a  finishing  tovich  to  the 
meagre  common-school  education  of  her  girl- 
hoocl. 

The  Rev.  John  B.  M.  Bailey  died  when  his 
daughter  Mary  was  seven  years  old,  but  the 
pictui'C  of  his  consistent  life  and  noble  character 
was  indelibly  stamped  on  her  memory.  She 
was  reared  by  her  brave  and  practical  mother, 
who  early  taught  her  three  chiltlren  to  be  use- 
ful and  economical.  At  the  age  of  four  Mary 
began  to  add  her  mite  to  the  meagre  income 
of  a  country  minister's  family  by  sewing  hooks 
and  eyes  on  cards  and  setting  stones  in  jewelry, 
work  which  was  given  out  from  the  factories 
near  by  and  paid  for  in  groceries  and  clothing. 
Throughout  her  girlhood  she  earned  many  new 
dresses  and  some  luxuries  by  picking  berries, 
making  hair  nets,  and  tending  the  neighbors' 
babies.  She  was  always  made  to  feel  that 
character  and  education  were  the  most  desira- 
ble garments  for  children.  The  self-sacrificing 
mother  contrived,  with  much  plain  living  anti 
clear  thinking,  to  educate  her  daughters  at 
Wheaton  Seminary,  from  which  Mary  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1S64. 

The  following  year  she  married  Mr.  David 
A.  Lincoln,  of  Norton,  soon  after  moving  to 
Boston  and  later  to  Wollaston,  where  for  sev- 
eral years  Mrs.  Lincoln  led  a  quiet  life,  devoted 
to  her  home  and  innneiliate  circle  of  friends. 
Her  only  outside  interests  were  her  church, 
with  its  Sunday-school,  and  a  literary  club, 
which  she  was  instrumental  in  organizing. 

I'usine.ss  reverses  came,  and  Mrs.  Lincoln, 
true  to  the  training  of  early  life,  put  her  hand 
to  the  wheel,  adding  considerably  to  the  in- 
come by  sewing  and  other  work  for  her  neigh- 
bors. The  following  year,  after  much  urging 
and  hesitation,  she  was  persuaded  to  accept 
the  position  of  first  principal  of  the  Boston 
Cooking  School.  By  her  com-teous  inamier, 
serene  patience,  executive  ability,  and  thor- 
ough mastery  of  her  work,  both  mechanical 
and  theoretical,  she  brought  the  school  at  once 
to  a  high  position,  the  success  which  attended 
it   from    the   beginning   being   due   in   a  great 


measure  to  her  systematic  and  practical  method 
of  teaching,  (^ne  of  the  first  managers  of  the 
school  said  recently,  "Mrs.  Lincoln  made  the 
Boston  Cooking  School."  She  is  often  intro- 
duced as  "not  only  the  first  jjrincipal,  but  the 
first  principle  of  the  school,"  and  "the  woman 
we  all  cook  by,"  and  so  forth.  After  six  years 
of  faithful  ami  arduous  service  she  resigned  her 
position,  on  account  of  the  sudden  death  of 
her  sister  and  the  serious  illness  of  her  mother, 
who  died  five  months  later. 

A  year  before  leaving  the  school  she  wrote 
the  "Boston  Cook-book,"  which  added  greatly 
to  her  reputation,  and  was  at  once  pronounced 
"  one  of  the  most  practical  and  reliable  cook- 
books ever  written."  It  has  had  a  large  cir- 
culation among  housekeepers,  and  is  used  as 
a  text-book  in  many  of  the  leading  schools, 
not  only  in  America,  but  in  l']ngland,  Constan- 
tinople, anil  among  the  missionaries  of  China. 

Since  leaving  the  confining  care  of  the  school, 
Mrs.  Lincoln  has  been  heard  as  a  lecturer  in 
more  than  two  hundred  different  towns  and 
cities,  from  Maine  to  California.  She  has  given 
over  seven  hundred  special  lectures  on  cookery 
and  domestic  science,  always  l)y  invitation,  in 
addition  to  teaching  the  first  class  in  the  B(js- 
ton  Normal  School  of  Cookery  and  teaching 
three  years  at  La.sell  Seminaiy.  She  has  also 
written  several  new  books  and  a  score  or  more 
of  pamphlet  recipe  books  for  food  manufacturers, 
besides  many  articles  for  magazines  and  house- 
hold papers,  always  by  special  request. 

Her  best  known  books  are  her  "  Boston 
Cook-book,"  "Carving  and  Serving,"  "The 
Peerless  Cook-book,"  and  the  "Boston  School 
Kitchen  Text-book."  The  latter  was  the  first 
complete  book  for  use  in  the  public  school 
cooking  classes.  From  the  second  month  of 
its  issue  Mrs.  Lincoln  has  been  culinar)'  editor 
and  one  of  the  owners  of  the  American  Kitchen 
Magazine.  Since  October,  ISflS,  she  has 
written  weekly  articles  for  a  syndicate,  which 
are  jiublished  in  daily  and  weekly  papers  all 
over  the  country. 

Over  one  hundred  thousand  copies  of  the 
"Boston  Cook-book"  have  been  sold,  and  it  is 
still  in  great  demand,  having  been  revised  in 
1900,  with  the  addition  of  about  three  hundred 
new    recipes.     Doubtless,    many    housekeepers 


EVELYN    G.  SUTHERLAND 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


37 


will  echo  the  sentiment  of  the  cook  who,  after 
repeated  failures  from  following  the  directions 
in  other  books,  exclaimed,  "  No,  Mrs.  T.,  the 
pudding  was  no  good.  I  tell  .you,  we  can't  do 
any  better  than  to  stick  to  old  Mary  Jane." 

Mrs.  Lincoln's  latest  printed  volume  is  "A 
Cook-book  for  a  Month  at  a  Time,"  and  her 
latest  business  venture  is  the  manufacture  of 
a  pure  cream  of  tartar  baking  jiowder,  bearing 
her  name,  which  is  meeting  with  a  ready  sale. 

The  following  is  quotecl  from  one  of  many 
press  notices  of  Mrs.  Lincoln:  "Her  personal 
magnetism,  her  naturalness,  her  enthusiasm 
and  enjoyment  in  her  work,  win  her  many 
friends  and  pupils  wherever  she  lectures.  While 
instructing,  in  language  as  clear  and  explicit 
as  if  her  audiences  were  children,  she  never 
forgets  that  her  hearers  are  ladies,  and  she  an- 
swers the  most  absurd  questions  with  unfailing 
patience  and  respect.  She  confines  her  talk 
to  the  subject  at  hand,  and  does  not  try  to  fill 
up  every  moment  of  the  time  l)y  talking  just 
for  effect  or  to  create  a  sensational  discussion."- 

Mrs.  Lincoln  is  the  only  living  rlescendant  of 
her  father's  branch  of  the  Burnham  family. 
She  has  no  children.  After  the  death  of  her 
husband,  in  1894,  she  established  herself  in 
Boston,  where  in  a  sunny  study,  surrounded 
by  her  books  and  an  interesting  collection  of 
pictures  and  souvenirs  of  a  recent  summer  in 
Europe,  she  sends  forth  her  weekly  words  of 
culinary  and  household  wisdom,  gathered  from 
a  varied  practical  experience,  to  help  her  sister 
housekeepers. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  says  that  she  "cannot  be  a 
business  woman  and  a  society  woman  at  the 
same  time."  She  prefers  an  active,  u.seful  life, 
and  believes  that  success  lies  in  tloing  one  thing 
well.  She  is  a  member  of  the  New  England 
Women's  Press  A.ssociation,  the  Wheaton  Semi- 
nary Club,  the  Charity  Club,  and  the  Cooking 
Teachers'  League.  Her  greatest  enjoyment  is 
with  her  chosen  circle  of  intimate  friends,  who 
often  share  the  rest  and  quiet  of  her  hospitable 
home. 

An  invitation  from  the  publishers  of  the 
Scientific  American,  New  York,  to  write  the 
signed  article  on  "Cookery"  for  their  new  En- 
cyclopedia Americana,  is  one  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's 
latest  honors. 


ARY     ANNE     GREENE,     LL.B., 
daughter  of  John  Waterman  Aborn 


_|_  Y  JL  and  Mary  Frances  (Low)  Greene 
was  born  in  Warwick,  R.I.,  June  14, 
1857.  She  was  grailuated  from  the  Law  School 
of  Boston  University  in  1888  with  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Laws,  magna  cum  laude,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston  the  same 
year.  She  was  the  third  woman  graduated 
from  the  school  and  the  second  to  be  admitted 
to  the  Massachusetts  bar.  After  practising 
two  years  in  Boston,  she  returned  to  Rhode 
Lslantl  in  1890,  and  has  resided  in  Providence 
ever  since.  She  has  an  office  practice,  giving 
her  attention  largely  to  conveyancing  and  the 
care  of  estates. 

Miss  Greene  is  of  the  ninth  generation  of  the 
Rhode  Island  family  founded  by  Dr.  John 
Greene,  son  of  Richard  Greene,  of  Bowridge 
Hill,  Gillingham,  Dorsetshire,  England.  John 
Greene  came  to  Salem  from  Salisbury,  Eng- 
land, 1635,  was  one  of  the  original  proprietors 
of  Providence,  1636,  and  one  of  the  original 
purchasers  and  founders  of  the  town  of  War- 
wick, 1642.  This  family  gave  to  the  colony 
and  State  a  number  of  public  officials,  among 
them  a  Deputy  Governor,  John  Greene,  Jr.;  a 
Chief  Justice,  who  sat  on  the  bench  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas  of  Kent  County  all  through 
the  Revolution;  Philip  Greene,  an  Associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode  Island; 
two  colonial  Governors,  William  and  William, 
Jr.;  and  two  Revolutionary  officers  of  distinc- 
tion, General  Nathanael  Greene  and  Colonel 
Christopher  Greene. 

Miss  Greene's  line  of  descent  is  as  follows: 
John'  Greene,  surgeon;  John^  Greene,  Jr.,  gen- 
eral recorder,  Attorney-General,  Major  for  the 
Main,  Deputy  Governor;  Job'  Greene,  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Deputies,  1727-28;  Philip' 
Greene,  a  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  of  Kent  County  twenty-five  years,  1759- 
84,  and  its  Chief  Justice  1776-84,  also  As- 
sociate Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  1768-69; 
Christopher^  Greene,  Colonel-Commandant  of 
the  Rhode  Island  Brigade,  Continental  Line, 
of  the  Revolution;  Colonel  Job"  Greene,  of  the 
State  Brigade  in  the  Revolution  and  an  origi- 
nal member  of  the  Rhode  Island  Society  of 
the  Cincinnati;  Simon  Henry'  Greene,  for  many 


38 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


years  Senator  from  Warwick  in  the  Rhode 
Island  General  Assembly;  Jolin  AVaternian 
Aborn'  Greene,  who  died  young,  but  had  al- 
ready held  many  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  town 
of  Warwick.  Miss  Greene  is  his  only  living 
child.  She  is  also  descended  from  Colonel 
Christopher  Greene  and  from  his  only  brother. 
Judge  William^  Greene,  through  her  mother, 
Mary  Frances  Low,  and  her  mother's  mother, 
Mary  Ann'  Greene  (Jeremiah,"  William,^  Philip," 
Job,'  John,^  John'),  who  was  born  in  the  an- 
cestral home,  "Occupasuatuxet,"  Warwick, 
R.L  This  Mary  Ann  Greene,  the  grandmother, 
for  whom  Miss  Greene  was  named,  contributed 
stories  and  poems  to  the  Providence  Journal 
at  the  age  of  fourteen.  She  was  of  double 
Greene  descent,  her  mother  being  Colonel 
Christopher's  grand-daughter.  She  married  Jo- 
seph Holden  Low,  of  the  Warwick  branch  of 
the  Low  family,  and  died  at  twenty-one,  leav- 
ing an  infant  daughter,  Mary  Frances,  who 
became  Mrs.  John  W.  A.  Greene,  a  woman  of 
fine  mind.  Miss  Greene's  mother. 

Miss  Greene  is  descended  from  Roger  Will- 
iams through  the  marriage  of  his  grand-daugh- 
ter, Phebe  Sayles,  with  Major  Job"  Greene,  and 
also  through  her  paternal  grandmother,  Caro- 
line Cornelia  Aborn.  Indeed,  she  is  descended 
from  nearly  every  one  of  the  foimders  of  the 
colonies  of  Providence  and  of  Warwick  and 
from  most  of  them  in  several  lines,  owing  to 
constant  intermarriages. 

Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  is  descended  from 
Deborah*  (married  Simon  Ray),  sister  of  Chief 
Justice  Philip"  Greene  and  daughter  of  Job'  and 
Phebe  (Sayles)  Greene. 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  in  every  generation 
in  Miss  Greene's  line  of  the  Greenes  there  has 
been  either  a  Senator  or  a  Representative  from 
the  town  of  Warwick  in  the  General  Assembly, 
her  cousin,  Francis  Whittier  Greene,  serv- 
ing at  the  present  time  as  Senator  from  War- 
wick. 

Miss  Greene  was  the  first  American  woman 
invited  to  address  the  World's  Congress  of  Juris- 
prudence and  Law  Reform,  an  honor  extended 
to  but  two  American  and  two  foreign  women 
lawyers,  their  names  appearing  upon  the  same 
programme  with  eminent  American  and  Euro- 
pean   male    jurists.     Miss    Greene    assisted    in 


preparing  the  fifth  edition  of  Schouler  on  the 
Domestic  Relations,  the  standard  authority 
in  the  courts  upon  that  branch  of  law.  She 
is  the  only  lawyer  who  makes  a  specialty  of 
the  delivery  of  lectures  upon  practical  business 
law  before  women's  clubs  and  girls'  schools, 
and  she  finds  great  interest  in  the  subject  among 
all  classes  of  women,  from  shop-girls  and  work- 
ing-women to  the  wives  of  millionaires. 

Miss  Greene  was  conmiissioned  by  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Rhode  Island  chairman  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Committee  on  a  Colonial  Exhibit  at 
the  Atlanta  Exposition;  and  the  Legislature, 
upon  her  sole  petition  as  chairman,  appropri- 
ated one  thousand  dollars  for  the  colonial  ex- 
hibit. This  is  said  to  be  the  first  time  in  his- 
tory that  State  funds  have  been  placed  in  the 
control  of  a  commission  composed  exclusively 
of  women,  by  a  direct  grant  to  them  from  the 
Legislature  itself. 

In  1902  Miss  Greene  published  "The  Wom- 
an's Manual  of  Law,"  a  clear,  simple,  and  non- 
technical book  of  reference  for  women  who  de- 
sire to  inform  themselves  as  to  the  laws  of  busi- 
ness and  of  the  domestic  relations.  It  is  said 
to  be  the  most  satisfactory  work  of  the  kind 
yet  published.  The  Chicago  Legal  News  of 
iSTovember  8,  1902,  says  of  it: — 

"This  book  is  the  result  of  years  of  experi- 
ence of  Miss  Greene,  a  member  of  the  Boston 
bar,  as  lecturer  upon  the  subject  of  which  it 
treats.  .  .  .  The  entire  cycle  of  a  woman's  life, 
from  her  marriage  to  the  grave,  is  passed  in 
review  in  successive  chapters.  First,  the  laws 
affecting  the  domestic  relations  are  considered. 
Then  folloAV  those  dealing  with  buying  and 
selling  and  the  care  of  all  kinds  of  property. 
In  every  case  the  particular  legal  restrictions 
upon  the  powers  of  the  woman  who  is  married 
are  considered.  Lastly,  the  proper  disposi- 
tion of  property  by  will  and  by  the  laws  of 
inheritance  is  treated,  inckuUng  the  rights  of 
the  widow  or  the  widower  in  the  property  of 
either. 

"Miss  Greene  has  shown  good  judgment, 
not  only  in  the  .selection  of  her  subjects  treated, 
but  in  her  manner  of  treating  them.  Her  style 
is  ))Ieasing  and  easily  understood.  Every 
woman  who  can  read  the  English  language, 
and   wishes   to   know  her  legal   rights,  should 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


39 


have  this  manual  of  Miss  Greene's  for  a  com- 
panion. The  gifted  author  tells  us,  while  all 
the  laws  discussed  in  this  volume  are  of  equal 
importance  to  men,  it  is  entitled  'The  Wom- 
an's Manual  of  Law'  because  it  is  a  selection 
of  laws  that  women  especially  need  to  know." 

Since  1898  Miss  Greene  has  been  a  vice- 
president  of  the  Woman's  Baptist  Foreign 
Missionary  Society.  This  organization  includes 
the  New  England  and  Middle  States,  also  Dela- 
ware and  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  is  in- 
corporated under  the  laws  of  Massachusetts, 
and  has  its  ofhce  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston. 
It  is  auxiliary  to  the  American  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Union,  ami  maintains  over  four  hun- 
dred schools,  with  about  sixteen  thou.sand 
jiupils  in  Burma,  South  hulia,  China,  Japan, 
and  Africa.  It  supports  seventy-three  lady 
missionaries,  and  carries  on  medical  work,  as 
well  as  evangelistic  and  etlucational.  In 
January,  1902,  she  was,  by  formal  vote  of  the 
Board  of  Directors,  matle  its  authorized  legal 
adviser.  Since  1895  she  has  been  president 
of  the  Woman's  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  Rhoile  Island,  a  State  branch  of  the 
general  society. 

In  1892,  at  the  request  of  the  Board  of  Man- 
agers of  the  Columbian  Kx|)osition,  she  com- 
piled a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Legal  Status  of 
Women  under  the  Laws  of  Rhode  Island, 
1892."  It  was  originally  publishetl  in  the 
Rhode  Island  Woman's  Directory  for  the  Co- 
lumbian Year,  edited  by  Charlotte  Field  Dailey, 
and  published  in  Providence  in  1893  by  the 
Rhode  Island  Woman's  World's  Fair  Advisory 
Board,  of  which  Miss  Greene  was  a  member. 
In  1900,  the  laws  having  been  very  much  al- 
tered and  amended,  she  revised  the  pamphlet, 
and  it  was  published  by  the  Rhode  Island  State 
Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  under  the  title, 
"Legal  Status  of  Women  in  Rhode  Islanil, 
1900,"  with  a  preface  concerning  the  recent 
sweeping  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  Rhode 
Island  wives. 

Miss  Greene  was  the  first  woman  contributor 
to  the  American  Laic  Revieiv.  Some  of  the 
published  articles  are:  "Privileged  Communi- 
cations in  Suits  between  Hu.sband  and  Wife," 
American  Law  ^  Review,  September-October, 
1890;    "The   Evolution   of   the   American   Fee 


Simple,"  American  Law  Review,  March-April, 
1897:  "Results  of  the  Woman  Suffrage  Move- 
ment," Forum,  June,  1894;  and  a  series  of  arti- 
cles on  law  for  women  in  the  Chautauquan,  No- 
vember, 1891-August,  1892. 

Her  translation  entitled  "The  Woman  Law- 
yer," from  the  French  of  Dr.  Louis  Frank,  the 
famous  Belgian  champion  of  woman's  rights 
("La  Fenime-Avocat,"  par  L.  Frank,  Bruxelles, 
1888),  appeareil  serially  in  the  Chicago  Law 
Times  for  the  year  1889.  Dr.  Frank  dedicated 
to  Miss  Greene  his  Catechisme  de  la  Femme 
in  1895.  This  little  work  was  translated  into 
nearly  every  language  of  Continental  Europe, 
with  its  dedication. 

Miss  Greene's  address  at  the  World's  Con- 
gress of  Jiu'isprudence  upon  "Married  Wom- 
an's Projjerty  Acts'  in  the  LTnited  States,  and 
Needetl  Reforms  therein,"  was  published  in 
the  Chicago  Legal  A'cu's  of  August  12,  1893. 
Her  address  delivered  in  the  Woman's  Build- 
ing of  the  Columbian  Exposition,  entitled 
"Legal  Condition  of  Women  in  1492  and  1892," 
is  printed  in  full  in  the  official  volumes  of  the 
Congresses  in  the  Woman's  Building.  In  the 
New  Englnnd  Magazine  for  1898  is  her  illu.s- 
trateil  article  on  General  Nathanael  Greene, 
a  brief  biography  tracing  the  development  of 
General  Cireene's  character  ami  attempting  to 
show  what  it  was  that  made  him  a  great  mili- 
tary genius. 

The  Woman's  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  has  published  two  small  pamphlets 
from  her  pen— "The  Primer  of  Missions"  in 
1896  and  "Women's  Missionary  Wills  and 
Bonds"  in  1902.  Miss  Greene  says,  "If  I  get 
interested  in  any  subject,  legal,  patriotic,  or 
missionary,  I  have  to  deliver  addresses  and 
publish  articles  about  it."  She  is  a  magnetic 
speaker,  anil  has  the  power  to  hold  her  audi- 
ences and  to  inspire  them  with  enthusiasm. 

At  the  Fortieth  Anniversary  of  the  first 
Woman's  Rights  Convention  she  repre.sented 
women  in  the  legal  profession.  The  meeting, 
presided  over  by  Lucy  Stone,  was  held  in  Trem- 
ont Temple,  January  27,  1891,  and  Miss  Greene, 
though  her  voice  is  naturally  low,  as  she  spoke 
on  "Women  in  the  Law,"  made  three  thousand 
people  hear  with  ease. 

.As  a  presiding  officer  she  is  unusually  popu- 


40 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


lar  and  successful.  In  her  own  words,  "I  suj)- 
pose  it  is  because  I  have  such  complete  self- 
possession  myself  that  my  audience  feel  easy 
and  comfortable  themselves."  She  was  State 
Regent  for  Rhode  Island  of  the  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution  from  1895  to  1897, 
and  is  now  an  Honorary  State  Regent. 

Miss  Greene  says:  "I  did  not  intend  to  delay 
for  so  many  years  my  application  for  admis- 
sion to  the  bar  of  Rhode  Island.  No  woman 
has  yet  applied  here.  By  the  rules  of  court 
a  member  of  the  bar  of  another  State  may 
appear  here  and  plead,  but  all  court  papers 
must  be  signed  by  a  member  of  the  Rhode 
Island  bar.  As  I  do  not  practise  in  court, 
there  has  been  no  need  for  me  to  apply,  and  I 
have  put  it  off  from  time  to  time  for  a  more 
convenient  season.  I  am  not  an  'agitator' 
of  any  sort,  and  do  not  care  to  do  anything 
merely  for  the  sake  of  the  notoriety  of  doing 
it.  I  am  glad  to  help  where  I  can  to  make  the 
world  better  by  informing  the  people  of  pres- 
ent conditions,  pointing  out  reforms,  and  help- 
ing others  to  do  the  reforming  if  I  can." 


MARY  DANA  HICKS  PRANG,  art 
educator,  residing  in  Boston,  was 
born  in  Syracuse,  N.Y.,  October  7, 
1836,  daughter  of  Major  and  Agnes  A. 
(Johnson)  Dana.  The  Dana  family  to  which 
she  belongs  has  a  record  in  New  England  of  over 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  its  immigrant 
progenitor,  Richard  Dana,  having  come  to  this 
country  in  1640,  and  settled  in  Cambridge, 
Mass.  From  RichanP  the  line  continued 
through  Daniel,^  Thomas,^  Daniel,^  Daniel,'*  to 
Major  Dana,  above  mentioned,  who  was  of  the 
sixth  generation,  Mrs.  Prang  being  of  the 
seventh.  Mrs.  Prang's  father  was  a  prosperous 
merchant,  a  man  of  sterling  character,  who 
supported  every  forward  movement.  Among 
his  remarkable  qualities  were  a  memory  that 
never  failed  and  an  usual  appreciation  of  beauty 
of  effect,  of  fine  design,  and  of  harmony  of  color. 
Her  mother,  who  was  a  brilliant  woman,  a  poet 
and  artist,  was  a  leader  in  the  literary  society 
of  Syracuse.  Benevolent  enterprises  received 
her  encouragement,  and  she  was  an  inspiration 
to  all  who  had  the  pleasure  of  her  acquaint- 


ance.    She  lived  to  the  advanced  age  of  ninety- 
four  years. 

Mary  Dana  was  an  observant  little  girl,  and 
at  the  age  of  two  years  had  learned  her  letters 
from  large  handbills.  For  some  time  she  was 
a  ]3upil  in  a  private  school  close  by  her  home. 
Throughout  her  school  life  she  was  found  equal 
to  children  three  or  four  years  older. 

She  was  graduated  from  the  Allen  Seminary, 
Rochester,  N.Y.,  in  1852,  after  a  course  of  study 
in  mathematics,  the  languages,  and  history, 
with  general  study  of  the  sciences;  and  later 
she  pursued  special  studies  at  Harvard  and  at 
the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston. 

On  her  twentieth  birthday  she  became  the 
wife  of  Charles  Spencer  Hicks,  a  promising* 
young  lawyer  of  Syracuse.  In  less  than  two 
years  her  husband  was  drowned.  On  April  15, 
1900,  she  married  Louis  Prang,  of  Boston,  the 
distinguished  art  publisher. 

Owing  to  financial  reverses  in  1858,  she  re- 
ceived private  pupils,  the  greater  number  being 
in  drawing.  Her  work  with  these  pupils  led 
her  to  a  deep  consideration  of  the  influence 
of  art  instruction  on  education.  Drawing 
was  conniionly  regarded  as  an  end  to  be  attained 
only  by  the  specially  gifted.  Close  study  and 
wide  observation  confirmed  her  in  the  belief 
that  drawing  should  be  a  study  not  for  the  few 
only,  but  for  all,  a  means  of  expression  for  every 
child,  and  therefore  should  be  an  integral  part 
of  public  school  education. 

Receiving  the  ap})ointment  of  supervisor  of 
drawing  in  the  public  schools  of  Syracuse,  she 
visited  several  of  the  larger  cities  in  the  country, 
to  observe  school  conditions.  She  found  that 
drawing  had  a  place  in  neaily  every  course  of 
study,  but  that  there  was  actually  very  little 
work  of  merit  accomplished.  More  favorable 
conditions  existed  in  Boston  than  elsewhere, 
l)ut  even  in  that  city  drawing  was  not  given 
the  prominence  to  which  she  believed  it  justly 
entitleil.  Strengthened  in  her  judgment  re- 
specting the  value  of  art-teaching  in  the  public 
schools,  she  continued  her  work  in  Syracuse 
with  increased  enthusiasm. 

About  this  time  AV alter  Smith  was  called  to 
Massachusetts  to  become  the  head  of  art  educa- 
tion in  the  State.  He  established  the  Normal 
School   in   Boston,  and  gave  considerable  im- 


MARY   D.  H.  PKANG 


REPRESENTATnE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


41 


petus  to  the  study  of  art.  Mrs.  Prang  visited 
him  in  Boston,  and,  introducing  his  l)ooks  in 
Syracuse,  found  them  of  great  service  in  mak- 
ing possible  the  study  of  historic  ornament, 
supplying  in  some  measure  the  examples  neces- 
sary for  her  work. 

Mrs.  Prang's  remarkable  physique  and  ex- 
cellent health  enabled  her  to  complete  success- 
fully an  unusual  amount  of  labor.  Several 
of  her  classes  in  the  high  scliool  numbered 
seventy  or  eighty  pupils  each,  but  Mrs.  Prang 
worked  with  the  strength  of  her  convictions, 
and  with  a  joyousness  of  spirit  that  communi- 
cated itself  to  her  pupils. 

In  order  that  the  children  might  be  properly 
taught,  she  formed  teachers'  classes  that  were 
conducted  after  school  hours.  In  atUlition 
she  closely  supervised  the  work  in  all  the 
schools,  and  was  ever  ready  to  help  the  teachers 
with  pertinent  suggestions  and  cheerful  en- 
couragement. Her  supervision  of  the  schools 
of  Syracuse  extendeil  over  more  than  ten  years: 
and  there  are  teachers  in  the  field  to-day, 
occupying  high  positions,  who  are  proud  to 
trace  the  beginning  of  their  successes  to  the 
influence  of  Mrs.  Prang,  with  whom  they  were 
associated  as  high  school  students  or  as  grade 
teachers. 

Exhibitions  of  public  school  drawings  were 
held  at  the  high  school  building,  anil,  while 
children  and  teachers  were  thus  encouraged 
and  stimulated,  the  general  public  became 
educated  as  to  the  possibilities  of  children  in 
this  direction.  The.se  exhibitions,  together 
with  exhibitions  made  at  the  State  Teachers' 
Association  and  at  the  Centennial  Exposition 
in  Philadelphia  in  1876,  were  all  factors  in  the 
progress  of  art  education  in  the  public  schools. 

In  Syracuse  they  attracted  the  attention  of 
broud-mimled  people,  and  comprehensive  re- 
ports upon  them  were  made  by  physicians,  ar- 
chitects, and  other  jieopie  of  education,  among 
whom  were  Dr.  Martin  B.  Anderson,  President 
of  Rochester  University,  and  Dr.  Andrew  D. 
AVhite,  President  of  Cornell  University.  The 
public  schools  of  Syracuse  became  well  known 
as  foremost  in  the  country  in  art  education. 

Entleavoring  in  every  way  to  spread  the 
influence  of  art,  Mrs.  Prang  assisteil  largel}' 
in  the  development  of  the  Social  Art  Club  of 


Syracuse,  the  purpose  of  which  was  the  read- 
ing of  the  history  of  art  and  the  study  of  his- 
toric antl  current  art.  Mrs.  Prang  was  president 
of  the  club  for  five  j'ears,  and  through  her  ef- 
forts its  members  were  able  to  gather  illus- 
trations and  to  pursue  a  systematic  course  of 
reading  relating  to  ancient,  early  Christian, 
and  modern  art.  The  club  was  extremely 
popular,  the  wailhig  list  being  filled  with 
names  of  women  of  the  highest  social  standing. 
The  present  president,  formerly  a  student  with 
Mrs.  Prang,  has  held  the  position  for  twenty- 
five  years.  The  Social  Art  Club  was  the  second 
club  formed  in  Syracuse,  being  antedated  only 
by  the  Portfolio  Club,  an  association  of  Mrs. 
Prang's  pupils. 

From  the  beginning  of  Mrs.  Prang's  con- 
nection with  the  Prang  Educational  Company 
in  1878,  she  was  adviser  on  all  the  educational 
phases  of  the  work.  Even  before  her  name 
appeared  as  joint  author  of  the  various  publi- 
cations jjrepareil  by  the  company,  all  ques- 
tions involving  educational  influence  and  value 
were  lirought  to  her  for  judgment  and  advice. 
Her  wide  experience  antl  sympathetic  insight 
as  to  the  needs  of  the  teachers  contributed 
largely  toward  making  possible  the  wide  intro- 
duction of  the  Prang  work  in  the  public  schools 
of  the  country.  Her  wisdom  and  catholicity 
helped  to  make  the  Prang  work  acceptable  to 
the  utilitarian,  to  the  lover  of  beauty  in  form 
anil  color,  and  to  the  educator.  The  spirit 
of  the  work  in  its  power  of  developing  and  u\)- 
1  if  ting  was  never  forgotten. 

Mrs.  Prang  was  among  the  first  to  point  out 
that  the  instruction  in  art  given  in  the  public 
schools  must  of  necessity  cover  entirely  dif- 
ferent ground  from  that  given  in  the  art  schools 
and  studios.  She  taught  clearly  the  difference 
in  the  purpose  of  the  two— the  one  being  in- 
tended for  those  specially  gifted  by  nature, 
while  the  other  means  the  development  of  the 
art  instinct,  the  power  of  art  expression  in 
every  child.  Advocating  these  views,  she 
is  a  frequent  speaker  at  art  and  educational 
associations.  The  difficulties  attending  the 
introduction  of  a  comi)aratively  new  work  and 
the  lack  of  public  school  training  on  the  part 
of  supervisors  led  them  to  seek  frequent  con- 
ferences  with   Mrs.    Prang,   and   many   super- 


42 


REPRESENTATIVE   WUMEN   t)FNEW   ENGLAND 


visors  submitted  to  her  criticism  oullincs  for 
work  in  their  scliools  before  giving  tlie  work 
to  teachers  and  pupils.  Tlie  need  of  closer 
and  more  systematic  instruction  for  teachers 
and  supervisors  becoming  apjiarent,  the  Prang 
normal  art  classes  for  home  study  in  form, 
drawing,  and  color,  with  instruction  by  corre- 
spondence, were  organized  in  1SS7.  They 
were  designed  to  assist  pulilic  school  teachers 
in  preparing  thcnnselves  to  toivch  the  subjects 
of  form,  drawing,  and  color.  The  advantages 
of  these  classes  were  cfuickly  seized  upon  by 
hundreds  of  teachers  in  all  grades,  by  jirinci- 
pals  of  schools,  and  by  supervisors. 

Much  of  the  beneficent  and  far-reaching 
influence  of  this  movement  is  unquestionably 
due  to  the  personality  of  Mrs.  Prang  as  director. 
Her  beautiful  spirit  made  itself  distinctly  felt 
even  through  the  cold  medimn  of  dictated 
letters  and  typewritten  correspondence.  Her 
cheerful  greeting  to  the  new  student,  perhai)s 
in  Maine,  perhaps  in  C'alifornia,  established 
from  the  first  a  sense  of  welcome  and  an  as- 
surance of  sympathy. 

This  instruction  by  correspondence  came 
like  a  ray  of  light  in  the  darkness  to  many  a 
discouraged,  conscientious  teacher,  struggling 
in  her  own  out-of-the-way  little  corner  with 
the  great  problems  of  education.'  For  to  Mrs. 
Prang,  and  to  those  who  shared  her  faith  and 
her  enthusiasm,  art  education  in  the  public 
schools  meant  the  uplifting  of  all  the  studies 
to  a  higher  plane.  In  all  her  teachings  the 
thought  was  to  lead  beyond  the  actual  thing 
taught  to  its  relation  to  nature  and  to  human 
life.  Those  who  were  fortunate  enough  to 
become  students  with  Mrs.  Prang  will  look 
back  upon  the  association  with  a  deep  sense 
of  pleasure  and  gratitude. 

As  Mrs.  Prang,  from  her  first  decision  in  ISfiS 
to  make  public  art  education  her  lih^-work, 
strenuously  devoted  herself  to  its  promotion, 
her  work  as  an  author  has  been  largely  in  that 
direction.  She  was  joint  author  with  John  S. 
Clark  of  "The  Use  of  Models"  (1886);  with 
John  S.  Clark  and  Walter  Scott  Perry  of  "  The 
Prang  Shorter  Course  in  Form  Study  and  Draw- 
ing," "Form  Study  without  Clay,"  "The 
Prang  Complete  Course  in  I'Virm  Study  and 
Drawing,"  "The   Prang  Elementary  Course  in 


Art  Instruction";  ;ind  with  John  S.  Clark  and 
Louis  Prang  of  "  Suggestions,  for  Color  Instruc- 
tion" (1893).  Her  latest  work  is  "Art  In- 
struction for  Children  in  Primary  Schools," 
in  two  volumes  (1800). 

In  the  intervals  of  this  very  busy  life  Mrs. 
Prang  has  found  time  to  share  in  other  work 
for  the  jx'ojjle.  She  was  one  of  the  charter 
members  of  the  Massachusetts  Floral  Emlilem 
Society,  wiiich  was  organized  July  4,  1804, 
by  Mrs.  Ellen  A.  Richardson,  at  Winthrop, 
Mass.  One  object  of  the  society  is  to  bring 
about  a  more  rational  celebration  of  the  Fourth 
of  July,  and  to  that  end  the  society  endeavors 
to  cultivate  a  love  for  the  beautiful  in  the 
minds  of  school  children  by  the  distribution 
of  flowers  on  that  day.  Mrs.  Prang  was  presi- 
dent of  the  society  in  1898  and  1900,  and  she 
inaugurated  the  public  distribvition  of  flowers 
to  the  childnMi  of  Boston,  in  1S98  flowers  being 
given  to  twentv-five  hundred  children  and  in 
1000  to  nearly  four  thousand.  In  March,  1000, 
and  again  in  February,  1901,  Mrs.  Prang  ap- 
]iearetl  before  the  Legislative  committee  to 
advocate  the  adoption  of  a  floral  emblem  for 
the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

Mrs.  Prang  is  a  meml)er  of  the  Wintergreen 
Club,  the  New  England  Women's  Club,  the 
lv[ual  Suffrage  Society  for  Good  Government, 
the  Twentieth  Century  Club,  Woman's  I'ldu- 
cational  and  Industrial  Union,  the  Boston 
lousiness  Leagvic,  the  Womnn's  Alliance,  the 
l*]nstern  Kindergarten  Association,  the  Walt 
\Miitman  I'ellowship,  the  Copley  Society,  the 
I'nity  Art  Club,  the  Public  School  Art  League, 
the  Harvard  Teacliers'  Association  (of  Cam- 
Ijridge,  Mass.),  the  Massachusetts  Forestry  As- 
sociation, the  Massachusetts  Floral  Emblem 
Society,  the  Massachusetts  Industrial  Art 
Teachers'  Association,  the  Social  Service  League 
(of  New  York  City),  the  Onondaga  County  His- 
torical Association  and  the  Social  Art  Club 
(both  of  Syracuse,  N.Y.),  the  r^astern  Art 
Teachers'  Association,  the  Western  Drawing 
Teachers'  Association,  the  National  Educa- 
tional Association,  tlie  American  Association 
for  Physical  Training,  the  Massachusetts  Prison 
Association,  the  .Massachusetts  Society  for  Aid- 
ing Discharged  Convicts,  the  American  Park 
and  Outdoor  Association  and  the  Appalachian 


REPRESENTATR  E   WOMEN   UE    NEW    ENGLAND 


43 


Mountain  Club.  She  is  also  a  proprietor  of  the 
Boston  Athenfpum  and  a  subscriber  to  the  Bos- 
ton Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 


AUGUSTA  HALE  GIFFORD,  histori- 
cal writei',  wa?  born  in  Turner,  Andros- 
L  coggin  County,  Me.,  and  brought  up 
through  girlhood  on  one  of  the  old 
Maine  farms.  Her  father  and  mother,  James 
Sullivan  Hale  and  his  wife,  Betsej'  Staples,  had 
settled  on  the  family  estate,  which  had  been 
redeemed  from  the  rocks  and  briers  by  Mrs. 
Clifford's  grandparents,  David  Hale  and  his 
wife,  Sally  Kingsbury,  in  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

David  Hale,  Mrs.  Clifford's  paternal  grand- 
father, was  a  native  of  Harvanl,  Mass.,  horn 
in  1772,  and  a  lineal  descendant  in  the  sixth 
generation  of  Thomas'  Hale,  the  immigrant 
progenitor  of  this  branch  of  the  Hale  family 
in  New  England,  who  settled  at  Newbury,  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  Colony,  about  1637.  Davitl 
Hale  married  Sally  Kingsbury,  of  Ellington, 
Conn.,  daughter  of  Simon  Kingsbury,  and  liveil 
in  Rutland,  Mass  ,  until  their  removal  to  Turner, 
Oxford  County,  Me.,  in  1802.  They  made  the 
voyage  of  three  weeks  from  Boston  to  Fal- 
mouth (Portland)  in  the  winter  sea^son,  in  a 
sailing-vessel,  and  were  obliged  to  leave  their 
two  chililren  in  Falmouth  until  sunuuer,  since 
it  was  not  practicable  earlier  to  take  them  forty 
miles  through  the  woods. 

The  Kingsburys  were  a  remarkable  family 
intellectually,  and  Sally  Kingsbury  Hale  brought 
to  these  wilds  a  well-developed  and  well-stored 
mind.  Although  living  to  be  an  octogenarian, 
she  still  retained  her  excellent  memory ;  and  to 
the  delight  of  her  grandchildren,  the  eUler  chil- 
dren of  her  son  Sullivan,  she  whiled  away  the 
long  winter  evenings,  passed  before  the  huge 
open  fireplace,  witii  vivid  accounts  of  battles  of 
the  Revolution,  including  that  of  Monmouth,  in 
which  her  brother,  Dr.  Joseph  Kingsbury,  was 
wounded,  and  with  thrilling  stories  of  Indian 
captivities  and  other  adventures  in  far-off 
colonial  times.  These  stories  she  told  as  she 
had  heard  them  in  her  girlhood  from  the  lips 
of  Ephraim  Kingsbury,  of  Haverhill—"  Uncle 
Ephraim,"  she  used  to  call  him— stories  partly 


of  his  own  experience  and  partly,  perhaps,  relat- 
ing to  the  Ephraim  Kingsbury  who  is  on  record 
in  Chase's  History  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  as  hav- 
ing been  killed  by  Indians  in  1676. 

Sullivan  and  Betsey  (Staples)  Hale  were  the 
parents  of  five  children,  namely:  Eugene, 
I'nited  States  Senator;  Hortense,  who  with 
her  husband.  Dr.  Gushing,  a  retired  physician, 
now  lives  on  the  old  homestead  in  Turner,  Me.; 
Frederick  (deceased);  Augusta  (Mrs.  Clifford); 
and  Clarence,  of  Portland,  Me.,  Judge  of  the 
United  States  Court. 

Augusta  Hale  was  fitted  for  college  in  the 
high  school  of  Turner,  in  the  companionship 
of  a  beloved  brother,  Frederick,  with  whom 
she  shared  every  sport,  overcame  every  diffi- 
culty, antl  was  permitted  to  accomplish  every 
task.  They  even  studied  their  lessons  from  the 
same  book,  going  to  ami  from  school  together. 
His  death  in  1868  was  her  first  affliction,  and 
it  marked  the  beginning  of  her  literary  aspira- 
tion. In  1859,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  she 
entered  Oberlin,  then  almost  the  only  fully 
e(iuip])ed  college  (with  a  complete  classical 
curriculum)  in  the  country  open  to  both  sexes. 
Her  voice  was  often  heard  in  the  college  and 
the  college  society  parts,  delivered  in  the  large 
clun-ch  then,  as  now,  connecteil  therewith. 
But  her  stutlent  life  at  Oberlin  was  only  the 
beginning  of  the  self-culture  which  must  nec- 
essarily supjjlement  the  early  education  of  men 
and  women  who  accomplish  anything  worth 
while  for  the  world. 

After  graduation  she  settled  in  Portland, 
and  in  1869  was  married  to  the  Hon.  George 
Gifford,  originally  a  lawyer,  afterward  a  jour- 
nalist, and  finally  for  n^any  years  as  at  present 
in  the  consular  service.  Mrs.  Gifford  shared  with 
her  husband  different  fields  «f  foreign  labor,  and 
this  resilience  abroad  has  continued  for  her 
somewhat  intermittently  for  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century,  their  home  being  at  intervals 
in  London,  Paris,  various  parts  of  France,  and 
for  several  years  in  Basle,  Switzerland.  She 
became  the  mother  of  three  children— Kath- 
erine,  Clarence  Hale,  and  Marguerite.  The 
younger  daughter  was  born  during  a  long  resi- 
lience of  the  family  in  Nantes,  France.  Many 
interesting  and  anuising  incidents  occurred 
in  Mrs.  Clifford's  eariy  trips  across  the  Atlantic 


44 


REPRESENTATHE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


with  her  little  ones,  at  a  time  when  the  voyage 
in  stormy  weather  sometimes  extended  over 
a  spaee  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  days,  and  the  perils 
and  hardships  of  the  ocean  had  not  been  ameli- 
orated to  the  extent  which  obtains  at  present. 

lu  her  early  life  abroad  Mrs.  Gifford  imbibed 
a  taste  for  foreign  literature,  foreign  languages, 
and  foreign  travel,  which  sha])ed  her  subse- 
quent career.  She  has  since  travelled  exten- 
tively  over  Europe  and  the  Orient,  many  of 
the  countries  visited  having  been  but  recently 
made  accessible  to  the  traveller.  Her  plans 
and  tours  have  been  all  marked  out  in  advance, 
and  her  research  has  been  so  thorough  that  the 
maj)  of  Europe  to  her  is  like  an  illuminated 
book,  even  the  unaccustomed  routes  being  like 
the  beaten  track  in  her  own  garden.  She  has 
delighted  the  public  with  a  large  foreign  cor- 
respondence, her  vivitl  imagination  making 
the  scenes  of  these  various  countries  and  the 
customs  and  habits  of  the  jieople  stand  out 
before  her  readers  like  familiar  experiences,  her 
interesting  and  practical  relations  furnishing 
much  valuable  information  to  other  travellers. 

Since  18.  3,  after  the  death  of  her  eldest  child, 
Katherine,  born  in  1870,  a  young  lady  of  lovely 
character,  Mrs.  Gifford  has  found  great  solace  in 
literature.  In  her  first  travels  through  Germany, 
fascinated  bvGerman  life  and  the  people,  she  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  putting  into  form  a  racy  ac- 
count of  the  Germans  from  their  beginning; 
and  from  this  idea  was  developed  the  series 
of  books,  beginning  with  "Germany:  Her  People 
and  Their  Story,"  published  by  the  Lothrop 
Publishing  Company  in  1899.  It  is  as  readable 
as  a  romance,  one  of  its  great  merits  being  tliat 
its  historical  facts  have  an  attractive  setting. 
Evidently  prepared  with  reference  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  general  reader,  it  is  something 
more  than  an  outline  of  the  salient  features  in 
the  progress  of  the  German  nation  from  bai- 
barism  to  enligiitenment,  from  a  confederacy 
of  loosely  allied  states  to  a  strongly  cemented 
empire.  Legend  and  anecdote  have  been  skil- 
fully woven  into  the  story,  and  vivid  glim])ses 
are  given  of  the  national  life,  and  a  clear  insight 
into  the  national  character.  It  was  a  difficult 
task  the  author  had  before  her  of  condensing 
within  the  limits  of  a  six-hundred-page  vol- 
ume twelve  hundred  years  of  a  nation's  growth. 


There  was  danger  on  the  one  hand  of  making 
the  volume  little  more  than  a  chronological 
record,  ami  on  the  other  of  inadequacy.  The 
success  with  which  she  has  avoided  both  dan- 
gers attests  a  fine  sense  of  proportion,  discrimi- 
nating judgment,  and  much  literary  skill. 

"Mrs.  Gifford's  'Germany'  was  received  with 
so  much  favor  by  both  the  people  and  her  pub- 
lishers that  she  was  encouraged  to  go  on  with 
the  series.  She  has  now  for  several  years  been 
collecting  material  abroad  for  her  'Italy,'  vis- 
iting tliat  country  many  times  in  order  to  ab- 
sorb all  the  phases  of  Italian  life  and  character; 
and  'Italy:  Her  People  and  their  Story,'  bids 
fair  even  to  excel  the  first  of  the  series  in  in- 
terest." 

Mrs.  Gifford  has  also  given  much  time  to 
club  work,  writing  many  i)apers  and  giving 
many  lectures  and  talks.  Her  papers  on  "Ger- 
man Literature  and  German  Authors,"  "Mis- 
sion Work  in  India"  (the  origin  of  the  people 
from  the  Aryans,  their  early  religious  develop- 
ment, etc.),  an  article  entitled  "How  to  Travel," 
and  her  very  celebrated  lecture,  "  From  the 
North  Cape  to  the  Orient,"  have  attracted 
nmch  attention.  Her  series  of  talks  on  archi- 
tecture, condensed  for  students  and  travellers, 
is  to  be  the  nucleus  of  a  volume  entitled  "  The 
Architecture  of  Cathedrals  and  Castles,  for 
Students  and  Travellers,"  when  time  shall  per- 
mit her  to  complete  the  work. 

Mrs.  Gifford  through  all  those  years  of  travel 
has  retained  her  home  in  I'ortland,  Me.,  and 
when  in  America  it  has  always  been  hei-  pleas- 
ure to  spend  her  time  in  this  beautiful  little 
city  by  the  sea  and  again  get  in  touch  with  real 
New  England  life.  Both  at  home  and  abroad 
her  society  is  sought  by  jieople  of  culture,  and 
she  is  a  welcome  presence  in  any  gathering. 


KATE  E.  GRISWOLD,  proprietor  and 
publisher  of  Profitalde  Advertising,  a 
monthly  magazine  issued  in  Boston, 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  advertisers 
and  })ublishers,  is  widely  known  as  a  success- 
ful journalist,  the  periodical  of  which  she  is  the 
sponsor  ranking,  it  is  said,  as  foremost  of  its 
kind  in  the  world.  Miss  Griswold  was  born 
about  thirty-five  years  ago  at  West  Hartford. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENCiLANU 


45 


Conn.  Her  father,  John  Belden  Griswold,  a 
native  of  Newington,  Conn.,  was  born  in  1828, 
son  of  Josiah  Wells  and  Mary  A.  (Belden) 
Criswold.  Her  mother,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Cornelia  Arnold  Jones,  was  born  at  East 
Hartford  in  1830,  daughter  of  Joseph  Pantra 
Jones  and  his  wife,  Sarah  Comstock. 

After  pursuing  her  studies,  both  elenientarj' 
anil  classical,  at  some  of  the  best  public  and 
private  schools  in  Hartford,  she  turned  natu- 
rally enough  to  journalism,  entering  the  office 
of. the  Poultry  World  in  that  city.  One  of  the 
practical  Occui)alions  of  her  girlhood  at  home 
had  been  the  raising  of  poultry,  which  she  had 
nuule  financially  profitai)le.  Her  story,  as  in 
all  cases  of  genuine  success,  is  a  story  of  liard 
work  and  a  slow  climb  from  humble  begiimings. 
Her  promotion  to  a  responsible  position  in  the 
office  of  the  National  Trotting  A.ssociation  came 
within  a  year,  and  again  illustrates  the  special 
fitness  of  things,  for  she  is  an  enthusiastic 
devotee  of  the  horse. 

At  the  end  of  her  second  year  constant  appli- 
cation to  an  ever-increasing  bvn-den  of  duties 
had  worn  her  out,  and  for  a  time  she  was  obliged 
to  give  up  the  struggle.  Several  years  of  re- 
tirement and  rest,  however,  brought  her  again 
to  the  front  with  a  renewed  ston^  of  strength. 

Flattering  offers  were  at  Miss  Griswold's  di,«- 
posal,  l)ut  she  turned  from  them  all  to  take  up 
the  management  of  the  organ  of  a  local  chari- 
table enterprise.  To  The  Harljord  Cihj  Misf<ion 
Record,  and  to  the  cause  in  general  which  it 
representeil,  she  devoted  herself  for  the  next 
four  years.  Toward  the  close  of  this  period 
of  charitable  work  she  entered  into  .several 
prize  competitions  for  advertising  designs,  and 
was  perhaps  not  wholly  surprised  at  carrying 
off  the  honors  in  a  number  of  cases.  The  at- 
tention thus  attracted  to  the  fact  of  a  woman's 
success  as  an  "ad"  writer  led  to  an  offer  from 
Boston. 

A  position  as  general  ad  writer  and  corre- 
spondent in  the  office  of  the  C.  F.  David  Adver- 
tising Agency,  the  original  promoters  of  Profit- 
able Advertising,  soon  demonstrated  her  fitness 
for  the  editor's  chair.  In  the  course  of  a  year 
or  two  she  became  the  propiietor  as  well  as 
the  editor  of  the  publication. 

The   story    of    Mi.ss    Griswold's   subsequent 


career  is  simply  the  record  of  a  shining  success 
obtained  slowly  by  the  exercise  of  thoi^e  quali- 
ties that  alone  can  ensure  fortune.  The  path 
has  been  hard  and  the  difficulties  unusual. 
Up  to  three  years  ago  the  editor  as  well  as  the 
manager  of  Profitable  Advertising,  Miss  Griswold 
was  especially  handicapped  by  the  very  general 
doubt  as  to  the  practicability  of  the  under- 
taking. When  she  began  to  edit  Profitable 
Advertising,  the  number  of  women  who  were 
making  a  living  in  the  advertising  field  could 
be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  They 
are  now  numbered  by  scores,  and  it  is  not  too 
nmch  to  say  that  the  single  example  c^f  Miss 
Griswokl's  grit  and  sagacity  has  hatl  more  to 
do  with  this  than  any  other  single  cause. 

Profitable  Advertising  is  a  periodical  which 
stands  for  and  reflects  more  than  most  publi- 
cations the  individuality  of  its  owner  and  man- 
ager. In  this  respect  Miss  Gri.swold  deserves 
honorable  mention  in  the  same  class  with  such 
representative  American  pul:)lishers  as  the  Ben- 
netts of  the  Her<dd,  Dana  of  the  Sun,  and  Horace 
Greeley  of  the  Tribune.  Iler  publication  has 
within  tlie  past  three  years  attained  high-water 
mark,  and,  as  already  intimated  above,  is  rec- 
ognized by  the  leading  authorities  of  two  con- 
tinents as  the  model  and  standard  of  its  class. 

It  is  needless  to  add  in  words  a  personal  trib- 
ute to  such  a  record.  Mi.ss  Griswold  numbers 
many  friends  in  the  publishing  and  advertising 
fields  at  large.  She  is  a  young  woman  whose 
powers  have  not  yet  touched  their  prime. 

The  ancestry  of  Miss  Griswold  has  been 
traced  back  through  various  lines  to  conspicu- 
ous early  colonists  of  her  native  State,  she  being 
also  a  "Mayflower"  descendant,  a  double  one, 
so  to  speak,  deriving  through  both  father  and 
mother  from  William  Bratlford,  Governor  of 
"Plymouth  Plantation." 

Her  father,  John  Belden  Griswold,  was  born 
in  1828,  son  of  Josiah  W^ells  and  Mary  Ann 
(Belden)  GriswoUl  and  a  descendant  in  the 
eighth  generation  of  Michael'  Griswold,  of 
Wethersfield.  The  line  is:  Michael';  Jacob,'^ 
born  in  1660;  Major  Josiah,^  born  in  1700; 
Josiah,''1728;  Solomon,^  1751 ;  Josiah,^  1775;  Jo- 
siah Wells,'  1794;  John  Beklen,-  Kate  E.  being 
of  the  ninth  generation. 

Mr.    Griswold's    paternal    grandmother,    the 


46 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN    OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


wife  of  Josiah,'  was  Abigail  Wells,  daughter  of 
Robert  and  Abigail  (Hurlbut)  Wells  and  grand- 
daughter of  Lieutenant  Robert  and  Abigail 
(Burnham)  Wells,  the  Wells  ancestry  beginning 
^\ith  Thomas  AVells  (or  Welles),  one  of  the  origi- 
nal proprietors  of  Hartford  and  Wethersfield, 
many  years  a  magistrate  and  for  two  years  CJov- 
ernor  of  the  colony.  Mrs.  Al)igail  Burnham 
Wells  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  William 
Burnham  (William,'  Thomns')  and  his  wife 
Haimah,  daughter  of  Samuel'  \\'olcott,  of  Wind- 
sor. SamueP  was  grandson  of  I-Ienry'  Wolcott, 
the  founder  of  the  distinguished  family  of  this 
surname,  prolific  of  governors. 

Mary  A.  Belden,  wife  of  Josiah  Wells  (Jris- 
wold  and  grandmother  of  Kate  E.,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  John  and  Asenath  (Darrow)  Belden  and 
grand-daughter  of  John  Kellogg  Belden  and 
his  wife  Mercy,  who  was  sister  to  Noah  Webster, 
the  le.xicographer. 

Bradford  descent  through  the  Websters  is 
thus  shown:  Governor  William'  Bradford  mar- 
ried for  his  second  wife  Mrs.  Alice  Carpenter 
Southworth.  Their  son  AVilliam^  married,  first, 
Alice  Richards.  Mercy^  Bradford,  born  of 
this  union,  married  Sanuiel  Steele  in  1680,  and 
resided  in  Hartfortl.  Their  son,  Eli])halet'' 
Steele,  married  Catherine  Marshfield,  and  was 
the  father  of  Mercy''  Steele,  born  at  West  Hart- 
ford in  1727,  who  married  Noah  W'ebsler,  Sr., 
the  couple  last  named  being  the  parents  of 
Mercy,"  born  at  West  Hartford  in  1749,  and  of 
her  younger  brother,  Noah  Webster,  of  dic- 
tionary fame. 

Mercy  W^ebster  was  of  the  sixth  generation 
of  the  family  founded  by  John'  Webster,  one 
of  the  original  proprietors  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
and  two  j'ears  Governor.  The  line  from  John' 
Webster  was  continued  through  Robert,"  John, '^ 
Daniel,"*  to  Noah,"  born  1722,  who  married 
Mercy  Steele,  as  noted  above. 

Miss  Griswold's  maternal  grandparents  were 
Jo.seph  Pantra  and  Sarah  (Comstock)  Jones, 
the  grandfather,  born  in  1785,  son  of  John  and 
Elizabeth  (Williams)  Jones  and  great-giandson 
of  Nathaniel  Jones  ami  his  wife,  Reliekah 
Bantra,  who  was  a  descendant  of  William' 
Pantra,  of  Hartford.  Elizalieth  Williams  was 
a  daughter  of  Timothy'*  Williams,  great-gratid- 
son   of   William'   Williams,   of   Hartford.     Her 


mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Ruth  Pitkin, 
was  the  daughter  of  Ozias  Pitkin  and  grand- 
daughter of  William'  Pitkin,  founder  of  the 
prominent  Hartford  family  of  this  surname, 
and  brother  of  Martha  Pitkin,  who  married 
Simon  AVolcott,  and  was  the  mother  of  the 
first  Roger  Wolcott  in  New  England.  Another 
ancestor  belonging  to  one  of  the  first  families 
of  Hartford  was  Ozias'  Goodwin,  whose  daugh- 
ter Hannah  was  the  wife  of  William  Pitkin  and 
mother  of  Ozias  Pitkin. 

Mrs.  S.arah  Comstock  Jones  was  a  daughter 
of  Perez  and  Abigail  N.  (Raymond)  Comstock 
anil  grand-daughter  of  Nathaniel'''  Comstock 
and  his  wife,  vSarnh  Bradford,  born  in  [he  North 
Parish  of  New  Ijondon  (now  Montville)  in 
1744,  who  was  of  the  fifth  generation  of  Plym- 
outh Colony  stock.  The  line  was:  Governor 
William'  Bradford;  William^  anti  his  .second 
wife,  widow  Wiswall;  .foseph'  and  his  second 
wife,  Mary,  widow  of  Captain  Daniel  Fitch; 
John*  and  wife,  Esther  Sherwood;  Sarah.^ 

Abigail,  wife  of  Perez  Comstock  and  mother 
of  Sarah,  was  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Christojjher'* 
Raymond  (Joshua,  * '''  ^  Richard')  and  his  wife 
Eleanor.  The  tatter  was  a  daugliter  of  Daniel' 
P'itch  and  great-granddaughter  of  the  Rev. 
James  Pitch,  of  Saybrook  and  Norwich,  Conn. 
Her  grandfather.  Captain  Daniel'*  Fitch,  was 
.«on  of  the  Rev.  James  by  his  .<econd  wife, 
Priscilla,  therefore  a  grandson  of  the  latter's 
father,  Major  John  M.a.son,  sometimes  styled  the 
"  Myies  Standish  of    the  Coimecticut    Colony." 

Joshua'*  Raymond,  son  of  Joshua,'  married 
Elizabeth  Christophers,  and  was  the  father  of 
Dr.  Christopher  Raymond,  born  in  1729. 
Joshua'  Raymond,  grandfather  of  Dr.  Chris- 
topher, mnrried  Mercy  Sands,  daughter  of 
James  Sands,  of  Block  Island. 


EUNICE  NICHOLS  FRYE.-It  was  in 
Portland,  Me.,  that  State  federation  of 
clubs  had  its  origin,  and  it  was  Mrs. 
.  Eunice^  Nichols  Frye  who  first  advo- 
cated the  formation  of  such  an  alliance.  Hav- 
ing attended  the  first  meeting  of  the  directors 
of  the  General  Federation  at  Orange,  N.J.,  in 
her  official  capacity  as  president  of  the  Woman's 
Literary  Unicjn  of  Portland  (organized  in  1889), 


MAY   ALDEN    WARD 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


47 


she  was  quick  to  foresee  the  benefits  which  a 
State  organization  would  confer  upon  clTib 
women  in  Maine,  the  State  whose  motto  is 
"Dirigo."  She  it  was  who  invited  representa- 
tive club  women  to  meet  in  her  parlors  to  con- 
sult in  regard  to  the  advisability  of  such  a  step. 
Three  months  later,  September  23,  1892,  the 
first  State  federation  was  formed,  with  nine- 
teen clubs  as  charter  members  and  Mrs.  Fvyc 
its  secretary.  Other  States  soon  followed  this 
example,  and  the  result  has  been  most  happj\ 

Mrs.  Croly  (Jennie  June)  said  of  Mrs.  Frye, 
"She  is  the  Alma  Mater  of  clubs  and  club 
women  of  Maine,  a  woman  of  large  heart  and 
broad  intelligence,  who  works  toward  the  best 
end  without  any  shadow  of  pettiness  or  self- 
seeking."  As  the  press  notices  and  reports  of 
various  literary  and  philanthropic  movements 
in  Portland  testify  to  occasions  when  prelimi-' 
nary  meetings  were  held  in  Mrs.  Frye's  parlors, 
so  the  subsecjuent  accounts  invariably  tell  of 
wise  plans  faithfully  carried  out  for  the  general 
good.  Mrs.  Frye  has  a  genius  for  organizing, 
working  with  indomit;d)l(>  energy  and  anima- 
tion for  present  and  future  good. 

Mrs.  Frye  was  the  first  president  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  of  the  Mary  Brown  Home,  a  highly 
useful  institution  founded  on  broad  princi|)les. 
This  is  a  resting-place  for  sick  and  broken- 
down  women,  who  have  always  been  indus- 
trious, self-supi)orting,  and  self-respecting.  It 
is  unique  in  having,  beside  the  regular  directors, 
an  advisory  board  of  men  and  women,  as  well 
as  a  co-operative  board  of  helpers  from  busi- 
ness houses  where  women  are  employed.  This 
plan  for  an  invalids'  home  was  originated  by 
a  little  band  of  Methodist  women.  Some  mem- 
bers of  the  Universalist  church  next  became 
interested,  and  finally  all  the  churches  took 
hold  of  the  work.  Mary  Cobb  was  the  pioneer 
worker,  and  Mrs.  Brown  (for  whom  the  home 
is  rfow  called)  made  a  practical  begimiing  pos- 
sible in  the  summer  of  1894  by  giving  the  use 
of  her  cottage  at  Trefethern's  Landing.  Later 
a  cottage  was  purchased  at  28  Revere  Street, 
Portland.  There  was  soon  a  demand  for  more 
than  its  twelve  rooms,  and  a  new  and  larger 
building  has  been  built  on  the  site  of  thr  ancient 
Bradley  Meeting-hou.se,  a  site  which  was  a  gift 
to  the  directors  for  that  purpose.     During  the 


nine  years  over  a  hundred  invalids  and  broken- 
down  women  had  shelter  and  care,  and  all 
but  seven  of  this  number  have  been  restored 
to  health  and  have  gone  back  to  their  work. 
The  labor,  the  tact,  the  time  and  strength, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  open  purse  which  Mrs. 
Frye  has  had  ready  as  the  occasion  has  de- 
manded in  this  particular  service,  show  how 
nmch  it  has  been  a  labor  of  love.  How  truly  she 
is  a  philanthropist!  One  is  not  surprised  to 
learn  that  she  comes  of  strong  Quaker  stock. 
Mrs.  Frye  was  born  at  Vassalborough,  Me., 
January  8,  1852,  being  the  daughter  of  Caleb 
and  Maria  Nichols.  Her  father  and  mother 
were  elders  in  the  Vassalborough  Society 
of  Friends,  and  for  years  clerks  of  the 
business  meetings.  Always  working  in  the 
interests  of  progress  in  the  town,  they  were 
trustees  from  its  organization  of  Oak  Grove 
Seminary,  a  l''riends'  school  at  Vassalborough. 
Their  daughter  Eunice  was  mostly  eilucated  in 
that  seminary,  being  a  student  there  for  years. 
She  was  for  some  time  the  principal  of  the  Uni- 
tarian Friends'  School  at  Orchard  Park,  N.Y., 
now  a  normal  school.  In  her  girlhood  she  spent 
several  winters  with  her  brother.  Dr.  Charles 
H.  Nichols,  superintendent  of  the  Government 
Hospital  for  the  Insane  at  A^'ashington,  D.C. 

On  June  15,  ISSO,  Eunice  Nichols  became 
the  wife  of  Mr.  George  C.  Frye,  a  chemist  and 
importer  of  surgical  instruments.  Her  home 
in  Portland  has  ever  been  noted  for  its  cordial 
hospitality;  for  her  husband,  like  herself,  is  of 
a  genial  nature,  and  delights  in  sharing  his 
prosperity  with  others. 

Mrs.  Frye  is  vice-president  at  large  of  the 
National  Dorothea  Dix  Association.  Fltficient 
women  are  always  in  demand,  and  because  she 
is  efficient  she  is  busy,  so  busy  that  it  seems 
"  Her  life  is  but  a  working  day,  whose  tasks 
arc  set  aright." 


MAY  ALDEN  WARD,  author  and  lect- 
urer, residing  in  Boston,  is  now  (1903) 
serving  her  second  year  as  president 
of   the  Massachusetts  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs.     A  native  of  Ohio,   born   at 
Milford  Centre,  near  Columbus,  March  1,  1853, 
as  the  daughter  of  Prince  William  and  Rebecca 


48 


RKFRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


(Neal)  Alden  she  rightfully  inherits  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Commonwealth  foiindod  by  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  and  the  Puritans  of  the  Bay 
Colony.  The  first  paragraph  of  her  family 
history  was  penned  by  Governor  Bradfortl 
more  than  two  hundred  years  ago: — 

"John  Alden  was  hired  for  a  cooper  at  South- 
ampton, where  the  ship  victualed;  and  being  a 
hopeful  young  man,  was  nmch  desired  but  left 
to  his  own  liking  to  go  or  stay  when  he  came; 
but  he  stayed  and  marrietl  here." 

From  John'  Alden  and  the  ready-witted 
Priscilla  (who,se  parents,  William  and  Alice 
Mullins,  antl  their  son  Joseph,  died  the  first 
winter)  the  line  was  continued  through  Cap- 
tain Jonathan,^  Andrew,'^  Major  Prince,*  An- 
drew Stanford/'  Prince  William,"  to  May'  (Mrs. 
Ward). 

Captain  Jonathan  Alden  married  Abigail, 
daughter  of  Andrew  Hallet,  Jr.^  Andrew  Al- 
den, their  eldest  son,  mai-ried  Lydia  Stanford. 
Major  Prince  Alden  married  Mary  Fitch, 
daughter  of  Adonijah  Fitch,  of  Montville, 
Conn.  Her  father  was  a  grandson  of  the  Rev. 
James'  Fitch,  of  Saybrook  and  Norwich,  Conn., 
and  his  .second  wife,  Priscilla  Mason,  daughter 
of  Major  John  Mason,  famous  military  leader 
of  the  Connecticut  Colony. 

A  year  or  two  before  the  begiiming  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  Major  Prince  Aklen  mi- 
grated with  his  family  from  Connecticut  to 
Wyoming  Count}',  Pennsylvania,  where  he  be- 
came a  large  land-owner.  In  bSlG  Andrew 
Stanford  Alden,  with  his  wife,  F^lizabeth  Ailing- 
ton,  and  their  children,  removed  from  Tioga 
County,  New  York,  to  Ohio. 

Prince  William  Alden,  Mrs.  Ward's  father,  a 
merchant  and  banker,  born  in  1809,  ilied  Feb- 
ruary 27,  1893.  He  married  in  1844  Rebecca, 
daughter  of  Henry  Neal,  of  Mechanicsbm-g, 
Ohio,  and  his  wife,  Catherine  Bigelow,  who  was 
a  daughter  of  Isaac  Bigelow,  of  Dunmierston, 
\'t.,  and  a  descendant  of  John  Biglo,  of  Water- 
town,  the  founder  of  the  Bigelow  family  of 
New  luigland.  Mrs.  Rebecca  Neal  Alden,  born 
in  1823,  died  April  12,  1898.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Alden  had  three  children — Hemy,  Reuben, 
and  May  (now  Mrs.  Ward). 

From  her  father  May  Alden  inherited  a  taste 
for  history  and  literature.     She  began  to  study 


and  to  use  her  pen  very  early,  contributing 
articles  to  the  Cincinnati  Cimvvercial  before 
she  was  sixteen.  She  was  educated  at  Ohio 
Wesleyan  l^niversity,  Delaware,  Ohio,  and 
after  her  gra<luation  in  1872  she  studied  some 
years  abroad,  devoting  henself  to  French,  Ger- 
man, and  iMiglish  literature,  later  taking  up 
Italian.  On  June  1,  1873,  she  was  married  to 
AMlliam  G.  Ward,  since  1898  professor  of  Eng- 
lish literature  at  the  Emerson  College  of  Ora- 
tory, Boston,  formerly  holding  the  same  chair 
at  Syracuse  University,  Syracuse,  N.Y.,  and 
at  an  earlier  date  President  of  vSpokane  College. 
Profe.ssor  Ward  is  the  author  of  several  books, 
among  them  "Tennyson's  Debt  to  Environ- 
ment" and  "The  Poetry  of  Robert  Browning." 

Since  she  came  to  New  England,  twelve  years 
ago,  the  rise  in  club  life  of  Mrs.  May  Alden 
Waril  has  been  constant  and  rapid.  At  Frank- 
lin she  organized  a  club  of  which  she  was  the 
first  president,  and  which  was  afterward  named 
for  her  the  Alden  Clul).  Later  while  living  in 
Cambridge  she  was  for  four  years  president  of 
Cantabrigia,  one  of  the  largest  and  most  ener- 
getic clubs  of  the  countrj'.  At  the  same  time 
Mrs.  Ward  became  a  member  of  the  famous 
New  England  Woman's  Club,  in  which  she  is 
still  one  of  the  most  valued  workers.  For  two 
years  she  was  president  of  the  New  England 
Woman's  Press  Association,  and  she  is  strong 
in  its  councils  at  the  present  time.  She  is  also 
a  charter  member  and  director  of  the  Authors' 
Club  of  Boston.  She  was  the  first  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Ma.ssachu.setts  State  Federation  for 
two  years  before  becoming  its  president.  She 
also  has  interest  in  various  public  affairs,  and 
has  been  appointed  one  of  the  Commissioners 
for  Massachusetts  at  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
Exposition  in  St.  Louis. 

Mrs.  Ward  began  lecturing  about  twelve 
years  ago,  resi)oiiding  to  the  request  of  some 
ladies  who  asked  her  t<i  give  parlor  talks  on 
French  literature.  As  a  lecturer  and  teacher 
she  now  does  an  enormous  amount  of  work, 
her  accuracy,  her  pleasing  address,  her  direct- 
ness, and  the  large  amount  of  information 
crowded  into  her  lessons  and  lectures  making 
her  one  of  the  most  popular  club  lecturers  in 
New  England.  Of  her  efforts  in  that  field  the 
New  York  Times  has  this  to  say:  "Mrs.  Ward 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGT.AND 


49 


has  the  historian's  instinct,  and  gives  her  facts 
without  feeling  the  necessity  of  breaking  into 
ejaculations  over  their  picturesqueness.  Her 
good  training  as  a  writer  tells,  as  it  always 
ought  to  tell;  and  her  papers  on  subjects  con- 
nected with  our  colonial  history  are  written  in 
a  style  both  reticent  and  lively."  Kate  San- 
born's comment  on  her  lectures  is  both  true 
and  adequate:  "At  the  close  of  each  course  the 
audience  feels  acquainted  with  the  men  and 
women  analyzed,  and  familiar  with  their  best 
achievements;  for  she  has  the  power  to  vitalize 
a  subject,  throwing  arountl  it  the  fascination 
felt  by  herself — a  rare  gift  and  akin  to  genius." 

Aside  from  the  prestige  which  the  advance- 
ment in  club  circles  may  lend  to  her  name, 
Mrs.  Ward  has  won  a  reputation  as  a  writer 
that  rests  on  the  firm  foundation  of  merit. 
Among  her  books  are  a  Life  of  Dante,  Life  of 
Petrarch,  "Old  Colony  Days,"  and  "Prophets 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century."  These  have  re- 
ceived great  praise  from  literary  critics.  Her 
"Dante"  and  "Petrarch,"  it  is  freely  conceded, 
each  met  the  need  of  a  concise  life  in  iMiglish 
never  before  filled.  William  Dean  Howells 
.says  of  the  former:  "While  we  are  still  upon 
Italian  ground,  we  wish  to  speak  of  Mrs.  May 
Alden  Ward's  very  clear,  unaffected,  and  inter- 
esting sketch  of  Dante  and  his  life  and  works. 
The  effort  is  something  comparable  to  those 
processes  by  which  the  stain  and  whitewash 
of  centuries  is  removed,  anil  the  beauty  and 
truth  of  some  noble  fresco  underneath  is  brought 
to  life  again.  Mrs.  Ward  has  wrought  in  the 
right  spirit,  and  she  shows  a  figure,  simple, 
conceivably  like,  and  worthy  to  be  Dante, 
with  which  she  has  apparently  not  suffered 
her  fancy  to  play." 

Of  the  "Petrarch"  Mrs.  Louise  Chandler 
Moulton  says:  "Mrs.  Ward  has  done  her  work 
admirably;  and  from  this  one  book  you  may 
glean  all  that  is  of  real  value  in  the  hundreds 
of  volumes  of  which  Petrarch  has  been  the 
theme.  His  love,  his  friendship,  his  ambi- 
tions, his  greatness,  and  his  follies,  .  .  .  they 
are  written  here." 

No  less  an  expert  than  John  Fi.ske  thus  pro- 
nounced upon  the  merits  of  "Old  Colony  Days": 
"The  sympathy  and  breadth  of  treatment  make 
it  a  charming  series  of  essays."     One  of  the 


best  of  the  appreciations  of  the  book  is  that  of 
the  Chicago  Times-Herald:  "Plain  history  in 
fascinating  guise  is  so  rare  a  gift  to  the  per- 
functory seeker  for  knowledge  that  attention 
must  be  called  to  a  charming  new  book,  'Old 
Colony  Days,'  written  in  the  sprightliest  of 
easy  styles  for  young  or  old,  and  displaying 
the  high  lights  of  the  history  of  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies.  It  is  not  that  the  story  is  new: 
it  as  old  as  love  to  Puritans  and  their  descend- 
ants. It  is  on  account  of  a  crisp,  brisk,  and 
ringing  style,  and  on  account  of  the  taste  with 
which  the  historian  discriminates  in  subject 
matter,  that  we  like  the  book  so  well.  The 
half-satirical,  half-serious  manner  in  which 
all  our  ancestral  worthies  are  memorized  is 
indeed  attractive.  There  are  never  too  many 
words,  there  is  always  a  simple  style,  and  there 
are  invariably  points  of  interest  lighted  upon." 

Mrs.  Ward's  latest  book,  "Prophets  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century,"  is  in  a  sense  her  most 
important  one,  and  into  it  she  has  put  more 
of  her  own  personality.  The  "Prophets,"  Car- 
lyle,  Ruskin,  Tolstoi,  stand  for  humanity.  We 
are  sure  that  the  expression  of  their  convictions 
in  the  book  voices  Mrs.  W^ard's  own  feelings; 
that  their  theories  of  life  have  largely  influ- 
enced her  own;  that  she  herself  is  not  only  in 
sympathy  with  the  great  movement  which  her 
prefatory  note  says  is  sweeping  over  the  world, 
but  is  a  part  of  it,  as  her  connection  with  the 
clubs  gives  her  the  opportunity  and  the  right 
to  be.  "The  Prophets  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury" has  received  warm  endorsement.  Caro- 
line H.  Dall,  in  the  Springfield  Republican,  thus 
commends  it:  "The  sketches  of  Carlyle  and 
Ruskin  are  masterly.  They  seize  the  essential 
points  with  a  true  comprehensipn,  ant^  neither 
the  two  volumes  of  Froude  nor  any  that  con- 
cerns Ruskin  give  as  clear  an  idea  of  the  men 
they  celebrate."  Several  of  Mrs.  ^\'ard's  books 
have  already  been  translated  into  other  lan- 
guages, amongthem  being  the  "Prophets",  which 
has  made  its  appearance  in  Japanese. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mrs.  Ward's  work  gives 
her  a  right  to  distinction.  Yet  the  woman 
behind  it  is  more  than  any  expression  of  herself 
in  her  writings  and  lectures.  The  sketch  of 
her  written  by  Kate  Sanborn  for  a  Boston 
paper  a  few  years  ago  is  so  exact  a  portrait 


50 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


that  one  does  not  like  either  to  add  to  or  take 
away  from  the  picture.  Miss  Sanborn  says: 
"Mrs.  Ward  possesses  a  simphcity  of  manner 
that  comes  only  with  sinc(>rity  of  purpose,  the 
best  breeding,  and  a  hacking  of  desirable  an- 
cestry; an  executive  ability  that  is  never  marred 
by  its  too  frecjuent  accompaniment— a  domi- 
neering spirit  and  a  desire  for  control;  a  straight, 
clear  outlook  from  eyes  that  hide  no  secrets, 
a  hand-grasp  that  is  cordial,  without  being 
effusive.  One  is  impressed  by  the  apparent 
ease  with  which  she  accomplishes  great  tasks. 
She  does  not  talk  of  her  work,  nor  take  herself 
too  seriously,  and  is  delightfully  free  from  ped- 
antry. What  she  has  done  for  other  women, 
spiring  a  scholarly  si)irit,  giving  history  and 


m 


literature  in  conden-sed  and  attractive  talks, 
lifting  them  above  the  narrow  interests,  petty 
jealousies,  and  the  gossipy  hal)it,  cannot  be 
told  in  this  brief  outline."  Of  her  part  in  the 
clubs  Miss  Sanborn  adds:  "She  is  impartial, 
well  poised,  never  capricious  in  manner  or 
opinion.  She  follows  the  middle  path.  As 
hostess,  teacher,  author,  friend,  she  is  always 
natural,  kindly,  thinking  of  others.  And  so 
love  and  appreciation  and  the  truest  friendship 
are  given  to  her  by  all  who  are  so  foi-tunate  as 
to  know  her  and  her  work." 

To  this  might  be  added  just  one  thing  more  — 
that  Mrs.  Ward  has  the  art  of  drawing  from 
her  friends  the  heartiest  and  most  loyal  service. 
When  a  piece  of  work  is  to  be  done  to  which 
she  cannot  give  time  or  attention,  she  knows 
on  whom  to  call;  and  those  who  know  and  love 
her  feel  it  a  privilege  to  do  her  behest,  being 
assured  that  when  they  in  turn  need  help  she 
will  more  than  repay  their  services,  or  that 
they  have  been  more  than  repaid  already.  It 
is  in  such  a  woman  that  the  Massachusetts 
clubs  have  placed  their  confid(>nce,  in  her  hands 
the  direction  of  the  Federation  at  present  is 
held. 

Her  report  to  the  Massachusetts  State  Fed- 
eration of  the  biennial  meeting  at  Los  Angeles 
in  June,  1902,  is  a  model  of  clearness  and  brev- 
ity, and  is  the  best  exposition  of  her  spirit 
under  the  trying  circumstances  of  the  conven- 
tion. This  is  its  conclusion:  "The  i)est  gift 
that  can  be  given  to  any  of  us  is  the  i)rivilege 
of  being  of  some  use  in  the  world.  .  .  .  The  re- 


ward is  in  the  work  itself,  even  though  we  may 
have  to  wait  years  for  the  tangible  results. 
Let  us  hope  that  in  this  co-operation,  with  the 
women  of  the  East  and  the  West,  the  North 
and  the  South,  working  side  by  side  for  the 
same  object,  unworthy  prejudices  and  antag- 
onisms may  be  outgrown  and  cast  aside,  so 
that  eventually  we  shall  all  stand  together  for 
the  good  of  humanity." 


MARY  SUSAN  GOODALE,  former 
l)resident  of  the  Department  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
is  a  native  of  Boston.  Descended 
from  early  colonial  and  Revolutionary  stock, 
she  inherits  patriotism.  Her  father,  Joseph 
Lorraine  Goldthwait,  merchant  and  public- 
spirited  citizen  of  Boston  at  the  time  of  the 
Civil  AVar,  was  a  lineal  descendant  in  the 
eighth  generation  of  Thomas'  Goklthwaite,  an 
innnigrant  of  1630  or  1631;  and  through  his 
mother,  whose  maiilen  name  was  Hannah 
Alden,  he  traced  his  ancestry  to  John  and 
Priscilla  (Mullins)  Alden.  The  descent  from 
Thomas'  Goldthwaite  was  through  his  son 
Sanniel,-  who  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Ezekiel  ('heever,  the  famous  master  of  the 
Boston  Latin  School.  The  line  continued 
through  Cai)t.  John''  Goldthwaite,  born  in  Salem 
in  1678;  Major  lienjamin\  born  in  Boston  in 
1704;  Benjamin^  l)orn  in  1743,  resided  in 
Maiden  and  Boston:  John",  married  Sally  Morris 
and  resided  in  Boston;  Joseph  Gleason',  born 
in  1798,  married  in  1820,  Mrs.  Hannah  Alden 
Mansfield,  daughter  of  Solomon  Alden  (Simeon^ 
Samuel^  Joseph^-,  John')  and  widow  of  Wil- 
liam Mansheld,  to  Joseph  Lorraine^  above 
named,  who  was  born  in  Boston  in  1821. 

Major  lienjamin  Goldthwaite  is  reported  to 
have  passed  most  of  his  life  as  a  soldier.  He 
was  a  Captain  in  the  Louisburg  expedition  of 
1745  and  Major  in  that  of  1758.  His  death 
occurred  in  1761  in  Milford,  Mass.  His  son 
Benjamin  was  one  of  the  volunteers  from  Lynn 
who  responded  to  the  Lexington  alarm.  Tra- 
dition says  he  was  working  in  the  field  when 
the  alarm  was  given,  and  threw  tlown  his  hoe 
and  started  at  once  for  Lexington. 

Joseph  L.  (ioldthwait  during  the  Civil  War 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGEAND 


51 


organized  a  society  for  the  care  of  soldiers' 
families,  eontributinp;  liberally  to  its  funds. 
Being  an  invalid  at  that  time,  he  was  unable 
to  enlist,  but  his  jjersonal  efforts  and  financial 
support  were  of  great  service.  He  died  in 
1868.  He  married,  October  23,  1842,  Lydia 
Ann,  daughter  of  Norton'  and  Lydia  (Christie) 
Newcomb.  Her  father  was  l)orn  in  Braintree 
in  1796,  was  descended  from  Francis'  New- 
comb  through  John,"  ^  Isaac,*  Captain  Thomas,'^ 
Remember." 

Captain  Thomas  Newcomb,  of  Braintree, 
Mass.,  a  great-great-grandfather  of  Mrs.  Good- 
ale,  was  Second  Lieutenant,  May  8,  1775,  in 
Captain  Seth  Thomas's  independent  company. 
As  First  Lieutenant  of  the  company  he  served 
at  barracks  in  Braintree,  January  1  to  Novem- 
ber 1,  1776;  also  in  Captain  Seth  Turner's  com- 
pany. Colonel  Thomas  Marshall's  regiment,  at 
Hull,  October  .31,  1776,  to  January  1,  1777.  Li 
September,  1777,  he  was  enrolled  as  a  ('aptain 
in  Colonel  Theophilus  Cotton's  regiment,  which 
marched  on  a  secret  expedition  to  Rhode  Island. 
Honorably  discharged  October  31,  1777,  he 
again  enlisted  and  was  ccjnnnissioned  Captain 
in  a  three  months  company  in  Colonel  Eben- 
ezer  Thayer's  regiment,  which  re-enforced 
the  Continental  army,  a  jiart  of  the  company 
being  stationed  at  West  Point  and  a  part  at 
Rhode  Island.  On  August  15,  1781,  he  was 
made  Captain  in  Colonel  Joseph  Webb's  regi- 
ment, in  which  he  served  four  months  on  duty 
at  Peekskill,  N.Y.  He  also  saw  service  in  Paul 
Revere's  artillery. 

The  Newcomb  genealogy  states  that  Captain 
Newcomb  offered  to  receive  his  pay  in  potatoes, 
and  that  the  offer  was  gladly  accepted  by  the 
authorities.  He  was  very  successful  in  raising 
companies  for  the  war,  and  would  accept  no 
higher  position  than  the  grade  of  Captain. 
This  was  in  accordance  with  a  pledge  he  had 
made,  that  he  would  remain  in  charge  of  the 
company  as  long  as  permitted  bj^  his  superior 
officers.  With  him  in  the  service  were  his 
three  sons,  the  youngest  entering  the  army 
when  he  was  only  fourteen  years  of  age. 

Captain  Newcomb's  wife  cheerfully  kept  the 
house,  caretl  for  the  little  ones,  and  wished  sh(^ 
had  more  sons  to  give  to  her  country.  Re- 
member   Newcomb,    the    third    son,    married 


Susannah  Brackett,  daughter  of  William  Brack- 
ett,  a  Revolutionary  .soldier.  William  Brack- 
ett's  name  appears  on  the  Lexington  alarni 
rolls.  In  1777  he  is  recorded  as  a  member  of 
Captain  Thomas  Newcomb's  independent  com- 
pany, and  in  1778  he  appears  with  the  rank  of 
gunner  in  Captain  Callender's  company,  Colonel 
Crane's  regiment.  His  name  was  on  pay-roll 
dated  January  11,  1781.  He  served  almost 
continuously  until  September,  1781,  first  in 
Colonel  Benjamin  Lincoln's  regiment  and  next 
in  Captain  Seth  Thomas's  company.  He  died 
a  .soldier's  death  at  Plattsburg  in  the  War  of 
1812. 

Mary  Susan  Goldthwait  (Mrs.  Goodale)  re- 
ceived her  early  education  in  the  public  schools 
of  Boston,  and  finished  her  course  of  study  in 
Medford  schools,  her  parents  having  removed 
to  that  city  in  1854.  The  lessons  of  loyalty 
taught  her  by  a  patriotic -father  were  deeply 
impres.sed  upon  her  mind.  Although  only  a 
school-girl  when  the  Civil  War  began,  she  was 
interestetl  in  the  sokliers,  and  solicited  money 
with  which  she  furnished  a  Thanksgiving  din- 
ner to  their  families  in  her  neighborhood.  On 
January  7,  1868,  she  was  married  to  Captain 
George  L.  Goodale. 

Mrs.  Goodale  is  a  charter  member  of  S.  C. 
Lawrence  Relief  Corps,  No.  5,  of  Medford, 
which  was  instituted  May  27,  1879.  She 
.served  that  year  as  senior  vice-president,  was 
installed  as  president  January,  1880,  and  re- 
elected three  successive  years.  At  the  annual 
convention  of  the  Department  of  Massachu- 
setts, W.  R.  C,  in  1881,  she  proved  very  effi- 
cient in  committee  work,  and  when  the  board 
of  directors  of  the  Department  met  in  April, 
1881,  she  was  cho.sen  a  member  of  the  commit- 
tee on  the  SoUliers'  Home  Bazaar,  which  was 
held  in  Mechanics'  Building,  Boston,  in  De- 
cember, 1881.  Mrs.  Goodale  was  secretary  of 
the  Union  table. 

She  was  chosen  by  the  board  of  directors  of 
the  Department  W.  R.  C.  to  fill  a  vacancy  in 
the  office  of  Department  Conductor  in  the 
latter  part  of  1881,  was  re-elected  to  the  office 
at  the  annual  convention  in  1882,  and  a  year 
later  was  elected  senior  vice-president.  Mrs. 
(ioodale  was  cho.sen  Department  president  in 
January,  1884.     During  the  first  year  of  her  ad- 


52 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ministration  she  instituted  sixteen  corps.  She 
was  unanimously  re-elected  Department  presi- 
dent at  the  annual  convention  in  1885,  during 
which  year  over  one  thousand  members  and 
sixteen  corps  were  adiled  to  the  roster. 

In  her  address  to  the  next  convention -(Janu- 
ary, 1885)  she  said: — 

"I  cannot  give  you  full  particulars  of  my 
labors  during  the  year,  but  will  briefly  say  that 
I  have  represented  the  Department  on  seventy- 
three  difTerent  occasions,  written  six  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  letters  and  a  large  number  of 
postal  cards,  travelled  over  nineteen  hundred 
miles  (not  inchuling  the  weekly  trips  to  head- 
quarters on  Wednesdays). 

"The  work  of  the  Department  has  assumed 
such  proportions  that  I  am  led  to  reconunend 
that  this  convention  adopt  measures  for  the 
appointment  of  a  corps  of  aides,  corresponding 
to  the  aides  appointeil  by  the  Department  con- 
vention of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 
It  would  be  the  duty  of  the.se  aides  to  become 
thoroughly  acquainteil  with  all  the  workings  of 
the  order,  holding  them.selves  in  readiness  to 
act  in  any  capacity." 

This  system  of  assigning  s{)ecial  duties  to 
Department  aides  has  since  been  adojjted  in 
ail  the  States  and  also  by  the  National  W.  R.  C. 

A  gold  watch,  suitably  inscribed,  was  pre- 
sented to  Mrs.  Goodale  upon  her  retirement 
from  the  presidency. 

Mrs.  Goodale  has  participated  in  national 
conventions,  servetl  on  special  committees  by 
appointment  of  the  national  presiilent,  and 
represented  Massachusetts  one  year  as  national 
corresponding  .secretary.  She  served  as  chair- 
man of  the  Department  table  in  the  Soldiers' 
Home  Carnival,  the  proceeds  of  which  netted 
four  thousand  dollars  to  the  carnival  treasury. 
She  rendered  efficient  service  in  the  kettledrum 
given  under  the  auspices  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home,  and  for  sev- 
eral years  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Department  W.  R.  C.  Rooms  at  the 
home.  From  1893  to  1899  Mrs.  Goodale  was 
secretary  of  the  Memorial  P'und  Conmiittee, 
having  charge  of  the  work  for  soldiers'  widows 
and  arm}'  nurses.  Since  1899  she  has  .served 
continuously  as  chairman  of  the  Department 
Relief  Coirmiittee.     This   is   a   position   of   re- 


sponsibility: it  not  only  necessitates  the  wise 
expenditure  of  thousands  of  dollars,  but  also 
a  familiarity  with  pension  laws,  dealings  with 
the  office  of  the  State  Aid  Commissioner,  the 
Soldiers'  Relief  Bureau,  visits  to  the  sick,  the 
transportation  of  needy  veterans  to  various 
cities  and  towns  and  to  Soldiers'  Homes. 

The  relief  work  incident  to  the  Spanish- 
American  War  has  also  received  valuable  aid 
from  Mrs.  Goodale.  She  is  interested  in  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  and 
was  the  first  regent  of  the  Sarah  Bradlee  Fulton 
Chapter,  of  Medford,  serving  two  years.  She 
is  at  present  (1902)  one  of  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors of  the  Medford  Home  for  Aged  Men  and 
Women.  She  is  an  interesting  and  influential 
speaker,  and  has  addressed  many  public  gath- 
erings. 

Mrs.  Gootlale  is  prominent  in  the  social  and 
educational  afl'airs  of  Medford.  She  was  one 
of  the  earliest  members  of  the  Woman's  Club 
of  that  city.  In  1900  she  was  elected  vice- 
president  of  the  club,  but  resigned,  as  she  went 
to  Cuba  in  November  of  that  year,  remaining 
until  April,  1901,  at  Columbia  Barracks,  Que- 
mados  (eight  miles  from  Havana),  where  her 
husband,  who  had  enlisted  to  serve  in  the 
Spanish-American  War,  was  stationed  as  As- 
sistant Brigade  Quartermaster. 

Captain  Goodale  was  in  the  Forty-third 
Massachu.setts  Reginient  during  the  Civil  War. 
lie  is  a  Past  Conunander  of  S.  C.  Lawrence 
Post,  No.  66,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Medford,  also  a  Past 
Department  Commander  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  of  Massachusetts.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  Ar- 
rangements for  the  national  encampment  in 
Boston  in  1890,  and  was  Inspector-general  on 
the  stafT  of  Commander-in-chief  Weissert  in 
in  1894.  In  April,  1901,  he  was  appointed  by 
President  McKinley  a  Captain  in  the  regular 
army  and  given  charg(^  of  important  work  at 
Fort  Washington,  Oregon,  with  headquarters  at 
Astoria. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Goodale  have  three  chil- 
dren— Agnes,  Carrie  Louise,  and  George  Mor- 
timer. They  are  graduates  of  the  Medford 
High  School,  and  Agnes  also  attended  the 
Woman's  College  in  Baltimore,  Md.  George 
Mortimer  Goodale  was  a  soldier  in  the  Fifth 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


53 


Regiment,  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Militia, 
in  the  Spanish-American  War.  He  is  now  in 
business  in  San  Francisco,  California.  Carrie 
Louise  Goodale  was  married,  April  15,  1903,  to 
Nathaniel  Perkins  Simonds,  and  now  resides  in 
Salem. 


t GUISE  HUMPHREY -SMITH.— The 
subject  of  this  sketch  was  first 
__J  known  to  the  writer  when  she  was  not 
Mrs.  Humphrey-Smith  nor^  even  Miss 
Humphrey,  but  simply  and  sweetly  Louise. 
We  were  not  reared  in  the  same  neighborhood, 
yet  quite  near  each  other;  and  as  youth  and 
maiden  we  formed  a  frientlship  whicJi,  through 
many  years  and  many  vicissitudes,  has  held 
fast  till  now,  and  which  in  some  degree  qualifies 
me  to  speak  of  her. 

The  town  in  which  she  was  reared  was  Turner, 
Me.  Her  neighborhood  was  Bradfonl  Village, 
through  which  flows  the  Nezinseot  River.  The 
village,  a  small  and  unpretentling  farming  com- 
munity, was  large  enough  for  a  considerable 
circle  of  neighborly  relations,  and  contained 
two  men,  a  physician  and  a  minister,  of  more 
than  strictly  local  importance.  The  physician, 
Dr.  Philip  Bradfonl,  was  of  perhaps  no  high 
rank  in  his  profession,  but  he  practised  it  with 
fair  success,  and  directed  to  wise  ends  the  influ- 
ence which  his  position  gave  him.  The  elders 
certainly  looked  up  to  him,  and  sought  his 
advice  on  many  matters  outside  his  medical 
studies;  and  I  suspect  there  were  few  young 
people  about  him  who  ditl  not  incur  an  extra- 
professional  debt  to  him.  Their  interests  in- 
terested him,  and  his  homely  counsel  ami  genial 
sympathy  were  ever  for  them.  The  minister, 
the  Rev.  William  R.  French — it  is  ever  with  a 
hush  of  reverence  that  I  speak  of  him.  He 
was  one  of  those  ministers,  becoming  rarer  and 
rarer,  who  take  small  place  and  abide  in  it 
content,  and  are  no  less  strenuous  in  their  ser- 
vice because  their  parishioners  are  poor  and 
few.  He  might  have  served  as  the  model  of 
the  preacher  of  the  "Deserted  Village,"  or  the 
"  Pourc  Persoun"  of  the  "Canterbury  Tales." 
He  had  the  instincts  and  the  training  of  a 
scholar.  In  the  pulpit  he  was  not  eloquent, 
but  he  was  wise,  and  in  his  pastoral  walk  he 


conveyed  the  impression  both  of  holiness  and 
the  beauty  of  it.  There  floats  into  my  mind, 
as  peculiarly  applicable  to  him,  a  stanza  from 
an  elegy  on  Sidney  included  in  some  editions 
of  the  works  of  Spenser: — 

"  A  sweet  attractive  kiude  of  grace, 
A  full  assurance  given  by  lookes, 
Continuall  comfort  in  a  face. 

The  lineaments  of  Gospell  bookes; 
I  trowe  that  countenance  cannot  lie, 
Whose  thoughts  are  legible  in  the  eie." 

He  was  peculiarly  useful  to  young  people. 
While  they  revered  him,  they  could  be  easily 
familiar  with  him;  and  he  showed  them  their 
possibilities,  sympathized  with  their  aspira- 
tions, corrected,  encouraged,  and  led  them  on. 
If  our  friend  were  to  undertake  a  statement  of 
her  obligations,  I  suspect  she  would  confess 
no  greater  debt  to  any  other  than  to  him. 
Antl  of  great  importance  to  her  early  life  must 
have  been  a  considerable  group  of  young  people 
who  aspired,  some  of  whom  have  since  acquitted 
themselves  well.  Somehow  they  had  caught 
hokl  upon  the  truth  that  the  better  portion  of 
the  world  was  beyond  their  horizon,  and  that 
it  was  only  l)y  the  highway  of  culture  that  they 
could  reach  that  fairer  ami  ampler  realm.  The 
resources  for  culture  were  not  bountiful,  but 
they  were  not  altogether  wanting.  The  Ai- 
lantic  Monthly  anil  Harper  s  Magazine,  though 
not  widely  taken,  were  yet  to  be  seen.  The 
current  literature  was  for  most  part  beyond  our 
reach,  but  a  few  classics  we  had — Pope,  Thom- 
son, Goldsmith,  Burns,  Byron,  Milton,  Shake- 
speare, foo(.l  for  noble  hungering;  and  these  were 
read.  The  minister  above  mentioned  here  bore 
some  aid.  With  an  eye  to  the  needs  of  his 
young  people,  he  put  into  his  Sunday-school 
library  books  of  real  literary  value  in  place  of 
the  current  stories  of  good  little  boys  and  girls 
who  died  so  discouragingly  young. 

Such  was  the  more  general  environment  of 
Mrs.  Humphrey-Smith's  girlhood,  wanting  many 
things  indeed,  but  not  without  its  smile  upon 
an  earnest  life.  We  come  to  her  home.  In 
its  general  appearance  it  was  like  the  homes 
about  her,  perhajis,  on  the  whole,  a  little  better 
than  the  average.  The  house,  still  standing, 
but  tenantless  ami  decaying,  is  a  small  cottage 
upon  a  hillside.     Within  it  in  her  day  was  no 


54 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


penury,  no  luxury,  but  plain  comfort  and  un- 
pretending dignity.  The  family  was  consider- 
able, and  servants  were  hardly  heard  of  in  that 
region;  so  her  hands  were  early  trained  to  mani- 
fold domestic  toil.  Her  parents  were  Henry 
White  and  Laura  Ann  (Turner)  Humphrey. 
Her  father  is  said  to  have  been  a  descendant 
of  Peregrine  White.  Her  mother  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Charles  Lee  Turner  and  grantl-daughter 
of  William  Turner,  of  Scituate,  Mass.,  who  at  an 
early  period  in  the  Revolutionary  War  was  on 
the  staff  of  Washington,  with  the  rank  of  Major, 
and  later  was  on  the  staff  of  General  Charles 
Lee.  A  pleasant  story  tells  that,  a  child  having 
been  born  to  him  in  his  absence  tluring  a  cam- 
paign, that  general  gave  him  a  horse  to  ride 
home.  This  chiUl,  a  son,  was  named  Charles 
Lee  Turner.  He  was  the  grandfather  of  Mrs. 
Humphrey-Smith. 

As  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Humphrey  were  both  from 
Revolutionary  sires,  there  was  some  toughness 
in  the  grain,  which  we  may  suspect  descended 
to  our  friend  ere  we  are  through.  Though  she 
may  be  pleased  to  acknowledge  in  her.self  some 
of  the  qualities  of  her  father,  it  is  probable  that 
her  more  characteristic  features  are  drawn  from 
her  mother,  of  whom  accordingly  a  word. 
Though  the  unpretending  servant  of  many 
cares,  she  was  much  more  than  an  ordinary 
woman.  Her  early  opportunities  were  poor 
enough,  but  through  the  eagerness  of  her  mind 
she  acquired  an  education  that  was  consider- 
able. She  and  another  young  lady  together 
led  the  way  of  womankind  in  that  region  in 
the  study  of  Latin.  This  was,  of  course,  to 
the  wonder  of  the  practical  about  her,  who 
could  not  see  how  Latin  could  be  of  any  use 
in  housekeeping,  and  who  perhaps  felt  with 
Milton  that  one  tongue  was  enough  for  a  woman. 
To  be  sure,  there  were  other  things  that  she 
might  have  studied  quite  as  profitably;  the 
important  fact  was  that. she  studied  something, 
that  her  mind  reached  out  for  more  than  the 
common  satisfaction.  And  what  she  gained, 
Latin  and  whatever  else,  if  of  no  use  in  her 
housekeeping,  was  of  incalculable  use  to  herself. 
The  allotments  of  her  life  were  not  easy,  scanty 
means  and  seven  children  were  her  portion, 
but  through  the  interests  of  her  mind  she  coun- 
terpoi.se(l  them.     From  the  pressure  of  her  cares 


she  might  have  degenerated  into  a  drudge; 
through  her  intellectual  interests  she  preserved 
the  fair  estate  of  a  woman.  It  goes  without 
saying,  too,  that  these  interests  were  most 
profitable  to  her  children,  animating  a  cease- 
less watch  and  toil  and  sacrifice  for  their  edu- 
cation. 

To  Mrs.  Humphrey-Smith's  education  we 
now  come.  Her  schooling  was  in  the  main  in 
the  schools  of  the  town.  These,  however, 
brought  within  reach  a  range  of  study  that  was 
considerable.  The  district,  or  common,  schools 
had,  of  course,  their  elementary  curriculum, 
to  which  they  were  officially  supposed  to  be 
restricted.  But,  given  a  teacher  who  had 
knowledge  and  good  nature,  the  possible 
achievement  was  much  more  than  this;  and 
such  a  teacher  was  often  provided,  with  a  view 
to  the  needs  of  more  ambitious  pupils.  In 
a  brief  recitation  before  school  in  the  morning 
or  a  half-hour  or  so  after  school  in  the  evening 
how  much  could  be  done!  I  myself  thus 
brought  out  of  the  common  school  Smyth's 
treatise  on  algebra,  than  which  at  that  day 
no  college  in  the  country  would  have  given 
me  more,  some  knowledge  of  geometry,  astron- 
omy, physical  geography,  and  two  books  of 
Virgil.  But  we  also  had  a  peripatetic  high 
school  supported  by  a  fund,  which  gave  us  a 
term  every  autumn  in  three  districts  of  the 
town.  This  was  distinctly  for  higher  studies. 
In  both  district  and  high  school  our  friend 
comes  before  me,  a  happy  memory.  Her 
eager  mind  took  whatever  there  was  for  it.  In 
all  her  studies  she  excelled ;  in  one  line,  however, 
she  was  incomparable.  Others  might  keep 
pace  with  her  in  language  or  in  mathematics; 
but  no  one,  pupil  or  teacher,  could  read  as  she 
could.  Her  reading  was  without  ostentation, 
but.  it  thrilled  and  charmed.  It  comes  home 
to  me  now  as  I  write — the  justness  of  her  em- 
phasis, the  faultlessness  of  her  articulation, 
the  melody  of  her  intonation.  There  are  pas- 
sages of  literature  floating  in  ni}'  memory, 
choice  in  themselves,  but  doubly  valued  be- 
cause associated  with  the  music  of  her  tones. 
As  I  look  back  now,  I  see  that  her  reading  was 
informed  by  a  nascent  dramatic  jiower  which  in 
its  development  has  enthralled  multitudes  since. 
Mile.  Lundberg  did   great  service  to  the  world 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


55 


when,  discovering  the  musical  genius  of  Jenny 
Lind,  she  urged  and,  through  urging,  accom- 
pUshed  her  musical  education.  What  might  have 
happened  had  Charlotte  Cushman  chanced  to 
visit  that  village  school-house  and  tliscovered,  as 
she  might  easily  have  done,  a  genius  of  her  own 
great  art  in  this  village  maiden! 

She  was  given  a  year  at  the  Hebron  Acad- 
emy, a  school  of  no  low  degree,  and  with  this 
her  schooling  ended,  though  something  in  the 
way  of  private  instruction  in  Latin  and  in  Eng- 
lish was  given  her.  Her  educational  advan- 
tages, as  here  summarized,  have  a  meagre  look; 
but  it  was  not  the  fashion  of  that  day  to  send 
young  ladies  to  college,  and,  if  it  had  been, 
perhaps  the  family  exchequer  would  not  have 
been  equal  to  the  outlay.  But  healthy  appe- 
tite has  a  knack  of  finding  fooil,  and  her  appe- 
tite was  not  only  healthy,  but  insatiable.  How- 
ever it  was  done,  she  found  her  nourishment, 
and  developed  on  it  into  a  finely  poised  and 
cultivated  woman. 

She  taught  school  for  a  time  with  marked 
success.  Marriage,  however,  came,  and  soon 
after  she  crossed  the  continent  with  her  hus- 
band and  settled  in  Portland,  Ore.  Her  hus- 
band, Daniel  French  Smith,  of  Turner,  the  son 
of  Timothy  and  Jane  (French)  Smith,  a  family 
of  good  standing  in  the  town,  was  worthy  of 
her,  and  all  went  well  for  a  time.  They  brought 
to  the  task  of  life  high  purpose,  industry,  fru- 
gality, intelligence,  and  in  the  union  of  these 
there  is  ever  good  augury.  One  thing,  how- 
ever, was  wanting.  Her  husband  had  borne 
a  part  in  the  Civil  War,  and  brought  home  from 
it  an  insidious  malady,  with  which  he  struggled 
for  a  time,  but  to  which  he  must  succumb  at 
last.  A  child  had  been  given  her.  It  com- 
forted her  for  a  brief  period,  and  died.  Her 
own  health  gave  way;  and  she  rose  at  last  from 
a  protracted  illness  to  find  that,  whether  through 
legal  legerdemain  or  plain  thievery  does  not  mat- 
ter now,  her  worldly  possessions  had  been  taken 
from  her.  Here  was  exigency  in  which  had 
she  sunk  in  despair  she  could  have  been  for- 
given. She  was  not,  however,  that  kind  of 
woman.  The  Puritan  and  the  Revolutionary 
strains  in  her  ancestry  here  manifest  them- 
selves. Perhaps  she  could  have  sunk  into  the 
arms  of  affection  and  wept,  but  not  possibly 


into  the  embrace  of  adversity  to  grieve  and 
whine.  "The  best  use  of  Fate,"  says  Emerson, 
"is  to  teach  us  a  fatal  courage,"  and  this  best 
use  she  drew  to  her  service.  In  the  decrees 
of  her  will  and  through  the  energies  of  her  con- 
duct fate  was  out-fated.  She  must  do  some- 
thing for  her  maintenance,  she  would  do  some- 
thing for  the  world;  and,  not  unnaturally,  she 
bethought  her  of  the  talent  she  possessed  in 
such  ample  measure.  She  got  instruction  from 
acknowledged  masters,  toiled,  struggled — won! 

For  twelve  years  she  has  been  a  teacher  of 
elocution  in  the  Irving  Institute  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  for  seventeen  years  in  the  California 
College  in  Oakland.  Since  she  first  took  up 
her  work,  she  has  had  rooms  in  San  Francisco, 
where  she  has  instructed  and  still  instructs 
such  as  come — actors,  teachers,  lecturers,  min- 
isters, any  who  may  have  interest  in  elocution- 
ary or  histrionic  art.  Her  specialty  is  dramatic 
expression,  and  many  who  have  been  her  pupils 
are  now  on  the  ilramatic  stage.  She  carries 
into  her  work  a  genius  that  is  masterful  and  an 
enthusiasm  that  inspires.  It  is  no  trifling  cir- 
cumstance to  come  under  her  criticism,  for  her 
exposure  of  faults  is — we  might  say  without 
mercy  but  for  the  fact  that  in  its  very  nature 
it  is  merciful.  It  is  ruled,  however,  by  an  un- 
failing tact. 

In  no  department  of  human  interest  are 
superficiality  and  charlatanry  more  common 
than  in  hers,  met  in  men  and  women  who  are 
impatient  of  the  slow  progress  and  long  toil 
that  leail  to  excellence,  or  are  willing  to  offer 
highly  colored  fustian  for  royal  purple.  Against 
both  she  puts  forth  a  protest  which,  if  not 
always  heeded,  is  yet  widely  felt.  The  stand- 
ard of  public  demand  has  undoubtedly  been 
lifted  by  her  influence.  In  and  about  San 
Francisco  charlatanry  is  less  prosperous  be- 
cause she  is  there.  Her  art  is  not  her  religion, 
yet,  through  her  utter  devotion,  represents  it. 
She  believes  in  her  art  as  a  ministry  to  man's 
higher  needs.  It  is  not  merely  to  entertain, 
but  also  to  instruct  and  quicken.  But  these 
ends  are  sacrificed  if  its  stantlard  is  mean. 
Make  it  high,  make  it  noble,  and  it  shall  be 
cleansing  and  uplifting.  On  this  thenic  her 
elo(iuence  never  tires. 

It   is,  however,  on  the   platform   that   some 


56 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  us  like  best  to  think  of  her.  Here  she  is  a 
radiant  figure.  Presence,  manner,  voice,  all 
contribute  to  an  impression  that  is  sometimes 
wonderful. 

She  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  public  reader, 
why  I  know  not,  for  she  never  reads.  She  care- 
fully memorizes  her  selections,  and  this  all  the 
way  from  a  lyric  of  Whittier  to  a  drama  of 
Shakespeare.  Thus  steeping  her  mind  in  them, 
she  can  not  only  inter])rct  them,  but  incarnate 
them.  Their  humor,  piety,  passion,  pathos, 
smilfe  and  aspire  and  glow  and  weep  in  her. 
She  is  extremely  fond  of  Browning,  has  studied 
him  widely  and  deeply,  and  in  her  public  reci- 
tations done  not  a  little  to  extend  his  influence. 
It  seems  a  daring  thing  to  carry  Browning  to 
a  popular  audience,  but  she  has  done  this  re- 
peatedly with  superb  success.  She  has  great 
power  of  personation,  through  which  the  suc- 
cessful presentation  of  an  elaborate  drama  lias 
been  with  her  a  frequent  achievement.  Brown- 
ing's "  Blot  in  the  'Scutcheon"  she  has  rendered 
to  audiences  of  three  thousand,  which  she  en- 
thralled. I  once  heard  her  render  "The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,"  in  herself  a  whole  troupe  of 
dramatic  stars.  Every  feature  of  the  rendering 
charmed  me;  but  the  feature  that  especially 
impressed  me  was  the  facility  with  which  she 
transformed  herself  into  the  likeness  of  her  vari- 
ous characters.  That  Antonio  shoukl  come  be- 
fore us  was  not  surprising,  for  he  opens  the 
play,  and  the  personation  of  one  character  is 
achievement  with  which  we  are  familiar;  but 
Salarino  and  Solanio  and  Bassanio  and  Grati- 
ano  were  as  distinctly  there.  In  the  flow  of 
the  dialogue  so  many  men  could  not  have  pre- 
served the  individuality  of  these  characters 
more  successfully.  Afterward,  in  a  group  of 
those  who  had  been  present,  it  was  interesting 
to  hear  them  give  judgment  as  to  her  better 
part:  it  occurred  to  no  one  to  specify  her  poorer. 
To  me  her  more  successful  personation  seemed 
her  Shylock.  If  there  be  moral  advantage  in 
seeing  in  vice  its  own  deformity,  we  received  a 
useful  lesson  that  evening.  But  there  was  her 
Portia,  and  some  were  sure  that  her  higher 
achievement  was  the  personation  of  her. 
Others  saw  the  finer  stroke  in  some  aspect  of 
her  recital  of  the  billing  and  cooing  of  Lorenzo 
and  Jessica.     Through  all,  however,  it  was  a 


discussion  of  excellences:  she  had  given  us 
nothing  else  for  discussion. 

From  a  mass  of  press  notices  of  her  work  I 
learn  that  her  more  recent  recitals  have  been 
the  "Blot  in  the  'Scutcheon,"  before  men- 
tioned, and  Stephen  Phillips's  "  Paolo  and  Fran- 
cesca."  From  their  great  variety  of  character, 
their  delicate  shadings  of  sentiment,  their 
pathos,  triumjih,  tragedy,  for  one  person  to 
present  these  dramas  even  passably  well  would 
require  talent  of  a  high  order.  Yet  these  no- 
tices are  one  and  all  testimonials,  not  of  fair 
achievement,  but  of  proud  success.  They  come 
from  diverse  sources,  but  there  is  no  dilTerence 
in  the  general  juilgment;  and  they  impart  to 
my  mind  the  suspicion  that  in  these  later  efTorts 
she  has  beaten  her  best  hitherto.  While,  how- 
ever, there  is  no  difference  in  the  general  judg- 
ment, there  is  a  tlifference  in  the  point  of  em- 
phasis. Prevailingly  they  witness  to  the  gen- 
eral and  popular  effect.  One  or  two  write,  as 
artists,  of  the  manner,  personation,  intonation. 
Neither  order  of  representation  can  be  ade- 
quate: for  any  just  account  of  her,  both  are 
absolutely  needful.  While  our  friend  has  stud- 
ied her  art  broadly  and  deeply,  its  spirit  has 
become  life  within  her.  Hence,  when  she  deals 
with  a  public  assembly,  there  is  no  suggestion 
of  artifice.  All  seems  as  natural  as  her  most 
quiet  parlor  conversation.  Nothing  is  for 
effect,  nothing  is  exaggerated.  Rant,  by  which 
like  artists  of  a  lower  order  seek  to  prosper, 
and  unhappily  often  do,  is  far,  far  from  her. 
There  is  such  harmony  of  detail  with  detail,  and 
all  so  related  to  the  grand  meaning  of  the  whole 
as  to  make  it  a  scene  of  life  that  is  offered  you. 
In  other  words,  her  art  is  obscured  by  its  own 
perfection. 

All  who  know  Mrs.  Humphrey-Smith  talk  of 
her  voice,  its  richness  of  tone,  its  range,  its 
flexibility.  Its  carrying  power  is  a  striking 
feature.  An  audience  of  three  thousand  in  a 
hall  of  the  best  acoustic  construction  will  test 
the  powers  of  a  good  speaker;  yet  Mrs.  Hum- 
phrey-Smith has  recited  with  ease  and  success 
to  six  thousand  people  out  of  doors.  This  sug- 
gests a  feature  of  her  voice  that  has  interested 
me.  It  is  precisely  the  voice  I  used  to  hear  in 
that  country  school-house.  In  the  utterance  of 
the  stormiest  dramatic  passion  any  schoolmate 


EMMA   AUGUSTA    GREELY 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   UE   NEW   ENGLAND 


57 


of  those  distant  years  would  recognize  it.  It 
is  the  same  voice  with  its  grand  possibilities 
unfolded. 

With  fine  conversational  powers  and  ready 
sympathy  and  the  large  resource  she  has  gath- 
ered in  her  studies,  she  is  a  most  agreeable 
companion  and  in  society  a  happy  presence. 
Of  those  who  meet  her  there,  few  can  ever 
suspect  that  the  magnet  of  her  heart  is  a  couple 
of  graves.  Yet  it  is  so.  And  here  we  touch 
another  feature  of  her  history  that  tinges  the 
rest  with  a  tender  light.  In  her  dealing  with 
the  workl,  though  most  prodigal  of  her  smiles, 
she  has  been  frugal  of  her  tears.  Her  burdens 
have  been  many  and  heavy,  but  through  all 
she  has  carried  the  hand  of  help  and  the  word 
of  cheer. 

A.  W.  Jackson,  D.D. 


EMMA  AUGUSTA  GREELY,  the  head 
of  the  Greely  School  of  Elocution  and 
Dramatic  Art,  was  born  in  Chelsea, 
Mass.,  March  12,  1869,  daughter  of 
John  Lyman  Greely  and  his  wife,  Octavia 
Augusta  Stevens.  Through  her  father's  mother 
Miss  Greely  traces  her  ancestry  back  to  Josiah 
Bartlett,  of  Kingston,  N.H.,  signer  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  and  through  him  to 
his  immigrant  progenitor,  Richard'  Bartlett, 
Sr.,  who  in  1642  was  one  of  the  grantees  of 
Newbury,  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony. 

Richard  Bartlett  is  spoken  of  by  his- 
torical writers  of  New  England  as  "one 
of  the  Wiltshire  colony  who  came  over  with 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Parker  in  1634."  Of  his 
birthplace  and  parentage  he  appears  to  have 
left  no  record,  and  vain  the  attempt  with 
the  little  information  available  to  trace  his 
English  antecedents.  Mention,  however,  may 
here  be  made  of  an  interesting  relic  now 
owned  by  one  of  his  descendants,  namely,  a 
copy  of  the  "Breeches  Bible,"  purchased  by 
Richard  Bartlett,  as  certified  in  his  own 
handwriting  on  the  margin  of  one  of  its  pages, 
in  1612  and  brought  by  him  to  Newbury. 
On  a  blank  page  is  his  record  of  the  births  of 
his  children— Joane,  John,  Thomas,  Richard, 
Cris  (Christopher),  and  Anne  (New  England 
Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  vol.  xl.). 


The  name  Bartlett  is  said  to  be  common 
in  Wiltshire,  Devonshire,  Somersetshire,  and 
other  parts  of  England. 

From  Richard'  Bartlett,  of  Newbury,  the 
line  descended  through  RichanP  (born  in  Eng- 
land in  1621)  and  his  wife  Abigail;  Richard,^ 
of  Newbury,  born  in  1649,  and  his  wife,  Han- 
nah^ Emery — daughter  of  John^  and  Mary 
(Webster)  Emery — to  Stephen,*  born  in  New- 
bury in  1691,  who  married  in  1712  Hannah, 
daughter  of  John^  Webster,  of  Newbury  and 
Salisbury.  Stephen''  Bartlett  was  Deacon  of 
the  first  church  of  Amesbury.  He  died  April 
10,  1773,  in  his  eighty-second  year. 

The  Hon.  Josiah  Bartlett,  M.D.,  the  Rev- 
olutionary patriot,  son  of  Deacon  Stephen  and 
Hannah  (Webster)  Bartlett,  was  born  in  Ames- 
bury,  Mass.,  in  1729.  He  settled  as  a  physi- 
cian in  Kingston,  N.H.,  where  his  old  home- 
stead is  still  standing,  being  occupied  by  mem- 
bers of  the  family.  He  became  Chief  Justice 
of  New  Hampshire  in  1788,  was  President  of 
the  State  in  1790,  1791,  and  1792,  and  in  1793, 
under  the  amended  constitution  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, was  Governor.  His  wife  was  Mary  Bart- 
lett, of  Newton,  N.H.  They  had  nine  chil- 
dren. The  sons,  Levi,  Josiah,  Jr.,  and  Ezra, 
all  became  physicians.  The  line  of  descent 
to  the  subject  of  this  sketch  is  through  his 
daughter  Mary,  who  riiarried  Jonathan  Greely, 
and  whose  son  Josiah  was  father  of  John  Lyman 
Greely,  Miss  Greely's  father.  The  Greelys  were 
prominent  in  public  affairs  in  Kingston,  and 
John  Lyman  Greely  was  at  one  time  a  member 
of  the  New  Hampshire  Legislature.  His  wife, 
Octavia  A.  Stevens,  who  was  born  in  Brentwood, 
N.H.,  was  also  of  an  old  New  Hampshire 
family. 

Enmia  Augusta  Greely  had  the  misfortune 
at  a  very  early  age  to  lose  her  mother,  but  this 
sad  loss  was  largely  compensated  by  the  de- 
voted care  and  sympathetic  companionship 
of  her  father,  to  whom  she  owes  her  broad 
views  of  life  and  the  development  of  some  of 
her  higher  personal  qualities,  he  being  a  man 
of  lofty  ideals,  great  sincerity  of  character, 
and  decided  business  ability.  She  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools,  graduating  from 
the  Chelsea  High  School  in  1887.  Even  dur- 
ing her  school-days  her  inclination  was  toward 


58 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  study  of  literature  and  its  correct  inter- 
pretation, and  to  this  end  she  took  some  pri- 
vate instruction  in  the  art  of  expression,  in  the 
autumn  of  1888  entering  the  Boston  School 
of  Oratory,  under  i\Ioses  True  Brown,  principal, 
and  Hamlin  Garland,  literary  instructor.  In 
this  school,  after  completing  both  the  regular 
course  and  a  post-graduate  course,  she  ac- 
cepted a  position  as  teacher,  and,  entering  upon 
her  duties  in  the  fall  of  1891,  continued  to  teach 
there  until  the  retirement  of  Professor  Brown 
owing  to  ill  health.  She  then  became  associate 
principal  with  Clara  Power  Edgerly  at  the 
Boston  College  of  Oratory,  of  which  Mrs. 
Edgerly,  with  whom  she  had  been  associated 
for  a  number  of  years,  at  first  as  her  pupil,  was 
the  founder.  To  this  lamented  teacher,  now 
deceased,  Miss  Greely  owes  much  of  her  inspi- 
ration in  her  own  work,  Mrs.  Etlgerly's  founda- 
tion of  common  sense,  sincerity,  and  natural- 
ness in  interpretation  causing  her  pupil  to 
leave  behind  the  old  stilted  elocutionary  style. 

Miss  Greely  has  also  taught  in  her  own  line 
of  education  at  the  Posse  Gymnasium  and  at 
different  times  in  various  other  institutions. 
She  was  among  the  charter  members,  in  1892, 
of  the  National  Association  of  Elocutionists. 
Since  1895  she  has  been  a  member  of  its 
Board  of  Directors,  and  in  1901  she  was  made 
treasurer  of  the  association,  which  position  she 
held  for  two  years.  In  October,  1900,  Miss 
Greely  felt  justified  in  opening  the  Greely 
School  of  Elocution  and  Dramatic  Art.  This 
school  is  in  Thespian  Hall,  168  Massachusetts 
Avenue,  Boston.  It  is  now  in  its  fourth  year, 
antl  its  original  membership  has  doubled.  The 
graduates  continue  their  work,  some  as  teachers, 
others  upon  the  lyceum  platform,  either  as 
reciters  or  as  members  of  dramatic  companies. 

Not  running  in  a  single  groove,  as  is  the  wont 
in  some  siinilai-  schools,  the  course  in  the  insti- 
tution presided  over  by  Miss  Greely  offers 
general  culture  and  a  liberal  education;  for 
the  technical  work  of  expression  is  fast  becom- 
ing a  science.  To  quote  her  own  wortls  from 
a  chain  letter  to  one  of  her  classes  while  she 
was  abroad:  "In  all  work  and  in  life  no  sure 
advancement  comes  with  little  effort.  We  must 
each  be  so  sincere  in  our  work  and  have  such 
faith  in  it  that  we  cannot  fail.     Success  rests 


with  ourselves.  If  we  love  the  work  and  show 
people  that  we  do,  if  we  make  manifest  the 
difference  between  the  true  study  of  the  best 
literature  from  the  master  minds  and  the 
school-girl  elocution;  and,  above  all,  if  we 
have  enthusiasm  in  regard  to  its  application 
to  daily  life  and  soul  improvement,  I  am  sure 
we  shall  never  fail  to  arouse  a  corresponding 
interest  in  our  auditors.  Do  not  think  that 
small  things  are  unworthy  your  attention. 
Were  it  possible  to  spring  at  once  into  the 
greatest  things,  perhaps  one's  development 
would  suffer." 

That  a  woman  not  yet  in  her  prime  should 
have  already  accomplished  so  much  augurs 
well  for  her  future  career;  for  her  power  seems 
marked  by  continuous  growth,  and,  best  of 
all,  her  character  keeps  pace,  and  harmonizes 
with  her  intellectual  attainments.  With  the 
author  of  "David  Grieve,"  she  realizes  the 
"  poverty  and  ho])elessness  of  all  self-seeking,  the 
essential  wealth,  rich  and  making  rich,  of  all 
self-spentling." 


MARY  PHINNEY  VON  OLNHAU- 
Sl'^N,  who  rendered  distinguished 
services  as  an  army  nurse  in  two 
wars  of  the  closing  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century — the  Civil  War  in  America  and 
the  Franco-Prussian  in  Europe — and  was  one 
of  the  two  American  women  upon  whom  the 
Emperor  William  conferred  the  decoration  of 
honor  known  as  the  Iron  Cross,  was  a  native 
of  ^Massachusetts,  her  birthplace  being  the 
historic  town  of  Lexington.  Born  Februarj' 
4,  1817,  daughter  of  Elias  and  Catherine  (Bart- 
lett)  Phinney,  she  was  the  fifth  in  a  family  of 
ten  children.  Her  father,  Elias  Phinney,  A.M., 
(Harv.  Coll.  1801),  was  born  in  Nova  Scotia, 
whither  his  parents,  Jienjamin  I'hinney  and 
his  wife  Susanna,  had  removed  from  Falmouth, 
Mass.,  a  few  years  later  coming,  as  the  church 
reconls  testify,  to  Lexington.  He  was  of  the 
Cape  Cod  family  of  Phinney  (name  sometimes 
spelled  Finney),  whose  founder,  John'  Phiimey, 
was  in  Plymouth  as  early  as  1638,  and  some 
years  later  settled  in  l^arnstable.  According 
to  "Genealogical  Notes  of  Barnstable  Families," 
by   Otis   and   Swift,    the   line   was   continued 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


59 


through  the  immigrant's  son  John/  who  mar- 
ried Mary  Rogers  in  1664;  Benjamin,'  who 
married  Martha  Crocker;  Zaccheus/  born  in 
1720,  who  married  Susan  Davis;  to  Benjamin/ 
born  in  1744,  fatlier  of  Elias." 

Mary  Rogers,  wife  of  John^  Phinney,  was  a 
daughter  of  Lieutenant  Joseph"  Rogers,  of  Dux- 
bury,  Sandwich,  and  Eastham,  who  came  over 
with  his  father,  Thomas'  Rogers,  in  the  "  May- 
flower" in  1620  ("Mayflower  Descendant,''  vol. 
iii.  p.  254). 

In  1823  Elias  Phinney  settled  on  a  farm  in 
Lexington,  which  he  brought  to  a  high  state 
of  cultivation.  For  many  years  and  till  his 
death,  in  1849,  he  was  Clerk  of  the  Mitldlesex 
County  Courts.  He  married  in  1809  Catherine, 
daughter  of  Dr.  Josiah  and  Elizabeth  (Call) 
Bartlett,  of  Charlestown,  Mass.  Her  paternal 
grandfather,  George  Bartlett,  a  sea-ca]jtain, 
was  a  native  of  Devonshire,  England. 

Mary  Phinney  grew  to  womanhood  in  her 
native  town,  improving  her  opportunities  for 
learning  by  attending  an  academy,  and  long 
after  leaving  school  continuing  her  studies, 
especially  of  modern  languages,  till  she  became 
familiar  with  French,  German,  and  Italian. 
She  likewise  cultivated  her  native  talent  for 
original  work  in  drawing,  becoming  also  an 
expert  in  embroidery.  At  the  School  of  Design 
for  women,  started  in  Boston  about  the  year 
1852,  of  which  she  was  one  of  the  early  pupils, 
"she  was  considered  the  best  designer  in  the 
class,"  being  numbered  in  subsecjuent  years 
with  Ellen  Robbins  and  Margaret  Foley  as 
among  those  who  had  "distinguished  them- 
selves in  art."  This  is  the  testimony  of  Mrs. 
Ednah  D.  Cheney  in  her  "Reminiscences,"  re- 
cently published,  she  having  been  Miss  Little- 
hale,  secretary  of  the  school  committee. 

F'or  some  years  she  was  employetl  as  designer 
of  prints  in  one  of  the  large  cotton-mills  in 
Manchester,  N.H.  A  German  political  exile, 
a  baron  named  Von  Olnhausen,  was  a  chemist 
in  the  same  mill.  He  had  been  connected  with 
one  of  the  great  German  universities,  and 
Theodore  Parker  designated  him  as  "  the  most 
profound  scholar  he  had  ever  known."  His 
feudal  castle,  which  had  been  the  home  of  his 
ancestors  from  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  and 
has  been  described  as  "one  of  the  most  pictur- 


esque castles  in  Saxony,  crowning  a  hill  and 
overlooking  the  town  of  Zwickau,"  had  passed 
into  the  hands  of  an  alien  line.  Miss  Mary 
Phinney  and  Mr.  Gustav  A.  Von  Olnhausen 
were  married  in  Boston  by  the  Rev.  Theodore 
Parker,  May  1,  1858.  The  union  was  a  happy 
one,  but  not  of  long  duration,  the  death  of  the 
Baron  (to  give  him  his  rightful  title)  occurring 
September  7,  1860. 

Only  a  few  months  later  began  the  great 
Civil  War,  arousing  the  patriotism  of  women 
and  testing  the  heroism  of  men.  Mrs.  Von 
Olnhausen,  deciding  to  enlist  as  an  army  nurse, 
received  a  commission  through  the  efforts  of 
Governor  Andrew,  but  was  required  to  pay 
her  own  travelling  expenses  to  the  South,  as 
the  United  States  government  at  that  time 
had  not  sufficient  funds  for  the  transportation 
of  additional  army  nurses.  During  the  four 
years'  conflict  she  rendered  faithful  services 
as  a  hospital  nur.se  under  the  direction  of 
Dorothea   L.    Dix. 

It  may  here  be  mentioned  that  in  1873  she 
was  appointed  first  superintendent  of  the  train- 
ing-school for  nurses  in  the  Massachusetts 
General  Hospital,  Boston,  a  position  that  she 
ably  filled. 

Sailing  for  Germany  in  1870,  shortly  after 
the  beginning  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  she 
offered  her  services  to  the  military  authorities 
there,  who  were  not  at  first  disposed  to  approve 
her  appointment.  After  persistent  efforts,  how- 
ever, she  received  a  commission  as  arniy  nurse. 
In  this  capacity  again  she  had  many  thrilling 
experiences,  and  her  services  were  appreciated 
as  invaluable. 

The  first  of  March,  1871,  found  her  in  charge 
of  thirty  wounded  men  in  a  hospital  in 
Orleans,  France.  Peace  had  been  declared, 
and  an  order  had  been  issued  for  the  German 
soldiers  to  evacuate  France.  Some  of  the 
wounded,  however,  were  unable  to  be  moved. 
When  the  thirty  in  charge  of  this  faithful  nurse 
no  longer  neeiled  her  care,  she  thought  that  her 
duties  then  were  completed,  and  accordingly 
made  arrangements  to  depart  for  Berlin.  As 
she  was  entering  the  diligence  en  route  for  that 
city,  a  surgeon  came  running  from  the  hospital 
and  entreated  her  to  remain,  as  sixteen  wounded 
men  had  just  arrived.     She  did  not  hesitate, 


60 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


but  in  the  midst  of  danger  promptly  resumed 
her  work.  The  people  of  Orleans  were  enraged 
at  the  Germans,  and  the  mayor  of  the  city, 
realizing  the  danger  to  "the  little  Madam,"  as 
she  was  often  called,  gave  her  his  protection. 
He  acconipanietl  her  to  the  hospital  every 
morning  at  six  o'clock,  and,  when  her  duties 
for  the  day  were  finisheil,  at  nine  in  the  evening, 
he  called  at  the  hospital  and  accompanied  her 
to  his  home.  These  duties  were  continued  for 
more  than  a  month,  and  then  the  fifteen  men 
who  survived  (one  of  the  wounded  having  died) 
started  on  their  way  to  Berlin,  in  charge  of 
the  Madam,  by  order  of  the  military  authori- 
ties. They  were  obliged  to  halt  in  secluded 
places  for  fear  of  angry  mobs. 

An  interesting  sketch  of  this  journey  was 
given  in  the  Boston  Globe,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing is  taken:  "It  was  a  strange  procession 
that  moved  through  the  streets  of  Vendome. 
First  came  three  dump  carts,  each  carrying 
a  n  an  who  had  undergone  an  operation  the 
day  before,  ami  who  lay  on  the  straw  groaning 
with  every  motion.  Behind  was  a  diligence, 
on  the  floor  of  which  sat  a  little  American 
woman,  surrounded  by  twelve  badly  wounded 
men,  three  of  whom  rested  their  weary  heads 
in  her  lap. 

"It  was  bitterly  cold,  and  the  men  were 
clothed  only  in  their  undergarments,  with  one 
blanket  each.  The}^  shivered  and  whined  with 
the  cold.  Twice  during  the  day  they  sto])ped, 
while  their  wounds  were  dressed  and  refresh- 
ments were  distributed.  In  the  late  afternoon 
they  came  to  a  railway  station,  only  to  find 
that  the  expected  ambulance  would  not  arrive 
until  the  next  day.  With  great  difficulty 
Madam  had  her  men  carried  to  a  half-ruined 
castle.  There  they  spent  the  night  in  the  old 
barracks,  which  were  deserted  and  forlorn.  The 
rats  ran  across  the  bare  floors,  gusts  of  wind 
swept  through  the  lonely  corridors.  No  doors 
shut  out  the  cold,  these  having  been  used  for 
fuel  long  before. 

"First  one  sufferer  and  then  another  cried 
out  with  pain  and  terror.  In  the  midst  of  it 
all  the  little  American  woman  was  calm  and 
unterrified.  She  remained  awake  the  whole 
night  through,  comforting  her  charges.  During 
the  next  forenoon  a  messenger  came  from  the 


station  to  announce  that  the  ambulance  had 
arrived.  The  sick  soldiers  were  carried  to  the 
train  and  placed  in  an  empty  baggage  car,  and 
she  was  about  to  follow,  when  the  station  agent 
pulletl  her  by  the  arm,  saying  'There  is  no  req- 
uisition for  you.  The  requisition  is  for  a 
surgeon.'  The  little  Madam  drew  herself  to 
her  full  height  of  five  feet,  and  answering,  'I 
am  a  surgeon,'  she  seized  the  paper,  and  signed 
it  in  a  bold,  masculine  hand,  'Von  Olnhausen.' 
Then,  before  any  one  could  interfere,  she  was 
in  the  car. 

"The  ride  to  Orleans  was  a  long,  cold  one. 
Rain  was  falling.  It  dripped  through  the  roof, 
and  she  took  off  her  skirt  to  cover  one  of  the 
men.  When  they  reached  Orleans,  the  men 
were  removed  to  a  convent.  On  the  way  the 
mobs  in  the  streets  kicked  mud  at  them,  and 
even  the  women  howled  and  swore  at  them. 
The  sisters  of  the  convent  refused  to  give  Madam 
either  food  or  lodging.  The  sick  men  collected 
a  thaler  (seventy-five  cents),  and  with  this  the 
brave  little  woman  secured  a  bed  at  an  inn. 
She  was  put  in  a  chamber  over  the  bar-room, 
was  kept  awake  all  night  by  the  noise  from 
below,  where  men  howled  and  sang  and  cursed 
the  Germans.  She  ])ulled  the  bureau  and 
chairs  against  the  door,  and  spent  a  night  of 
torture.  But  her  seventy-five  cents  was  not 
enough  for  food,  and,  when  she  returned  at 
daylight  to  the  convent,  the  sisters  still  refused 
her  even  a  mnvithfiil.  She  had  eaten  nothing 
since  noon  of  the  previous  day. 

"Another  nerve-trying  trip  was  made  back 
to  the  station-house,  the  mob  growing  so  furi- 
ous that  the  little  band  was  hurried  into  the 
baggage-room  to  be  out  of  tlanger.  No  train 
was  in  sight,  and  the  sick  men,  exhausted  by 
their  long  journey  and  discouraged  by  the  delay, 
cried  like  children.  Little  Madam,  hungry  an(l 
dishcarteneil  as  she  was,  cheered  them  with 
war  songs  and  told  her  most  thrilling  stories. 
At  noon  she  went  out  and  demanded  footl  of 
the  inspector.  He  loaned  her  two  tlialers,  and 
with  this  she  bought  bread  and  sausages  and 
coffee  for  the  men,  who  ate  and  drank  every 
bit,  forgetting  the  twenty-four-hour  fast  of  the 
stanch-hearted  little  woman  to  whose  watchful 
care  they  owed  their  lives. 

"At  four  in  the  afternoon  two  German  offi- 


RErRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


61 


cers  came  and  took  the  little  hand  on  stretchers 
to  the  ambulance  train,  which  was  waiting  a 
([uarter  of  a  mile  away.  For  fear  of  the  mob, 
gendarmes  walked  besitle  the  wounded,  antl 
they  reacheil  the  train  in  safetj'. 

"When  the  men  were  made  comfortable. 
Madam  asked  for  food.  She  declares  that  the 
great  bowl  of  oatmeal  porridge,  thick  with 
prunes,  which  she  received,  was  the  most  de- 
licious meal  she  has  ever  eaten.  When  they 
reached  Berlin,  the  men  were  ])laced  in  a  hos- 
pital, and,  thanks  to  the  untiring  care  of  the 
little  American,  every  one  of  them  recovered." 

In  recognition  of  these  meritorious  services 
Emperor  AVilliam  i)re.sented  her  with  the  Iron 
Cross,  she  and  Clara  Barton  being  the  only 
American  women  to  receive  that  decoration. 
It  is  a  handsome  Maltese  cross,  of  iron  with 
white  enamel,  the  liadge  of  a  Prussian  order 
founded  in  ISIX  for  military  services,  and  re- 
organized in  1870.  After  her  return  to  her  na- 
tive land  the  Emperor  sent  her  the  Metlal  of 
Merit,  which  is  the  highest  honor  conferred  in 
Germany  for  bravery  in  war,  and  has  been 
given  to  no  other  American,  it  is  said.  I'n- 
fortimately,  the  medal  was  lost  in  transmission, 
hut  she  received  the  autograjih  letter  written 
by  the  Emperor  when  foi'warding  the  precious 
gift.  During  Prince  Henry's  recent  visit  to 
Boston  (March,  1902)  Mrs.  Von  Olnhausen, 
wearing  the  Iron  Cross,  was  greeteil  by  him 
most  cordially,  he  expressing  his  surprise  and 
delight  to  see  the  decoration  worn  by  an  Amer- 
ican woman.  "  It  is  a  great  honor  in  my  coun- 
try," said  he.  "  Please  tell  me  how  you  came 
to  receive  it."  He  promised  her  that  upon 
his  return  he  would  see  that  the  Medal  of  Merit 
was  in  her  possession,  in  accordance  with  his 
grandfather's  wishes.  This  promise  she  did 
not  live  to  see  fulfilled.  It  may  be  said  to 
have  been  cancelled  by  her  ileath,  which  soon 
followed,  April  12,  1902. 

The  home  of  Mrs.  Von  ( )lnhausen  in  her  later 
years  was  at  the  Grundmann  Studios,  Claren- 
don Street,  Boston,  where  she  enjoyed  a  quiet 
life  with  her  embroideiy  work  and  designing. 
She  was  young  in  spirit,  and  her  host  of  friends 
always  found  a  cordial  welcome. 

They  observed  lier  birthdays  witli  gifts  and 
flowers.     She  was  especially  interested  in  Jap- 


anese art.  She  received  numerous  orders  for 
her  work  after  the  interview  with  Prince  Henry, 
an  account  of  which  was  widely  published. 

Loyal,  patriotic,  courageous,  unselfish,  a 
lover  of  art  and  literature,  a  friend  of  human- 
ity, she  will  he  mis.setl  by  many  who  enjoyed 
her  friendship  and  appreciated  her  worth.  Her 
funeral  was  held  at  Mt.  Auburn,  and  was  at- 
tended by  the  Massachusetts  Army  Nurse  Asso- 
ciation, of  which  she  was  a  loved  member,  and 
in  whose  meetings  she  often  participated.  The 
Iron  Cross  was  bei  I ueathed  l)y  Mrs.  Von  Olnhausen 
to  the  Lexington  Historical  Society.  Her  life, 
compiled  from  her  letters  antl  journals  by  her 
nephew,  James  Phinney  Munroe,  has  recently 
been  published,  by  l>ittle.  Brown  &  Co.,  under 
the  title:  "Adventures  of  an  Ai-niv  Nurse  in 
Two  Wars." 


IDA  SUMNER  VOSE  WOODBURY  was 
born  in  Dennysville,  Me.,  December  14, 
1854.  She  is  the  daughter  of  Peter  Eh- 
enezer  and  Lydia  (Kilby)  Vose,  and  is  the 
ninth  in  descent  from  Robert  Vose,  who  came 
from  England  to  Dorchester  (now  Milton), 
Mass.,  in  1635.  Her  ancestral  lines,  some  of 
which,  it  is  said,  have  been  traced  to  the  time 
of  Edward  III.  of  England,  include  represent- 
atives of  the  families  of  Thacher,  Sumner, 
Oxenbritlge,  Prince,  Hinckley,  Adams,  Howard, 
Hayden,  and  others,  a  roll  of  which  one  may 
well  he  proud.  Miss  Vose  was  graduated  from 
the  high  school  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  and  for 
four  years  was  engaged  as  a  teacher  in  the 
schools  of  her  native  town,  at  the  same  time 
pursuing  an  advanced  course  of  study  with 
a  private  instructor.  She  was  a  brilliant 
scholar  and  a  successful  teacher. 

In  1876  she  was  married  to  Clinton  Aaron 
Woodbury,  who  was  at  that  time  editor  of  the 
Somerset  Reporter.  For  some  years  she  as- 
sisted her  husband  in  etliting  the  literary  de- 
partment of  the  paper,  making  valuable  contri- 
butions to  its  colunms  and  also  to  the  columns 
of  other  journals.  She  frequently  delights  her 
friends  by  her  poems,  written  for  anniversaries 
and  other  occasions.  A  specimen  of  these 
may  be  found  in  the  publishetl  volume,  "The 
Poets  of    Maine."     Later    Mr.   Woodbury  en- 


62 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


tered  upon  a  business  career  in  Portland,  and 
resided  there  with  his  family  for  several  years. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Woodbury  were  prominent  in 
educational,  literary,  and  religious  work  in  the 
city.  In  1888  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  elected 
president  of  the  Maine  Woman's  Aid  to  the 
American  Missionary  Association.  This  office 
she  held  for  twelve  years,  tluring  which, 
under  her  efficient  and  enthusiastic  leatlership, 
the  Woman's  Aid  made  steady  growth  and 
awakened  much  interest  throughout  the  State 
in  its  special  work. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Woodbury,  in  1894,  it 
became  necessary  to  make  a  change  of  residence, 
and  Mrs.  Woodbury  removed  to  Boston.  In 
1895  she  was  made  New  England  Field  Assist- 
ant of  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
the  society  which  is  doing  such  a  good  work 
in  our  country  among  the  mountain  whites, 
the  Negroes,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Indians,  in 
its  efforts  to  educate,  uplift,  and  make  good 
citizens  of  the.se  neglected  classes.  A  grander 
and  more  patriotic  work  than  this  it  woukl  be 
hard  to  imagine:  it  is  well  worthy  the  em- 
ployment of  the  highest  talents. 

Since  entering  upon  the  duties  of  her  present 
position,  Mrs.  Woodbury  has  been  engaged  in 
speaking  for  the  association  in  churches  through- 
out the  East  and  West,  before  young  men's 
clubs,  women's  meetings  and  conferences,  and 
delivering  adtlresses  at  G.  A.  R.  memorial 
services,  and  so  forth.  She  speaks  on  an  aver- 
age six  times  a  week,  and  travels  from  fifteen 
to  twenty-five  thousand  miles  a  year.  She  is 
a  pleasing  speaker,  calm,  easy,  and  self-pos- 
sessed in  manner,  and  dignified  in  bearing.  She 
has  the  rare  gift  of  a  voice  feminine  and  fine 
in  quality,  but  full,  clear,  and  far-reaching, 
easily  heard  in  all  parts  of  a  large  audience 
room.  Her  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
work  of  the  American  Missionary  Association 
and  her  personal  knowledge  of  the  good  already 
accomplished  by  it  give  her  full  command  of 
her  subject,  and  make  her  an  exceedingly 
effective  speaker.  Tho.se  of  us  who  have  heard 
her  once  gladly  welcome  her  again.  She  is  one 
of  the  few  women  who  can  take  up  the  cause 
of  the  oppressed  and  so  present  it  that  no  one 
who  hears  her  can  fail  of  being  interested,  and 
of  seeing  clearly  how  necessary  it  is  to  the  life 


of  the  republic  that  justice  should  be  done  to  the 
lowest  and  weakest  within  its  borders. 

A  leading  clergyman  has  said  of  Mrs.  Wood- 
bury, "She  is  easily  one  of  the  greatest  femi- 
nine powers  of  the  early  twentieth  century  in 
the  advocacy  of  American  patriotic  Christian 
philanthropy.'' 

Mrs.  Woodbury  has  had  four  children.  The 
eldest,  Carl  Vose,  was  graduated  from  Bowdoin 
College  in  1899,  and  is  now  a  professor  in  Nor- 
wich University,  Northfield,  Vt.  The  second, 
Donald  Clinton,  died  in  childhood.  The  third, 
Malcolm  Sumner,  was  graduated  from  Bowdoin 
in  1903,  and  is  now  a  medical  student  in  the 
same  institution ;  and  the  fourth,  Ruth  Lin- 
coln, is  in  the  high  school  at  Dennysville,  Me. 

K.    B.    L. 


ELIZABETH  ORR  WILLIAMS,  journal- 
ist and  lecturer,  resides  in  Brookline, 
Mass.  She  is  the  wife  of  Melvin  Brooks 
Williams,  grandson  of  Captain  John 
\\'illiams,  of  ha))py  memory,  of  Portland,  Me. 
Mrs.  A\'illiams  was  born  in  Alfred,  Me.,  being 
the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  and  Mary  (Moore) 
Orr.  The  original  home  of  the  Orr  family  was 
in  Scotland,  whence  some  of  their  number  re- 
moved, doubtless  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  to  Ireland. 

John  Orr,  great-great-grandfather  of  Mrs. 
^\'illianls,  came  to  this  country  from  tlie  north 
of  Ireland  in  1726,  in  cjuest  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  and  resided  for  a  time  in  Londonderry, 
N.H.  In  1750  he  was  one  of  the  petitioners 
for  the  incorporation  of  the  town  of  Bedford, 
N.H.  It  is  not  known  whether  he  was  born  in 
Scotland  or  born  in  Ireland  of  Scottish  parents. 
Both  he  and  his  l)rothcr  Daniel,  who  came  with 
him,  are  believed  to  have  been  teachers  by 
profession.  John  Orr,  it  is  said,  was  remark- 
able for  his  Scotch  wit,  and  was  highly  respected 
as  a  "fine  specimen  of  a  shrewd,  pious,  plain- 
hearted  Scotcliman,  much  like  the  one  por- 
trayed by  Scott  in  the  father  of  Jeanie  Deans, 
in  the  'Heart  of  Midlothian.'  " 

Mrs.  Williams's  great-grandfather,  the  Hon. 
.John  Orr,  was  for  many  years  an  Elder  in  the 
Presbyterian  church  in  Bedford,  servuig  also 
as  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  the  Quorum,  as 


ELIZABETH    olili    W  IIJ,IAM8 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


63 


Senator  from  the  Thiril  District,  as  Counsellor 
of  Hillsborough  County,  and  for  several  years 
as  Representative  at  the  General  Court  of  the 
State  of  New  Hampshire.  He  performed  mili- 
tary service  in  the  French  War  in  1756,  and  in 
1777  he  was  appointed  by  the  Provincial  Coun- 
cil a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety.  In 
this  latter  year  also  he  was  commissioned  as  a 
Lieutenant,  and  with  his  company  served  under 
the  command  of  General  Stark  at  the  battle 
of  Bennington,  where,  after  exhibiting  cool 
judgment  and  great  personal  bravery,  he  was 
wounded  and  rendered  a  cripple  for  life.  The 
verdict  of  one  who  knew  him  well  was  thus 
tersely  expressed:  "He  was  one  of  Nature's 
nobility." 

His  son,  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Orr,  grandfather 
of  Mrs.  Williams,  was  born  in  Bedford,  N.H., 
in  1772,  and  was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  1798. 
He  became  a  lawyer  and  settled  in  Maine,  his 
home,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years  that 
he  resided  in  Topsham,  being  in  Brimswick. 
He  was  eminent  as  a  practitioner  in  the  Su- 
preme Judicial  Court  both  before  and  after 
the  separation  of  Maine  from  Massachusetts. 
He  represented  the  old  Cumberland  District 
in  Congress  during  the  Presidency  of  James 
Monroe. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1828,  Chief  Jus- 
tice Mellen  spoke  of  him  "  as  one  who  had  long 
stood,  confessedly,  at  the  head  of  the  profession 
of  our  State;  who  had  distinguished  himself 
by  the  depth  and  solidity  of  his  understanding, 
by  his  legal  acumen  and  research,  by  the  power 
of  his  intellect,  the  commanding  energy  of  his 
reasoning,  the  uncompromising  firnniess  of  his 
principles,  and  the  dignity  and  lofty  sen.se  of 
honor,  truth,  and  justice  which  he  uniformly 
displayed  in  his  professional  career  and  in  the 
walks  of  private  life." 

He  held  the  positions  of  overseer,  trustee, 
and  treasurer  of  Bowdoin  College  in  its  earlier 
days.  It  was  while  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  col- 
lege, and  when  he  attended  the  annual  exami- 
nations of  the  classes  in  the  classics,  that  he 
was  the  leading  influence  in  placing  the  poet 
Longfellow  in  the  chair  of  modern  languages. 
Mr.  Orr,  being  an  accomplished  classical  scholar, 
and  the  Latin  poet  Horace  being  his  pocket 


companion,  was  charmed  with  young  Long- 
fellow's translation  of  the  odes  of  that  poet,  and 
at  the  meeting  of  the  executive  board  settled 
the  question  as  follows:  "Why,  Mr.  Longfellow 
is  your  man :  he  is  an  admirable  classical  scholar. 
Seldom  have  I  heard  anything  more  beautiful 
than  his  version  of  one  of  the  most  difficult  otles 
of  Horace." 

Mr.  Orr  was  in  politics  a  Federalist  of  the 
old  school  which  maintained  the  sentiments  of 
"  the  men  who  formed  and  administered  for 
the  first  twelve  years  the  institutions  of  the 
United  States."  His  wife,  Elizabeth  Toppan, 
a  woman  of  strong  character,  refined  tastes  and 
manners,  and  domestic  virtues,  was  well  fitted 
to  dispense  the  generous  hospitality  of  his 
home  in  Brihiswick,  Me. 

Mrs.  Williams's  father,  the  Rev.  John  Orr, 
was  a  graduate  (summa  cum  laude)  of  Bowdoin 
College  in  the  large  and  brilliant  class  of  1834. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Orr  was  a  man  of  intellectual  force 
and  scholastic  culture,  of  great  refinement  of  na- 
ture, an  independent,  clear  thinker,  a  man  illus- 
trating in  his  daily  life  high  moral  excellence, 
a  writer  of  decided  merit,  able  in  theological 
discussion,  a  student  and  a  Christian  gentleman 
always,  as  well  as  a  brilliant  preacher. 

From  these  thoughtful  men,  in  turn,  and 
from  her  grandmother  Orr  and  her  mother,  the 
late  Mary  Moore  Orr,  a  woman  of  active  intellect 
and  progressive  thought,  Mrs.  Williams  inherited 
her  love  for  letters,  her  studious  habit,  and  her 
power  of  application.  These  characteristics 
evinced  themselves  early,  and  the  literary  turn 
of  her  mind  found  expression  in  original  stories, 
poems,  and  essays.  She  sometimes  wrote  plays, 
in  which  she  took  the  leading  parts  herself,  as 
in  a  church  festival  held  in  the  opera  house  in 
South  Bend,  Ind.,  and  in  these  dramatic  skits 
she  disclosetl  hi.strionic  talent. 

Her  original  humorous  sketches  possess  the 
"convulsive  element"  which  is  so  vital  in  suc- 
cessful comedy,  and  in  this  line  she  is  a  born 
impersonator.  A  natural  wit,  skilled  in  repar- 
tee, she  is  sympathetic  antl  benevolent  in  spirit. 
The  intellectual  bias  of  her  mind  has  always 
been  toward  the  classics  and  the  highest  order 
of  literature,  sacred  as  well  as  secular. 

•Mrs.  ^\■illiams  was  educated  at  the  Alfred 
Academy,  the  Alfred  High  School,  and  Maple- 


64 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


wood  Institute,  Pittsfield,  Mass.  She  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Maplewood  Akimiia>  Association, 
and  at  its  first  reunion  she  contributed  an  origi- 
nal poem,  which  appealed  with  especial  interest 
to  the  members  of  her  class  wlio  were  present. 

Mrs.  Williams  has  musical  ability  of  no  mean 
order.  She  played  in  public  before  she  was  out 
of  her  teens,  and  taught  instrumental  music 
for  several  years  with  excellent  success. 

When  cooking-schools  were  first  opened  for 
instruction,  she  wrote  on  culinary  education 
and  the  philoso])hy  of  good  living,  from  the 
Boston  and  New  York  cooking-schools,  for 
Southern,  Western,  and  Eastern  papers,  often 
receiving  in  reference  to  them  complimentary 
and  a])preciative  letters  from  utter  strangers. 

Mrs.  Williams  was  a  newspaper  correspondent 
at  Mount  Desert  Island,  Maine,  for  twelve  sum- 
mers, and  was  acknowletlged  as  an  active  force 
in  bringing  into  notice  a  section  of  that  country 
which  is  now  widely  known.  Her  correspond- 
ence from  Saratoga,  at  one  time  the  queen  of 
Spas,  was  considered  worthy  of  being  j^laced  on 
file.  It  may  well  be  said  that,  wherever  Mrs. 
Williams  set  the  impress  of  her  facile,  graceful 
pen,  it  exhibited  that  subtle  ciuality  recognized 
as  "style." 

At  one  time  Mrs.  Williams  was  a  |)aid  con- 
tributor to  eleven  newspapers.  She  has  been 
a  contributor  since  1881  to  the  Boston  Tran- 
script. She  has  also  contributed  to  the  Youth' !^ 
Companion,  Arti^  for  America,  the  Houaehold, 
and  other  publications.  A  series  of  lectures 
on  literary,  historical,  and  art  topics  she  has 
presented  in  many  States  with  gratifying  suc- 
cess. In  her  ceramic  art  lectures,  which  are 
fully  illustrated  by  specimens,  she  was  a  pioneer, 
and,  having  visited  the  leading  potteries  and 
art  museums  in  this  country  in  pursuing  this 
fascinating  branch  of  study,  she  is  an  acknowl- 
edged authority  on  the  subject. 

Mrs.  Williams  has  treated  with  consummate 
skill  the  mystery  of  Mary  Stuart.  Her  strong 
rendering  of  the  Queen's  plea,  on  trial  for  her 
life  before  the  P'nglish  bar,  often  shakes  the 
belief  of  those  who  have  always  thought  the 
Queen  was  guilty.  More  than  that  cannot  be 
done  for  a  great  historic  doubt.  Mrs.  Will- 
iams's essay  on  the  subject  of  Mary  Stuart  is 
pronounced  by  Mrs.  Livermore  to  be  a  "gem 


of  literary  condensation."  A  professional  and 
prolific  writer  thus  expresses  his  appreciation: 
"  Mrs.  Williams  is  one  of  the  most  alive  anti 
immediate  students,  not  only  in  the  Stuart 
chronicles,  the  great  masters  of  art,  the  litera- 
ture of  the.  early  civilizations,  but  in  the  lore 
of  the  Queen  who  'launched  a  thousand  ships, 
and  burned  the  topless  towers  of  Ilium,' — 
Helen  of  Troy." 

Mrs.  Williams  has  given  some  of  her  choice 
entertainments  liefore  several  notable  charities: 
the  Jackson  Park  Sanitarium  for  sick  babies 
and  the  Model  Lodging  House  in  Chicago, 
through  the  auspices  of  the  famous  Archie 
(Arkay)  Club  of  that  city;  the  Bethel  Social 
Settlement,  Aged  Couples'  Home,  and  the  Saint 
Barnabas  Cuild  of  Nurses,  Minneapolis;  the 
Berkshire  County  Home  for  Aged  Women, 
Pittsfield,  Mass. ;  and  the  Educational  and  In- 
dustrial l^nion,  Buffalo,  N.Y. 

At  a  moot  court,  convened  in  Boston  a  few 
years  ago,  for  the  trial  of  the  cam^e  celebrc,  Sir 
Francis  Bacon  vs.  William  Shakespeare,  Mrs. 
Williams,  after  repeatedly  declining,  consented 
to  espouse  the  Baconian  siile,  and,  as  the  junior 
l)arrister,  opened  the  case  in  a  most  eloc[uent 
and  finished  manner.  So  lawyer-like  were  her 
arguments  that  she  was  highly  praised  by  the 
late  Judge  Nathaniel  Holmes  (formerly  Dean  of 
the  Harvard  Law  School,  and  ex- Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Missouri),  the  late 
Professor  Smith,  of  the  Dorchester  Latin  School, 
and  even  by  the  noted  Shakespearean  com- 
mentator, Dr.  Rolfe.  And  yet  Mrs.  Williams  is 
not  a  Baconian.  Personally  she  is  rather  retir- 
ing, and  the  bulk  of  her  work  has  been  tione  in 
a  quiet  way.  She  is  a  member  of  the  New 
England  Woman's  Press  Association. 


GRACE  LE  BARON  UPHAM  (in  the 
literary  world  Grace  Le  Baron)  was 
iiora  in  Lowell,  Mass.,  June  22,  1845, 
tlu'  youngest  daughter  of  John  Good- 
win Locke  and  Jane  Ermina  Starkweather 
Locke.  Her  father  was  a  son  of  the  Hon.  John 
Locke,  of  Ashby,  Mass.,  and  a  lineal  descendant 
of  Deacon  William'  Locke,  of  Woburn,  founder 
of  the  fauiily  in  New  luigland.  Her  mother 
was  a  tlaughter  of  Deacon  Charles  Starkweather, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


65 


whose  immigrant  ancestor,  Robert'  Stark- 
weather, was  at  Roxbury  in  1640,  and  later 
settled  at  Ipswich. 

The  Hon.  John  Locke  (Harv.  Coll.  1792) 
served  six  years  as  a  member  of  Congress.  He 
married  Hannah"  Goodwin,  daughter  of  Na- 
thaniel Gooilwin,  Jr.,  of  Plymouth,  and  giand- 
daughter  of  Nathaniel  Goodwin,  Sr.,  and  his 
wife,  Lydia'  Le  Baron  (great-great-grand- 
mother of  Mrs.  I^pham).  Lydia  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Lazarus  Le  Baron  and  grand-daughter 
of  Dr.  Francis  Le  Baron,  the  "Nameless  Noble- 
man" from  France,  whose  romantic  story  fur- 
nished a  fruitful  theme  for  the  pen  of  Mrs. 
Jane  G.  Austin,  and  whose  grave  is  to-day  heUl 
sacred  in  historic  Plymouth.  It  is  said 
that  in  Mrs.  Grace  Le  Baron  Upham  are  evi- 
denced the  manners  and  looks  of  her  distin- 
guished French  progenitor. 

To  the  "Mayflower"  and  Plymouth  Rock 
Mrs.  Upham  traces  back  through  three  Bart- 
lett  generations,  thus:  The  wife  of  Lazarus  Le 
Baron  and  mother  of  his  daughter  Lydia,  above 
named,  was  Lydia'  Bartlett,  daughter  of  Jo- 
seph'' Bartlett  (Joseph.^  Robert').  Robert' 
Bartlett,  who  came  in  the  "-Ann"  in  1623, 
married  Mary  Warren,  daughter  of  Richard' 
Warren,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Compact  in 
November,  1620. 

Mrs.  Jane  E.  Locke,  singularly  sweet  and 
gracious  in  character,  had  a  fine  mind.  She 
was  a  writer  for  the  magazines  and  periodicals 
of  the  day,  and  published  several  volumes  of 
poems.  She  was  a  contemporary  anil  friend 
of  William  Cullen  Bryant,  Nathaniel  P.  Willis, 
and  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  In  the  years  directly 
preceding  her  death,  which  occurreil  in  1859, 
Grace  was  her  constant  companion,  and  was 
privileged  to  meet  such  well-known  literary 
folk  as  Poe,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  Fanny  Fern, 
Mrs.  Sigourney,  not  to  mention  other  authors 
of  lesser  note  in  their  day. 

Mr.  Locke  was  equally  well  known  in  his 
sphere  of  intellectual  activity.  He  preserved 
the  family  history  by  compiling  and  publish- 
ing "The  Book  of  the  Lockes." 

As  a  girl,  and  indeed  from  eai'liest  infancy, 
Grace  had  to  contend  with  delicate  healtli. 
In  1850  her  parents  moved  to  Boston,  and, 
since  all  but  the  first  five  years  of  her  life  have 


been  passed  in  this  city,  she  may  be  called  a 
Bostonian.  She  was  graduated  from  every  grade 
of  the  Boston  public  schools,  primary,  grammar, 
high,  and  normal.  In  1870  she  became  the 
wife  of  Henry  M.  Upham,  son  of  Captain  Will- 
iam and  Margaret  (Folger)  Upham,  of  Nan- 
tucket. The  Folgers,  his  maternal  ancestors, 
were  of  the  same  family  as  the  mother  of  Ben- 
jamin Franklin.  Mr.  I'pham,  late  of  the  firm 
of  Damrell  &  Upham,  has  recently  retired  from 
business,  having  been  identified  for  thirty-six 
years  with  that  ancient  landmark  of  Boston, 
"The  Old  Corner  Bookstore,"  which  has  borne 
his  name.  Thus  by  her  marriage  was  another 
incentive  given  Mrs.  Upham  to  use  the  talent 
inherited  from  her  parents. 

When  she  first  began  to  write,  she  did  not 
anticipate  making  authorship  a  j»rofession,  and 
so  abbreviated  her  name.  But  the  instantane- 
ous success  of  her  first  book,  "Little  Miss 
Faith,"  published  in  1894  by  Lee  &  Shepard, 
Boston,  encouraged  her  to  go  on.  In  the  same 
year  "The  Ban  of  the  Golden  Rod"  was  pub- 
lished by  a  New  York  house.  Following  these 
came  "Little  Daughter,"  1895;  "The  Rosebud 
Club,"  1896;  "Queer  Janet,"  1897;  "Told  under 
the  Cherry-trees,"  1890;  "Jessica's  Triumph," 
1901 — all  published  by  Lee  &  Shepard.  In 
1898  Little,  Brown  .t  Co.  issued  "  'Twixt  You 
and  Me."  She  has  now  in  jireparation  the  last 
of  the  "Janet  Series"  for  children  and  a  novel 
for  their  elders.  The  latter  has  b'^en  urged 
upon  Mrs.  Upham  by  readers  who  have  enjoyed 
her  shoit  stories,  which  have  appeared  at  in- 
tervals in  the  current  periodicals  and  maga- 
zines. Mrs.  Upham  says,  however,  that  she 
shall  alwaj's  give  her  best  strength  to  the 
young,  who  have  been  her  most  sincere  friends 
from  the  first.  Her  stories  are  written  with 
a  purpose,  the  pui'pose  of  purifying  and  en- 
nobling the  lives  of  children.  And  she  has 
richly  earned  her  title,  "The  Children's  Friend." 
Many  are  the  letters  she  has  received  from  her 
youthful  admirers,  letters  filled  with  such  earn- 
est gratitude  and  appreciation  that  she  counts 
herself  rich  indeed,  .to  have  inspired  them. 
That  she  might  be  sure  of  doing  work  uncolored 
and  unbiassed  by  others  in  a  similar  line  of 
literature,  she  has  entirely  abstained  from 
reading  juvenile  books.     This  may,  in  a  meas- 


66 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ure,  account  for  the  distinctive  style  which  is 
all  her  own. 

Mrs.  Uphani's  vivacity  and  warmth  of  heart 
make  her  a  favorite,  and,  while  not  a  club 
woman,  she  has  a  wide  acquaintance  with 
such.  It  is  in  patriotic  societies  that  she  feels 
her  keenest  interest,  and  she  is  a  member  of 
the  following:  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution, Daughters  of  1812,  Society  of  May- 
flower Descendants,  Huguenot  Society  of  Amer- 
ica, belonging  also  to  the  Society  of  American 
Authors  and  Boston  Authors'  Society,  and 
being  an  honorary  Member  of  the  League  of 
American  Penwomen  and  the  Ladies'  Physio- 
logical Institute. 

A  sketch  of  Mrs.  Upham's  work  would  be 
incomplete  without  reference  to  her  poems  and 
carols,  many  of  the  latter,  written  years  ago, 
still  being  sung  animally,  notwithstanding  the 
new  ones  offered  every  season. 

Two  short  poems  are  given  below,  and  many 
will  recall  the  tender  beauty  of  "  Question- 
ings," which  appeared  originally  in  the  Boston 
Transcript,  but  which  was  widely  copied  and 
appreciated. 

The  Memorial  Day  poem  has  appealed  to 
comrades'  hearts  all  over  the  countrv: — 


ROSES,  LILIES,  AND   FORGET-ME-NOTS. 

Roses  (Lancaster),  red War 

Lilies Purity 

Forget-me-nots Enduring  Memories 

Halt! 

Comrades,  bow  with  uncovered  head, 
And  deem  it  not  weakness  to  shed 

Tears  o'er  his  grave. 
Strew  flowers  with  Memory's  hand, 
Float  o'er  him  the  flag  of  our  land 
He  died  to  save. 

The  red  fnr  the  hloa/l  he  shed, 

The  vhite  for  his  sotd  so  pure, 
The  blue  for  the  s/,//  n'erhead. 

Where  his  name  slioll  ai/e  embire. 

lie  was  only  a  .stripling,  young. 
But  ne'er  hath  the  poet  sung 

Of  one  so  brave. 
In  the  carnage  of  shot  and  shell, 
With  the  broken  staff,  he  fell, 

And  found  a  grave. 


Oh,  then,  scatter  ye  roses  red. 
Red,  red  as  the  blood  he  .shed. 

And  lilies  white. 
"Weave  in  the  forget-me-not's  hue, 
A  garland,  red,  white,  and  blue, — 

Our  emblem  bright. 

The  red  fur  the  bhrnd  he  sheil. 

The  irhite  for  his  soul  so  pure, 
The  blue  for  the  sl'ij  overhead, 

Where  his  name  shall  aye  endure. 

Nothing  could  be  more  finished  or  spirited 
than  the  few  comprehensive  lines  to  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly:— 

In  fflcmoriam. 

JOHN    BOYLE   O'REILLY. 
August,  1891 — August,  1894. 

(Written  for  The  Catholic  World.) 

Patriot  and  Poet!  Martyr!  Exile 

From  out  a  land  that  should  have  owned  thee  king! 

Disciple  of  thy  Lord  in  suffering! 
Like  Him,  a  ransom  paid,  that  thy  green  isle 
Might  burst  its  bondage  chains  and  live  to  smile 

In  Freedom's  sunlight.     Sadly  we  do  bring 

To-day  the  shamrock's  drooping  leaf ,  and  sing, — 
Not  as  of  yore,  when  thou  wert  here  the  while, 
As  knight  and  leader  of  the  Muses'  choir: 

The  harp  of  P^rin  plays  sad  discords  now, 
And  we,  too,  chant  a  requiem  for  thee. 
O  Jubilate!     Nay,  we'll  tune  the  lyre 

To  wild  rejoicing,  and  to  Wisdom  bow! 
No  fetters  bind  thy  soul  on  either  sea! 


MARY  JANE  PARKHURST,  a  past 
president  of  Colonel  Allen  Woman's 
Relief  Corps,  of  Gloucester,  Mass., 
and  prominent  member  of  several 
fraternal  organizations  in  that  city,  is  a  native 
of  Cape  Ann,  and  comes  of  old  Essex  County 
colonial  stock.  The  daughter  of  Nathaniel 
and  Martha  (Brooks)  Lowe,  she  was  born  in 
Rockport,  August  22,  1843.  The  death  of 
Mrs.  Martha  B.  Tjowe  when  Mary  was  only 
two  weeks  old  led  to  the  child's  adoption,  with- 
out change  of  name,  by  John  Woodward  and 
Sarah  (Stanwood)  Lowe,  of  Gloucester.  Ten- 
derly and  carefully  nurtured  by  her  foster- 
parents,  whose  memory  she  cherishes  with 
filial  affection  and  gratitude,  Mary  J.  Lowe 
grew  to  maturity  amid  pleasant  surroundings 


MARY   J.  PARKHURST 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


67 


and  under  home  influences  favorable  to  the 
development  of  sterling  qualities  of  woman- 
hood. She  was  educated  at  a  private  school 
in  Gloucester  ami  at  Abbot  Academy,  Andover, 
Mass.,  where  she  was  a  student,  boarding  at 
Smith  Hall,  for  three  years,  1856-58.  In  her 
first  year  the  principal  of  the  academy  was 
Maria  Brown;  in  her  second  and  third,  Enmia 
L.  Taylor,  sister  to  Samuel  Taylor,  LL.D.,  of 
Phillips  Andover  Academy.  One  of  her  class- 
mates and  chums  was  "Georgie"  Stowe  (young- 
est daughter  of  the  author  of  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  then  residing  in  Andover),  a  slender, 
fair-haired,  attractive  girl,  "looking,"  it  was 
said,  "so  much  like  Eva!"  in  her  mother's 
famous  story,  but  whose  (assumedly)  naive 
drolleries  rather  suggested  the  character  of 
Topsy.  Another  fellow-pupil  at  the  academy 
for  a  short  time  was  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps, 
of  whom  it  is  remembered  that  her  very  early 
school-girl  compositions,  while  always  pre- 
pared with  neatness  and  care,  gave  no  evidence 
of  unusual  literary  ability. 

On  account  of  the  serious  illness  of  her  mother, 
Mrs.  Sarah  Stanwood  Lowe,  Mary  left  the  acad- 
emy in  1858,  without  completing  the  full  course 
of  study,  as  she  otherwise  would  have  done. 
Mrs.  Lowe  died  September  4,  1862.  She  was 
a  daughter  of  Captain  Theodore  Stanwood,  of 
Gloucester,  and  sister  to  Amelia  Stanwood,  the 
wife  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  Bigelow,  D.D. 

John  Woodward  Lowe,  a  native  of  Ipswich, 
Mass.,  was  for  many  years  a  merchant  in 
Gloucester  and  a  highly  esteemed  citizen.  He 
died  in  1867. 

On  the  22d  of  March,  1864,  Marj'  J.  Lowe 
was  married  to  Charles  Edward  Parkhurst,  son 
of  Charles  and  Elizabeth  (Andrews)  Parkhurst. 
Mr.  Parkhurst  is  a  prosperous  business  man  of 
Gloucester,  being  a  proprietor  of  marine  rail- 
ways. He  is  a  member  of  the  Indepenilent 
Order  of  Odd  Fellows.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkhurst 
have  one  daughter,  Mamie  Bessie.  She  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Gloucester, 
and  in  recent  years  has  travelled  extensively 
with  her  mother.  Mamie  B.  Paikhurst  is  a 
member  of  Lucy  Knox  Chapter,  Daughters  of 
the  Revolution. 

Mrs.  Parkhurst  has  been  a  member  of  Colonel 
Allen  Relief  Corps,   No.   77,   auxiliary   to   the 


Colonel  Allen  Post,  No.  45,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Glouces- 
ter, since  December,  1886,  when  the  corps  was 
organized. 

She  has  held  various  positions  of  responsi- 
bility in  the  corps,  and  in  1894  was  elected 
president,  performing  the  various  duties  of 
that  office  with  efficiency.  The  office  of  de- 
partment aide  has  several  times  been  conferred 
upon  her  by  tlepartment  presidents;  and  she 
has  also  been  an  assistant  inspector,  serving 
in  that  official  capacity  in  Ipswich,  Salem,  and 
Danvers.  In  1899  she  was  department  press 
correspondent  for  the  National  Tribune.  She 
has  written  many  articles  for  the  papers.  Mrs. 
Parkhurst  has  attended  nearly  all  the  State 
conventions  of  the  AVoman's  Relief  Corps  during 
the  past  fifteen  years,  and  has  served  in  official 
positions  antl  on  committees  during  the  ses- 
sions. She  has  several  times  been  elected  a 
delegate  by  the  Department  of  Massachusetts, 
W.  R.  C,  to  national  conventions  of  the  order: 
and  she  was  a  participant  in  the  national  con- 
vention held  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  in  1893,  at 
the  one  held  the  following  year  in  Pittsburg, 
Pa.,  also  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  1895,  at  St. 
Paul,  Minn.,  in  1896,  and  at  Chicago,  111.,  in 
1900.  In  February,  1903,  she  was  elected  a 
delegate  to  the  national  convention  in  August, 
1903,  in  California.  On  account  of  illness  she 
was  unable  to  attend  that  convention.  Referring 
to  her  patriotic  work,  she  says,  "My  interest 
in  the  soldiers'  cause  is  unabated." 

Mrs.  Parkhurst  is  a  charter  member  of  the 
Whitney  Club,  a  social  organization  composed 
of  members  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic, Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  other  friends, 
who  journeyed  together  to  the  National  En- 
campment, G.  A.  R.,  at  Indianapolis  in  1893, 
ami  thence  to  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago. 
Semi-annual  reunions  of  this  club  have  since 
been  regularly  held. 

Mrs.  Parkhurst  is  actively  interested  in  fra- 
ternal antl  charitable  objects  of  the  Independent 
Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  and  is  a  Past  Noble 
Grand  of  Sea-shore  Lodge,  Daughters  of  Re- 
bekah.  No.  14,  of  Gloucester. 

The  United  Order  of  Independent  Odd  Ladies 
is  an  organization  that  has  received  her  hearty 
support.  She  has  been  elected  to  all  the  prin- 
cipal offices  of  the  Golden  Rod  Lodge,  No.  35, 


68 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  Gloucester,  and  as  a  Past  Senior  represent- 
ative is  entitled  to  membership  in  the  State 
body.  This  order  is  entirely  independent,  and 
not  connected  with  the  I.  0.  of  0.  F.,  although 
its  objects  are  similar.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest 
women's  societies  in  New  England,  having  been 
instituted  at  East  Boston,  July  14,  1845. 

Mrs.  Parkhurst  also  has  membership  in  the 
Order  of  Pocahontas  and  in  the  Ladies  of  the 
G.  A.  R.  in  Salem,  Mass.  She  is  also  a  member 
of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
and  is  in  full  accord  and  symjiathy  with  the 
work  of  this  organization. 

She  has  a  numerous  circle  of  friends,  and  en- 
tertains many  guests  at  her  home,  a  spacious 
dwelling  on  Middle  Street,  in  a  most  hospitable 
manner. 

She  is  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  Gloucester  and  of  the  Abbot  Academy  Club, 
which  holds  its  meetings  in  Boston.  Kind- 
hearted,  liberal,  antl  public-spirited,  Mrs.  Park- 
hurst is  a  worthy  representative  of  loyal  New 
England  womanhood. 


HELEN  LOUISE  GILSON,  one  of  the 
noble  band  of  army  nurses  who  min- 
istered to  the  soldiers  of  the  Civil 
War  in  the  hospitals  and  on  the  battle- 
fields of  the  South,  was  born  in  Boston,  Novem- 
ber 22,  1835,  and  was  educated  in  the  jniblic 
schools.  Her  parents  were  A.sa,  Jr.,  and  Lytlia 
(Cutter)  Gilson;  her  paternal  grandparents, 
Asa,  Sr.,  and  Susan  (Gragg)  Gilson.  Her 
grandfather  Gilson  was  a  native  of  Groton  and 
a  lineal  descendant  of  Joseph^  Gilson,  who  was 
one  of  the  original  proprietors  of  that  town. 

Miss  Giison's  mf>tlier  died,  a  widow,  in  1851, 
aged  fifty-three.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Jona- 
than'* and  Lydia  (Trask)  Cutter,  of  West  Cam- 
bridge (now  Arlington),  who  were  marriefl  in 
Lexington,  September  15,  1788.  Jonathan'' 
Cutter  was  a  descendant  of  Richard'  Cutter,  of 
Cambridge  (through  William,^  William,''  and 
Jonathan'*).  He  died  in  1813.  He  was  prob- 
ably the  Jonathan  Cutter  of  Charlestown  who 
was  registered  as  a  private  in  Captain  Harris's 
company  at  different  dates  in  1775.  He  died 
in   1S13,   and   his  widow  in   1818  became   the 


wife  of  one  of  his  kinsmen,  William  Cutter,  a 
Revolutionary  soldier  and  pensioner. 

Helen  Loui.se  Gilson  was  graduated  from  the 
Wells  School  on  I^lossom  Street  in  1852.  In 
September  of  that  year  she  entered  the  Girls' 
High  and  Normal  School,  one  of  the  first  pupils. 
She  there  continued  her  studies  till  her  appoint- 
ment as  head  assistant  to  Master  James  Hovey 
of  the  Phillips  School.  After  teaching  five 
years  she  resigned  her  position  on  account  of 
ill  health.  Subse(|uently  she  was  engaged  as 
a  private  teacher  for  the  children  of  the  Hon. 
Frank  B.  Fay,  then  Mayor  of  Chelsea.  She 
was  of  a  deeply  religious  nature,  imbued  with 
the  cheerful  faith  of  I'niversalism,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  church  in  Chelsea,  then  under 
the  pastoral  charge  of  the  Rev.  Charles  H. 
Leonard,  now  Dean  of  Tufts  Divinity  School. 

The  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  enkindled 
her  patriotism,  and  it  was  through  conversa- 
tion with  Dr.  Leonard  that  she  was  led  to  form 
the  purpose  of  becoming  an  army  nurse.  Her 
application  to  be  allowed  to  .serve  in  this  capac- 
ity did  not  at  once  meet  a  favorable  response, 
Miss  Dorothea  L.  Dix,  superintendent  of  army 
nurses,  considering  her  too  young  to  go  to  the 
front.  She  waited  for  a  time,  and  directly 
after  the  evacuation  of  Yorktown  Mr.  Fay 
was  prominently  connected  with  the  Sanitary 
Commission;  and,  realizing  that  she  would  be 
a  valuai:)le  assistant  in  tliat  .service,  he  secured 
her  a  position  on  one  of  the  hospital  boats. 
She  went  from  his  house  in  Chelsea  to  the  war, 
and  was  with  Mr.  Fay  at  all  the  principal  battles. 
For  several  months  her  duties  were  confined  to 
these  boats,  stationed  at  ilifferent  points. 

On  September  18,  1862,  a  few  hours  after  the 
battle  of  Antietam,  she  reached  the  field,  re- 
maining on  duty  tiiere  and  at  Pleasant  Valley 
until  the  wounded  had  been  taken  to  the  gen- 
eral hospitals.  November  and  December  of 
the  same  year  found  her  at  work  in  the  camps 
and  hospitals  near  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  during 
the  campaign  of  General  Burnsitle.,  In  the 
.spring  of  1863  she  was  there  again,  being  also 
at  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  and  in  the 
Potomac  Creek  hospital. 

As  stated  in  "Our  Army  Nurses,"  a  volume 
coini)iled  by  Mary  A.  Holland,  "when  the 
army  moved,  she  joined  it  at  Manassas;  but, 


HELEN    L.  GILSON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


69 


finding  that  her  special  diet  supplies  had  been 
lost  on  the  passage,  she  returned  to  Washing- 
ton, and  went  to  Gettysburg,  arriving  a  few 
hours  after  the  last  day's  tiglit.  She  worked 
here  until  the  wounded  had  all  been  sent  to 
Base  Hospital.  In  October,  November,  and 
December,  1863,  she  worked  in  the  hospitals 
on  Folly  and  Morris  Islands,  South  Carolina, 
when  General  Gilmore  was  besieging  Fort 
Sumter.  Early  in  1864  she  joined  the  army 
at  Brandy  Station,  and  in  May  went  with  the 
Auxiliary  Corps  of  the  Sanitary  Connnission 
to  Fredericksburg,  when  the  battle  of  the 
Wilderness  was  being  fought." 

She  served  in  the  tent,  on  the  field,  or  in  the 
hospitals  at  Antietani,  Fredericksburg,  Chan- 
cellorsville,  and  Gettysburg.  In  the  terrible 
campaigns  of  the  Wilderness  and  in  all  the 
other  engagements  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
in  1864  antl  1865  she  labored  unceasingly. 
She  was  often  under  fire  and  suffered  many 
hardships,  but  with  unselfish  devotion,  her  only 
thought  being  that  of  duty. 

William  Howell  Reed,  in  his  book  upon 
"Hospital  Life  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac," 
has  much  to  say  of  Miss  Gilson  and  her  work, 
his  first  reminiscence  being  connected  with 
Fredericksburg:  "One  afternoon  just  before 
the  evacuation,  when  the  atmosphere  of  our 
rooms  was  close  and  foul,  and  all  were  longing 
for  a  breath  of  cooler  Northern  air,  while  the 
men  were  moaniiig  with  pain  or  restless  with 
fever,  and  our  hearts  were  sick  with  pity  for 
the  sufferers,  I  heard  a  light  step  upon  the 
stairs;  and,  looking  up,  I  saw  a  young  lady 
enter  who  brought  with  her  such  an  atmosphere 
of  calm  and  cheerful  courage,  so  much  fresh- 
ness, such  an  expression  of  gentle,  womanly 
sympathy,  that  her  mere  presence  seemeil  to 
revive  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  men  and  to 
give  them  new  power  of  endurance  through 
their  long  hours  of  suffering.  First  with  one, 
then  at  the  sitle  of  another,  a  friendly  word 
here,  a  gentle  word  and  smile  there,  a  tender 
sympathy  with  each  prostrate  sufferer,  a  sym- 
pathy which  could  read  in  his  eyes  his  longing 
for  home  love  and  for  the  presence  of  some 
absent  one,  in  those  few  moments  hers  was  in- 
deed an  angel  ministry.  Before  she  left  the 
room   she   sang   to   them,    first   some   stirring 


national  melody,  then  some  sweet  or  plaintive 
hymn  to  strengthen  the  fainting  heart;  and  I 
remember  how  her  notes  penetratetl  to  every 
part  of  the  building.  Soldiers  with  less  painful 
wounds,  from  the  rooms  above,  began  to  crowd 
out  into  the  entries,  and  men  from  below  crept 
up  on  their  hands  and  knees,  to  catch  every 
note  and  to  receive  of  the  benediction  of  her 
presence,  for  such  it  was  to  them.  Then  she 
went  away.  I  did  not  know  who  she  was,  but 
I  was  as  much  moved  and  melted  as  any  sol- 
dier of  them  all." 

When  the  steamer  containing  the  wounded 
and  the  members  of  the  Auxiliary  Corps  left 
Fredericksburg  (it  being  necessary  to  evacuate 
the  town)  and  reached  Port  Royal,  they  were 
besieged  by  negroes.  They  came  in  such  num- 
bers and  were  so  earnest  in  their  appeals  for 
rescue  that  a  government  barge  was  appropri- 
ated for  their  use.  Mr.  Reed  says:  "A  thou- 
santl  were  stowed  upon  her  decks.  They  had 
an  evening  .service  of  prayer  and  song,  and  the 
members  of  the  corps  went  on  board  to  witness 
it.  When  their  song  had  ceased.  Miss  Gilson 
addressetl  them.  She  pictured  the  reality  of 
freedom,  told  them  what  it  meant  and  what 
they  would  have  to  do.  No  longer  would  there 
be  a  master  to  deal  out  the  peck  of  corn,  no 
longer  a  mistress  to  care  for  the  old  people  or 
the  children.  They  were  to  work  for  them- 
selves, provide  for  their  own  sick,  and  support 
their  own  infirm ;  but  all  this  was  to  be  done 
under  new  conditions.  .  .  .  Then  in  the  simplest 
language  she  explainetl  the  difference  between 
their  former  relations  with  their  master  and 
their  new  relations  with  the  Northern  people, 
showing  that  labor  here  was  voluntary,  and 
that  they  could  only  expect  to  secure  kind 
employers  by  faithfully  doing  all  they  had  to 
do.  She  coun.selled  them  to  be  truthful,  eco- 
nomical, unselfish,  and  to  guide  their  lives  by 
kindly  deeds." 

Cold  Harbor  and  City  Point  were  scenes  of 
Miss  Gilson's  labors,  and  then  in  company  with 
Mrs.  Barlow,  wife  of  General  Francis  C.  Barlow, 
she  went  to  the  front  of  Petersburg.  They 
ministered  there  to  the  wounded  of  the  Second 
and  Eighteenth  Army  Corps.  Afterward  for 
several  months  Miss  Gilson  was  at  the  Base 
Hospital  at  City  Point. 


70 


REPRESENTATRE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


"Up  to  this  time,"  says  Mr.  Reed,  "the 
colored  troops  had  taken  but  a  passive  part  in 
the  campaign.  They  were  now  first  brought 
into  action  in  front  of  Petersburg,  when  tlie 
fighting  was  so  desperately  contested  that  many 
thousands  were  left  ujjon  the  field.  The 
wounded  were  brought  down  rapidly  to  City 
Point,  where  a  temporary  hospital  had  been 
provifled.  It  was,  however,  in  no  other  sense 
a  hospital  than  that  it  was  a  depot  for  wounded 
men.  There  were  defective  management  and 
chaotic  confusion.  The  men  were  neglected, 
the  hospital  organization  was  imperfect,  and 
the  mortality  was,  in  consequence,  frightfully 
large.  Their  condition  was  horrible.  The  se- 
verity of  the  campaign  in  a  malarious  country 
had  prostrated  many  with  fevers;  and  typhoid, 
in  its  most  malignant  forms,  was  raging  with 
increasing  fatality. 

"These  stories  of  suffering  reached  Miss  Gil- 
son  at  a  moment  when  the  previous  labors  of 
the  campaign  had  nearly  exhausted  her  strength ; 
but  her  tluty  seemed  plain.  There  were  no 
volunteers  for  the  emergency,  and  she  prepared 
to  go.  Her  friends  declared  that  she  could 
not  survive  it;  but,  replying  that  she  could 
not  die  in  a  cause  more  sacred,  she  started  out 
alone.  A  hospital  hatl  to  be  created,  antl  this 
required  all  the  tact,  finesse,  and  tliplomacy 
of  which  a  woman  is  capable.  Official  preju- 
dice anrl  professional  pride  had  to  be  met  and 
overcome.  A  new  policy  had  to  be  introduced, 
and  it  had  to  be  done  without  seeming  to  inter- 
fere. Her  doctrine  and  practice  always  were 
instant,  cheerful,  and  silent  obedience  to  medi- 
cal and  disciplinary  ortlers,  without  any  quali- 
fication whatever;  and  by  this  she  overcame 
the  natural  sensitiveness  of  the  medical  authori- 
ties. 

"  A  hospital  kitchen  had  to  be  organized 
upon  the  method  of  special  diet;  nurses  had  to 
learn  her  way,  and  be  educated  to  their  duties; 
while  cleanliness,  order,  system,  had  to  be  en- 
forced in  the  daily  routine.  Moving  quietly 
on  with  her  work  of  renovation,  she  took  the 
responsibility  of  all  changes  that  became  neces- 
sary; and  such  harmony  prevailed  in  the  camp 
that  her  policy  was  vindicated  as  time  rolled 
on.  The  rate  of  mortality  was  lessened,  and 
the  hospital  was  now  considered   the  best  in 


the  department.  This  was  accomplished  by  a 
tact  and  energy  which  sought  no  praise,  but 
modestly  veiled  themselves  behind  the  orders 
of  officials.  The  management  of  her  kitchen 
was  like  tlie  ticking  of  a  clock — regular  disci- 
pline, gentle  firmness,  and  sweet  temper  always. 
The  tliet  for  the  men  was  changed  three  times 
a  day,  and  it  was  her  aim,  so  far  as  possible, 
to  cater  to  the  appetites  of  indi\adual  men. 

"Her  daily  rounds  in  the  wards  brought  her 
into  personal  intercourse  with  every  patient, 
and  she  knew  his  special  needs.  At  one  time 
nine  hundred  men  were  supplied  from  her 
kitchen.  The  nurses  looked  for  Miss  Gilson's 
word  of  praise,  and  labored  for  it;  and  she  had 
only  to  suggest  a  variety  in  the  decoration  of 
the  tents  to  stimulate  a  most  honorable  rivalry 
among  them,  which  soon  opened  a  wide  field 
for  displaying  ingenuity  and  taste,  so  that  not 
only  was  its  standard  the  highest,  but  it  was 
the  most  cheerfully  picturesque  hospital  at 
City  Point." 

It  was  more  than  an  ordinary  task  to  take 
charge  of  the  colored  hospital  service,  and  the 
burden  was  greater  than  many  men  could  en- 
dure. But  Miss  Gilson  was  ecfual  to  the  emer- 
gency, and  gained  the  love  and  respect  of  all 
who  associated  with  her.  Mr.  Reed,  who  was 
a  witness  of  her  work,  said:  "As  she  passed 
through  the  wards,  the  men  would  follow  her 
witli  their  eyes,  attracted  by  the  grave  sweet- 
ness of  her  manner,  and  when  she  stopped  by 
some  bedside,  and  laid  her  hand  upon  the  fore- 
head and  smoothed  the  hair  of  some  soldier, 
speaking  some  cheering,  pleasant  word,  I  have 
seen  the  tears  gather  in  his  eyes,  and  his  lips 
quiver,  as  he  tried  to  speak  or  touch  the  folds 
of  her  dress,  as  if  appealing  to  her  to  listen 
while  he  opened  his  heart  about  his  mother, 
wife,  or  sister,  far  away. 

"And  in  sadiler  trials,  when  the  life  of  a  sol- 
dier whom  she  had  watched  and  ministered  to 
was  trembling  in  tiie  balance  between  earth  and 
heaven,  she  has  .seemed,  by  some  special  grace 
of  the  Spirit,  to  reach  the  living  Christ  and 
draw  a  blessing  down  as  the  shining  way  was 
opened  to  the  tomb.  I  have  seen  such  looks 
of  gratitude  from  weary  eyes,  now  brightened 
l^y  visions  of  heavenly  glory,  the  last  of  many 
recognitions  of  her  ministry.     Absorbed  in  her 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


71 


work,  unconscious  of  the  spiritual  beauty 
which  invested  her  daily  life — whether  in  her 
kitchen,  in  the  heat  and  overcrowtling  incident 
to  the  issues  of  a  large  special  diet  list,  or  sit- 
ting at  the  cot  of  some  poor  lonely  soldier, 
whispering  of  the  higher  realities  of  another 
world — she  was  always  the  same  presence  of 
grace  and  love,  of  peace  and  benediction. 

"I  have  been  with  her  in  the  wards  where 
the  men  have  crave;l  some  simple  religious 
service — the  reading  of  Scripture,  the  repeti- 
tion of  a  psalm,  the  singing  of  a  hynni,  or  the 
offering  of  a  prayer — and  invariably  the  men 
were  melted  to  tears  by  the  touching  simplicity 
of  her  eloquence." 

In  June,  1865,  she  was  performing  service  in 
a  hospital  at  Richmond,  \a.,  and  subsequently 
she  worked  with  the  same  earnestness  in  schools 
for  white  and  coloreil  people  in  that  city. 

Returning  to  Ma.ssachusetts  broken  in  health, 
.she  spent  some  time  in  a  sanitarium.  She  was 
married  October  11,  1866,  to  Hamilton  O-sgood. 
She  died  in  Newton,  Mass.,  April  20,  1868. 
The  commemorative  services,  held  in  the  Uni- 
versalist  Church  in  Chelsea  on  Sumlay,  April  26, 
were  interesting  and  impressive,  and  attended 
by  many  friends,  including  sold  rs  and  other 
army  associates.  Dr.  Leonard,  in  his  sermon 
from  the  text,  "She  hath  done  what  she  could," 
spoke  of  her  beautiful  life  as  complete  in  three 
stages — preparation,  work,  rest.  Two  hymns — 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,"  and  "Rest'for  the 
Weary" — were  hymns  that  had  been  favorites 
with  Miss  Gilson:  she  had  often  sung  them  in 
the  hospitals. 

Among  the  appreciative  words  called  forth 
by  her  passing  were  these,  dated  May  13,  1868, 
written  by  the  Rev.  Clay  MacCauley,  who  had 
been  an  army  chaplain.  They  are  here  copied 
from  the  Christian  Register:  "How  well  I  re- 
member her!  We  first  met  in  I  leasant  Valley, 
Md.,  October,  1862,  soon  after  the  battle  of 
Antietam.  She  was  then  giving  the  wealth  of 
her  mind  and  heart  to  the  sick  and  woundeil 
soldiers  in  an  old,  cheerless  log  barn  we  tried  to 
call  a  hospital.  What  a  beautiful  minister  of 
goodness  she  was!  There  on  that  hard  thresh- 
ing-floor she  could  be  seen  constantly,  often 
sitting  beside  the  sick,  speaking  tho.se  words 
of  comfort,  smiling  those  sisterly  smiles,  read- 


ing those  'words  of  life,'  singing  those  songs  of 
home,  country,  and  heaven,  which  gave  to  her 
the  name,  'Sweet  Mi.ss  Gilson.'  We  all  loved 
her.  I  am  sure  she  made  home  dearer,  life 
purer,  and  heaven  nearer  to  every  one  of  us. 
When,  as  it  happened  so  often,  some  spirit 
was  about  to  be  released  from  its  bonds,  she 
always  took  a  place  beside  the  dying  one  and 
received  the  farewell  messages.  Then,  with 
her  pale,  uplifted  face,  always  beautiful,  but 
never  so  beautiful  as  when  it  lay  back  looking 
into  the  workl  to  which  she  has  herself  now 
gone,  .she  bore  the  departing  soul  by  the  power 
of  faith  to  its  rest.  They  were  no  false  tears 
she  sheel.  They  were  no  false  words  she  spoke. 
Never  seemed  touch  more  gentle  than  hers. 
Never  seemed  step  so  light.  It  was  brightness 
at  her  coming  and  sadness  at  her  going. 

"  She  was  brave  as  she  was  loving.  I  have 
seen  her  sit  unmoved  and  silent  in  the  midst 
of  a  severe  cannonade  while  soldiers  were  fleeing 
for  refuge.  I  have  seen  her  almost  alone  in 
a  contraband  camp  and  hospital.  In  the 
midst  of  ignorance  ill-suited  to  her,  vice  that 
must  have  been  repugnant,  and  squalor  in  all 
its  repulsiveness,  she  moved,  an  angel  of  mercy, 
loving  and  loved.  She  gave,  in  all  her  minis- 
trations, health  to  the  diseased,  comfort,  inspi- 
ration to  the  dying,  strength  to  the  timid,  knowl- 
edge to  the  ignorant,  and  to  the  depraved  the 
beauty  of  purity.  .  .  .  Her  earthly  life  seemed 
but  a  type  of  the  heavenly." 

The  author  of  the  following  heartfelt  tribute, 
dated  April  22,  1868,  here  quoted  but  in  part, 
wrote  from  the  privilegetl  standpoint  of  long 
anil  intimate  acquaintance. 

■'  H.  L.  G. 

"  To  the  memory  of  one  whose  years,  measured  by 
the  sands  of  time,  were  few,  not  so  when  reckoned 
by  the  value  of  tlie  loyal  and  royal  service  she  per- 
formed. 

"The  writer  knew  her  well,  in  the  home,  in 
society,  and  in  the  more  trying  experiences  of 
the  army  hospital  and  the  field;  and  in  each 
position  and  in  each  relation  he  felt  her  good- 
ness of  heart  and  her  greatness  of  soul.  He 
loved  her  for  what  she  has  been  to  those  near 
and  dear  to  him,  for  what  she  has  done  for 


72 


REPRESENTATR  E   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


others,  and  for  what  she  has  tried  to  be  to  all. 
With  his  family  there  was  no  kinship  of  blood, 
but  there  grew  up  in  those  years  of  association 
with  them  in  that  home  a  higher  relationship 
of  reciprocal  affection,  apjn'cciation,  and  trust. 

"Her  thoughtfulness,  her  gentleness,  her  dig- 
nity, and  her  playfulness  showed  the  strong 
contrasts  in  her  nature,  which  so  singularly 
combined  the  child  and  the  woman.  She  was 
charitable  in  judgment,  ready  to  forgive  those 
whose  lips  had  questioned  her  fidelity  or  the 
purity  of  her  motives,  antl  ecjually  ready  to 
confess  her  faults.  She  often  said,  true  affec- 
tion does  not  make  us  blind;  but,  although 
keenly  alive  to  the  errors  of  those  we  love,  we 
can  the  more  readily  pardon.  With  confidence 
in  her  ability  to  work  in  responsible  positions, 
she  was  humble,  and  did  not  desire  notoriety, 
declining  always  to  furnish  for  publication  any 
history  of  her  army  life. 

"Her  faculty  in  arranging  a  hospital,  her 
tact  in  managing  the  patients  and  the  soldier 
nurses,  her  ability  to  pray  and  sing  with  dying 
men,  to  conduct  religious  and  funeral  cere- 
monies, her  adaptation  to  circumstances,  her 
courage  in  hours  of  danger — all  fitted  her  for 
the  service  she  performed.  ...  In  her  presence 
the  profane  lip  was  silent,  and  she  won  the  re- 
spect and  love  alike  of  friend  and  stranger,  of 
the  aged,  of  whom  she  was  so  thoughtful,  and 
of  the  young,  whom  she  so  readily  instructed 
and  amused. 

"Loving  her  Saviour,  she  loved  the  divinity 
in  our  humanity,  and  believed  that  all  good 
thoughts,  words,  deeds,  are  divine;  that  we  are 
but  the  channel  through  which  they  flow,  and 
that  the  divine  current  is  sure  to  deposit  in 
our  hearts  the  seeds  of  constant  joy.  This  was 
the  only  reward  she  sought."  ...  — f.  b.  f. 

The  monument  erected  over  her  grave  in 
Woodlawn  Cemetery,  Chelsea,  bears  this  in- 
scription : — 

HELEN   L.  GILSON 

A   TRIBUTE    FROM    SOLDIERS 
OF   THE   WAR   OF    1861    TO    1865 
FOR   SELF-SACRIFICING    LABORS 
IN   THE   ARMY   HOSPITALS 


On  each  Memorial  Day  the  monument  is 
decked  with  flowers,  and  an  appropriate  service 
is  conducted  by  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  of 
East  Boston.  Truly  a  martyr  to  the  Union 
cau.se,  it  is  meet  that  she  should  be  held  in 
grateful,  loving  remembrance. 


MARY  SEARS  McHENRY,  past  Na- 
tional President  of  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps,  while  a  resident  of  Deni- 
son,  la.,  is  a  native  of  Berkshire 
County,  Massachusetts,  and  comes  of  old  colo- 
nial stock.  She  was  born  in  New  Boston  vil- 
lage, in  the  town  of  Sandisfield,  December  30, 
1834,  daughter  of  David  G.  and  Olive  (Deming) 
Sears.  Her  father  was  son  of  Paul"  and  Rachel 
(Granger)  Sears,  of  Sandisfield,  and  a  descend- 
ant in  the  seventh  generation  of  Richard  Sears 
(or  Sares,  as  formerly  spelled),  of  Yarmouth, 
Mass.,  the  line  being:  Richard,'  Paul,^ '  Joshua,' 
Paul,' "  David  G.'  The  name  of  Richard  Sares 
was  on  the  tux  list  of  Plymouth  Colony  in  March, 
1633.  In  1639  he  settled  with  others  at  a  place 
on  Cape  Cod  which  they  named  Yarmouth. 

His  grandson,  PauP  Sears,  of  Yarmouth, 
married  in  1693  Mercy  Freeman,  daughter  of 
Thomas''  Freeman  and  grand-daughter  of  John 
and  Mercy  (Prence)  Freeman,  Mercy  Prence 
being  a  daughter  of  Governor  Thomas  Prence, 
of  Plymouth  Colony,  by  his  wife  Patience,  who 
was  a  daughter  of  William  Brewster,  Elder  of 
the  church  of  Scrooby,  Leyden,  and  Plymouth. 
Patriots,  scholars,  and  philanthropists  have 
been  numbered  among  the  posterity  of  Richard 
Sears  of  Yarmouth.  The  late  Barnas  Sears, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  sometime  President  of  Brown 
University  and  afterward  superintendent  of 
the  Peabody  Educational  Fund,  was  a  son  of 
Paul"  Sears  and  an  uncle  of  Mrs.  McHenry. 

David  G.  Sears,  after  the  birth  of  his  daugh- 
ter Mary,  resided  successively  in  Hartford, 
Conn.,  and  in  New  York  City,  engaged  in  mer- 
cantile business,  and  subsequently  settled  in 
Ogle  County,  Illinois,  where  he  purchased  a 
section  of  land  and  applied  himself  to  farm- 
ing. Mary  Sears  completed  her  school  studies 
at  the  seminary  (now  college  for  women)  in 
Rockford,  111.  On  the  28th  of  January,  1864, 
she    was    married    to    William    A.    McHenry, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


73 


who  was  orderly  Sergeant  of  Company  S, 
Eighth  Illinois  Cavalry,  and  was  then  at  home 
on  a  veteran's  furlough.  He  continued  in  the 
service  of  his  country,  returning  to  Washington 
after  his  marriage  ami  rejoining  his  regiment. 
His  brother  held  the  office  of  treasurer  of  Craw- 
ford County,  Iowa,  and  Mrs.  McHenry  was  ap- 
pointed his  deputy.  A\'hen  her  husband  re- 
turned from  the  war,  they  settled  in  Denison, 
la.,  where  they  still  make  their  home.  Mr.  Mc- 
Henry is  a  banker  and  a  breeder  of  Angus  cattle. 
He  is  interested  in  the  Relief  Corps  and  also  in 
other  patriotic  and  charitable  work  in  which 
his  wife  is  a  leader. 

He  was  Department  Commander  of  Iowa 
G.  A.  R.,  1886-87,  ami  represented  that  order 
in  San  Francisco  at  the  National  Encampment, 
G.  A.  R.,  in  1886.  The  local  camp  of  Sons  of 
Veterans  bears  his  name,  W.  A.  McHenry 
Camp,  S.  of  v..  No.  53. 

In  July,  1883,  at  the  convention  in  Denver, 
Col.,  of  all  the  women's  societies  in  the  country 
that  were  working  for  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  Mrs.  McHenry  was  an  unauthorized 
representative  from  Iowa.  The  Denver  con- 
vention resulted  in  the  organization  of  the  Na- 
tional Woman's  Relief  Corps.  Upon  Mrs.  Mc- 
Henry's  return  to  Denison  a  local  corps  was 
formed  under  her  leadership.  She  was  electetl 
President  thereof,  and  was  active  in  the  work 
throughout  the  State.  After  serving  in  various 
other  capacities,  she  was  chosen  Department 
President  of  Iowa,  and  later  served  as  Depart- 
ment Treasurer.  At  the  convention  held  in 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  in  July,  1890,  Mrs. 
McHenry  was  elected  National  President,  to 
succeed  Mrs.  Annie  Wittenmyer.  Her  admin- 
istration was  conducteil  in  an  able  manner,  and 
in  her  travels  in  several  States  of  the  I'nion 
she  gave  such  a  favorable  impression  of  the 
order  that  many  corps  and  members  were  aiUled 
to  its  rolls.  At  the 'next  national  convention, 
in  Detroit,  Mich.,  in  August,  1891,  Mrs.  Mc- 
Henry gave  a  detailed  and  interesting  account 
of  the  year's  work.  "The  year  has  been  to 
me,"  she  .said,  "full  of  responsibilities  hereto- 
fore unknown,  yet  I  have  enjoyed  the  work  and 
found  a  rare  pleasure  in  the  ]ierformance  of 
varied  and  oftentimes  complicated  duties.  The 
months  as  I  recall  them  seem  but  as  days,  and 


the  time  has  flown  too  quickly  for  me  to  ac- 
complish all  I  had  hopetl  and  desiretl  to  do.  .  .  . 
The  membership  of  our  order  has  steadily  in- 
creased in  number  ami  influence  during  the 
year,  antl  is  represented  in  every  State  of  the 
Union  but  one — Alabama — and  all  the  Terri- 
tories except  Indian,  Idaho,  and  Alaska.  Even 
Canada  claims  its  post  and  auxiliary  corps  (Gen- 
eral Hancock  Post  and  Corps  of  Montreal), 
which  are  attached  to  the  Department  of  Ver- 
mont. Three  liundretl  and  sixty-two  corps 
have  been  instituted  during  the  year,  with  a 
membership  of  seven  thousand  two  hundred." 

The  net  gain  during  the  year  was  reported 
as  twelve  thousand  six  hundred  seventeen  mem- 
bers, and  the  total  membership  as  one  hundred 
seventeen  thousand  fifty-eight.  Referring  to 
work  among  the  colored  people,  Mrs.  McHenry 
stated  that  there  were  Relief  Corps  in  Virginia, 
the  Carolinas,  in  Florida,  Louisiana,  Georgia, 
Arkansas,  Tennessee,  and  Mississippi,  auxiliary 
to  colored  posts.  Seven  of  these  were  insti- 
tuted during  the  year.  "Their  ritualistic  work 
may  be  imp(>rfect,"  .she  said,  "but  their  zeal  and 
loyalty  are  unabated,  and  they  accomplish 
much  good  in  their  own  way  among  their  own 
people."  Referring  to  Memorial  Day,  she 
stated  that  many  appeals  for  this  object  were 
received  from  the  several  Department  Com- 
manders within  whose  jurisdiction  were  located 
national  cemeteries  with  their  tens  of  thousands 
of  Union  soldiers.  She  ackncnvledged  the  liberal 
tlonations  of  corps  in  tlepartments  where  com- 
ratles  sufferetl  from  severe  drought  during  the 
past  season. 

A  part  of  her  address  relatetl  to  the  National 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  Home,  of  which  she 
spoke  in  congratulatory  terms,  as  follows :  "  This 
first  year  in  the  history  of  our  National  W.  R.  C. 
Home  has  been  one  of  unwonted  prosperity 
and  success.  The  sympathy  and  co-operation 
of  the  people  have  been  expressed  in  every 
po.ssible  manner,  and  their  gifts  for  its  equip- 
ment and  support  have  been  generous  even  to 
lavishness.  ...  A  most  princely  gift  is  the  ap- 
propriation by  the  Ohio  Legislature  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  for  the  erection  of  a  cot-- 
tage  upon  the  home  grounds.  We  asked  for 
twenty-five  hundretl  dollars,  and  the  State 
gave  us  twenty-five  thousand  dollars.     This  is 


74 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  highest  recognition  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps  and  its  work  that  has  ever  been  given, 
and  is  truly  a  crown  of  glory  to  this  adminis- 
tration and  the  seal  of  future  possibilities." 
Quoting  from  the  report  of  the  Invalid  Pension 
Committee  of  Congress,  to  whom  the  bill  for 
pensions  for  army  nurses  had  been  referred,  she 
continued :  "  I  trust  the  work  of  securing  special 
pensions  will  he  pushed  to  the  utmost.  The 
greatest  obstacle  in  the  way  seems  to  be  the 
defective  record  of  army  nurses  in  the  War 
Department.  Twenty-six  thousand  names  of 
women  are  enrolled.  Eighteen  thousand  of 
them  have  no  record  whatever.  Six  thousand 
two  hundred  and.  eighty-one  are  mentioned  as 
army  nurses,  but  four  thousand  six  hundred 
and  ninety-four  of  these  have  no  statement  as 
to  the  authority  by  which  they  were  appointed. 
It  is  not  probable  that  Congress  will  pass  a 
general  pension  law  for  army  nurses  until  a 
satisfactory  record  is  made.  Therefore  I  be- 
lieve it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  this 
record  of  the  W\ar  Department  be  corrected 
and,  if  possible,  completed.  This  will  require 
a  vast  amount  of  time,  patience,  work,  and  in- 
fluence, an  immense  correspondence,  and  some 
money.  But  the  women  who  served  their 
country  amid  the  i)erils  of  war  deserve  some- 
thing at  our  hands;  and,  if  we  cannot  secure 
for  them  pensions  while  living,  let  us  build  for 
them  a  monument  of  tleeds,  recorded  in  the 
military  register  of  the  nation.  Many,  very 
many  of  them  are  dead.  All  will  soon  be  gone. 
Then  let  us  not  allow  their  heroic  services  to 
sink  into  oblivion,  but  take  immediate  action 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  this  work." 

In  closing  her  address,  Mrs.  McHenry  pre- 
sented several  recommendations  of  value  to 
the  work,  and  expressed  thanks  to  many  friends 
for  courtesies  received. 

On  motion  of  Mrs.  Kate  B.  Sherwood,  past 
National  President,  the  convention  extended 
thanks  to  Mrs.  McHenry  "for  her  exemplifi- 
cation of  all  the  womanly  qualities  enjoined 
by  the  obligations  of  our  order  while  presiding 
over  this  convention."  Mrs.  McHenry  re- 
sponded: "Ladies,  I  thank  you.  Time  is  too 
precious  for  me  to  use  it  in  telling  of  my  ap- 
preciation of  all  the  kind  things  you  have  said 
and  done  for  me,  not  only  here  in  convention. 


but  during  the  whole  year.  I  trust  the  friend- 
ships thus  formed  will  grow  warmer  as  our  years 
increase.  Parting  is  the  one  'sweet  sorrow'  of 
our  conventions;  but,  as  I  claim  you  all  as  'my 
daughters,'  I  trust  each  one  will  remember  me 
with  the  same  fraternal  love  I  bear  you,  and 
in  that  lovely  'somewhere'  we  shall  all  meet 
to  'go  out  no  more  forever.'  " 

Mrs.  McHenry  has  continued  her  active  inter- 
est in  the  work  of  the  National  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  and  has  been  a  liberal  contributor  to 
various  charities,  expending  her  money  freely 
for  benevolent  objects.  Enjoying  the  cjuiet  of 
her  home  life,  she  is  interested  in  public  work 
only  for  the  good  she  can  accomplish.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  McHenry  have  four  children,  two  sons  and 
two  daughters,  who  are  perpetuating  the  prin- 
ciples of  patriotism  by  membership  in  the  so- 
cieties of  S.  of  v.,  W.  R.  C,  and  Sons  and 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution. 


LOUISE  C.  PURINGTON,  M.D.,  Na- 
tional Superintendent  W.  C.  T.  U.. 
__J  Department  Health  and  Heredity. — 
Mary  Louise  Chamberlain,  as  Dr.  Pur- 
ington  was  christened,  was  born  near  Madison, 
N.Y.,  in  one  of  the  lovely  hamlets,  or  "hol- 
lows," of  the  Empire  State.  The  youngest 
child  of  Isaac  and  Harriet  (Putnam)  Chamber- 
lain, she  traces  her  descent  through  her  mother 
from  the  Putnam  family  of  Danvers,  originally 
known  as  Salem  Village,  Mass. 

The  immigrant  progenitor  of  this  family, 
John  Putnam,  died  in  1662,  some  twenty  years 
or  more  after  his  arrival  in  the  colony.  Three 
sons  of  John'  handed  down  the  family  name. 
They  were:  Thomas,^  grandfather  of  General 
Israel  Putnam;  NathanieP;  ami  John,  Jr.,^  who 
fought  in  King  Philip's  War,  and  was  aftex- 
ward  a  Captain  of  militia.  Elcazer'  Putnam, 
born  in  1665,  seventh  child  of  Captain  John^ 
and  his  wife,  Rebecca  Prince,  was  a  deacon  of 
the  church  in  Danvers.  The  farm  on  which  he 
settled  lies  north  of  the  General  Israel  Putnam 
house.  Henry*  Putnam,  born  in  1712,  son  of 
Deacon  Eleazer^  and  his  second  wife,  Eliza- 
beth, dauglder  of  Benjamin  and  Apphia  (Hale) 
Rolfe,  of  Newbury,  removed  in  middle  life 
from  Danvers  to  "Charlestown,  where  he  kept 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


75 


school,  and  thence  about  the  year  1763,  it  is 
thought,  removed  to  Medford.  A  stanch  pa- 
triot, seizing  his  gun  on  the  ahirm  of  April  19, 
1775,  he  set  forth  to  meet  the  foe,  anil  was 
killed  at  the  battle  of  Lexington,  being  then 
in  his  sixty-fourth  year.  He  was  Dr.  Puring- 
ton's  great-great-grandfather.  Eleazer^  Put- 
nam, born  in  Danvers  in  1738,  son  of  Henry^ 
and  his  wife  Hannah,  was  a  farmer,  and  resided 
in  Medford.  In  April,  1775,  he  served  five 
days  as  a  private  in  Captain  Isaac  Hall's  com- 
pany. 

Dr.  Elijah"  Putnam,  Dr.  Purington's  maternal 
grandfather,  son  of  Eleazer''  and  Mary  (Crosby) 
Putnam,  was  born  in  Medford,  Mass.,  in  1769. 
He  died  in  January,  1S51,  in  Madison,  N.Y., 
where  he  had  practised  medicine  many  j-ears. 
His  wife  was  Phebe,  daughter  of  Captain  Abner 
Ward.  They  had  ten  children — Frances,  John, 
Phebe,  Samuel  and  Sidne>y  (twins),  Hamilton, 
Harriet  (Mrs.  Chamberlain),  Mary  (Mrs.  Adin 
Howard),  Caroline,  and  Henry  Locke.  Two 
of  the  sons  were  physicians. 

Dr.  Purington  was  early  orphaned,  and  owes 
her  liberal  education  to  her  aunt  Mary  and 
uncle  Adin  Howard,  who,  with  rare  philan- 
thropy, adopted  seven  children.  From  the 
beautiful  village  home  of  the  Howards  at 
Madison,  N.Y.,  Louise,  a  child  of  twelve  years, 
was  sent  to  the  Utica  Academy.  At  nineteen 
she  was  graduated  from  Mount  Holyoke  Semi- 
nary and  ten  years  later  from  the  Hahnemann 
Medical  College,  Chicago,  supplementing  the 
course  with  advanced  study  and  clinical  ex- 
perience in  the  hospitals  and  dispensaries  of 
New  York  City.  It  was  the  same  bent  that 
led  the  young  girl,  just  out  of  school,  to  offer 
herself  as  a  hospital  nurse  in  the  service  of  the 
United  States  Christian  Commission.  George 
H.  Stuart,  of  Philadelphia,  was  at  the  head  of 
the  department,  and  had  given  to  each  member 
of  the  class  of  1864  at  Mount  Holyoke,  in  which 
she  was  graduated,  a  silver  pin,  appropriately 
inscribed,  in  recognition  of  their  self-ilenying 
gift  of  money — the  price  of  the  customary  class 
badge — to  the  work  of  the  c(;mmission. 

At  the  Hahnemann  College  Dr.  Purington 
took  first  rank,  with  one  other  stutlent  leading 
her  large  class,  its  only  woman  graduate.  A 
powerful  motive  prompting  her  to  this  study, 


at  a  time  when  the  world  looked  askance  at 
the  woman  tloctor,  was  her  cherished  belief  in 
the  ecjuality  of  the  .sexes  and  her  desire  to  see 
women  not  only  entering  every  open  door,  but 
pushing  open  those  that  stood  ajar.  One  who 
vividly  remembers  the  graduating  exercises  of 
her  class  and  the  applause  that  greeted  the  one 
woman,  young,  beautiful,  and  poised,  .who  rose 
to  receive  her  diploma,  says  of  that  bit  of  his- 
tory, "  It  set  forward  perceptibly  the  woman's 
hour."  It  by  no  means  closed  Dr.  Purington's 
student  life.  Her  scholarly  habits  were  formed 
and  crystallized  in  life  and  character.  A  signal 
.service  rendered  to  her  sex,  which  resultetl  in 
preventing  Halmemaim  College  from  taking  the 
backwanl  step  of  excluding  women  from  its 
courses,  brought  her  into  close  relation  and 
finally  intimate  friendship  with  Mrs.  Kate  N. 
Doggett,  a  social  and  intellectual  leader  in 
Chicago,  the  founder  and  promoter  of  the 
Fortnightly,  one  of  the  leading  literary  clubs 
of  women  in  America.  Dr.  Purington  served 
as  chairman  of  its  classical  committee,  and 
wrote  several  scholarly  papers. 

But  literary  and  professional  interests  could 
not  long  suffice  a  spirit  touched  to  finer  issues. 
The  temperance  crusade  reached  Chicago. 
Frances  E.  Willard  came  in  from  Evanston  to 
arldress  a  mass  meeting.  The  young  doctor 
heard  her  ringing  words,  respondetl  to  the 
bugle-eall  of  spirit  to  spirit,  sought  her  leader- 
ship, and  became  her  co-worker  and  lifelong 
friend.  The  association  of  that  year  with  the 
great  leader  of  temperance  reform  was  invalu- 
able to  Dr.  Purington,  opening  new  perspec- 
tives for  an  as])iring  nature.  She  regards  Miss 
Willard's  influence  as  among  the  dominant 
forces  in  her  life,  and  especially  owes  to  it  her 
ultimate  devotion  to  the  temperance  cause. 
An  immediate  result  was  the  formation  of  the 
first  "Y,"  or  Young  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance LTnion,  at  her  home  in  Chicago. 

In  the  mission  field,  also,  Dr.  Purington 
specialized  in  young  women's  work.  As  an 
active  member  for  twelve  years  of  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Missions  of  the  Interior,  she  originated 
and  carried  forward  the  young  ladies'  work. 
She  was  playfully  called  "  Bi.'ihop  of  the  Girls 
of  the  Interior"  and  popularly  known  as  "En- 
gineer of  the  Bridge,"  an  ingenious  device  in 


76 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


mission  work  by  which  she  aroused  enthusiasm 
and  secured  unity  of  action  in  the  societies 
she  formed.  Her  interest  in  foreign  missions 
can  be  traced  to  a  favorite  teacher  at  Mount 
Holyoke.  To  that  teacher,  Ann  Eliza  Fritcher, 
afterward  a  missionary  under  the  American 
Board,  founder  and  long-time  principal  of  the 
Girls'  School  at  Marsovaii,  Turkey,  Dr.  Puring- 
ton  feels  the  deepest  spiritual  obligation. 

Life,  almost  all  life,  has  its  tragic  side.  This 
one  was  not  exempt.  A  nervous  breakdown 
came,  the  consequence  of  anxiety  and  over- 
work; and  for  two  years  or  more  there  was  a 
physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  "  walk  in  the 
dark  with  God."  The  (lisability  had  its  com- 
pensations in  a  long  residence  at  Clifton  Springs 
Sanitarium  and  the  help  and  blessing  of  Dr. 
Henry  Foster.  Out  of  pathos  unspeakable, 
disaster,  and  defeat,  came  a  knowledge  of  things 
unseen  and  eternal,  and  a  buoyant  faith  in  God 
that  has  been  the  mightiest  factor  in  Dr.  Pur- 
ington's  spiritual  life.  A  gradual  restoration 
was  followed  by  change  of  scene  and  surround- 
ings and  a  new  home  in  the  serener  atmosphere 
of  Boston.  With  Miss  P'dla  Gilbert  Ives,  the 
friend  who  is  one  with  her  in  motive,  interest, 
and  aim.  Dr.  Purington  has  been  associated 
since  1885  in  a  school  for  girls,  at  the  same 
time  giving  herself  without  stint  to  philan- 
thropic work.  For  ten  years  she  has  held  an 
influential  position  in  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  nmning  the  gamut  of 
local  and  county  president,  local.  State,  and 
national  superintendent,  and  of  late  editor  of 
the  State  paper.  She  served  several  years  as 
national  superintendent  of  franchise,  and  com- 
piled for  Miss  Willard  the  facts  used  by  her  in 
her  annual  addresses  to  exhibit  the  progress 
of  women.  In  1895  Dr.  Purington  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  department  of  health  antl  he- 
redity, which,  as  national  superintendent,  she 
has  thoroughly  organized  and  developed,  rally- 
ing to  her  a,ssistance  State  superintendents  and 
a  host  of  earnest  workers  in  her  great  con- 
stituency. 

The  aim  of  her  department  is  the  develop- 
ment of  the  highest  life,  physical,  mental,  and 
spiritual,  and  not  only  this,  but  also  the  clean- 
est, healthiest  civic  life.  It  includes  co-opera- 
tion with  boards  of  health  in  the  enforcement 


of  health  ordinances;  school  hygiene  and  sani- 
tation, instruction  in  the  laws  of  health  in  re- 
lation to  dress,  food,  air,  exercise,  cleanliness, 
mental  and  moral  hygiene.  The  department 
is  active  in  trying  to  secure  the  passage  of  pure 
food  bills,  legislative  enactments  relating  to 
public  health,  milk  and  poultry  inspection,  etc., 
all  of  which  work  covers  a  wide  field  of  en- 
deavor, and  is  attended  year  by  year  with  in- 
creasingly good  results. 

In  1903,  at  the  World's  Convention  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  in 
Geneva,  Switzerland,  Dr.  Purington  was  ap- 
pointed World's  Suijerintendcnt  of  the  depart- 
ment co-operation  with  missionary  societies; 
thus  being  enabled  to  unify  her  life-long  work 
in  two  great  Jields  of  Christian  activity. 

In  both  missionary  and  temperance  lines  Dr. 
Purington's  contributions  to  leading  periodicals, 
her  manuals  and  leaflets,  have  won  recognition 
and  hearty  praise.  Especially  valuable  arc 
her  life  studies  in  the  field  of  health  and  hered- 
ity. Her  character  and  literary  style  are  for-  ^- 
ful,  original,  and  clear-cut.  She  says  o  icr- 
self,  '"The  open  secret  of  my  life  is  the  same 
as  Charles  Kingsley's:  I  have  a  friend,  not  only 
the  One  above  all  others,  but  in  the  sweetest 
human  sense,  as  interpreted  by  Jeremy  Taylor: 
'  By  friendship  I  suppose  you  mean  the  greatest 
love,  and  the  greatest  usefulness,  and  the  most 
open  communication,  and  the  noblest  suffer- 
ings, and  the  most  exemplary  faithfulness,  and 
the  severest  truth,  and  the  heartiest  coun.sels, 
and  the  greatest  union  of  minds  of  which  brave 
men  and  women  are  capable.' "  Her  intellectual 
awakening  she  tlates  from  the  early  beginning 
of  this  friendship,  which  has  been  to  her  a  chief 
source  of  happiness  as  well  as  of  stimulus  to 
growth.  She  believes  with  Evelyn,  "There  is 
in  friendship  something  of  all  relations  and 
something  above  them  all." 


ALICE   KENT  ROBERTSON,  now 
/  \      known  in  private  life  as  Mrs.  Truman 
X    JL  IjPP  (iuimby,  is  the  only  child  of   the 
Hon.     William    Henry    and     Rebecca 
(Prentiss)  Kent,  late  of  Charlestown,  both  de- 
ceased. 
Alice   Kent  was  born   on  Staniford   Street, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


77 


Boston,  October  16,  1S53,  when  the  old  West 
End  was  the  residence  of  some  of  the  leading 
citizens.  A  few  years  later  the  Kent  faniilj' 
moved  to  Belmont,  Mass.,  and  thence  to 
Charlestown,  where,  in  the  olil  and  spacious 
house,  25  Monument  Square,  the  daughter  still 
lives  with  her  present  husbatnl,  Truman  Lee 
Quimby,  to  whom  she  was  marrietl  November 
21,  1901. 

Her  education  was  acquired  in  private  schools, 
the  one  from  which  she  was  graduated  having 
been  Miss  Catherine  Will^y's,  afterward  Miss 
Ellen  Hubbard's,  at  52  Bowdoin  Street,  Boston. 

From  her  early  childhood  Alice  Kent's  love 
for  reading  and  recitation  was  pronounced,  and 
this  taste  was  carefully  nurtvu'(Ml  during  the 
last  three  years  of  her  school  life  by  her  teacher 
in  literature,  the  late  Theodore  Weld.  His  en- 
thusiasm for  the  study  of  Shakespeare  he  was 
.successful  in  transmitting  to  his  pupils,  being 
especially  so  in  her  case.  She  first  appeared 
on  the  amateur  stage  in  Boston  in  1871,  taking 
the  role  of  Lady  \'iola  Harleigh  in  "  Dreams  of 
Delusion,"  and  showed  unusual  promise  for 
a  girl  of  eighteen.  The  part  of  Sir  Bernard 
Harleigh  was  played  by  George  Riddle. 

Some  time  afterward  Miss  Sarah  Starr  (aunt 
of  the  renowned  Starr  King),  a  woman  of 
marked  individuality  and  culture,  and  pos- 
sessed of  discriminating  literary  taste,  urged 
her  young  friend  Alice  Kent  to  interest  herself 
in  Robert  Browning.  The  poet  was  then  gen- 
erally consideretl  too  obscure  for  comprehen- 
sion, and  was  not  widely  read  in  this  countr}'. 
Miss  Starr,  who  was  an  ardent  admirer  of 
lirowning,  little  thought  that  this  suggestion 
would,  after  her  death,  be  so  richly  fruitful. 
The  inunediate  result  was  the  i)urchase  of 
two  second-hand  volumes  of  Browning,  which 
the  girl  read  with  lukewarm  interest  from  time 
to  time. 

Alice  Kent  was  married  in  Charlestown,  in 
1879,  to  William  Duncan  Robertson,  M.D., 
and  until  his  death,  in  1883,  resided  with  him 
at  Stanstead,  P.Q.,  returning  then  to  the 
Charlestown  home  of  lier  j^arents.  The  mar- 
riage was  without  issue. 

In  the  years  directly  following,  Mrs.  Robert- 
son carried  on  by  herself  a  serious  study  oi 
Browning,  so  that  when  the  Boston  Browning 


Society  was  formed  in  1885  she  was  ready  to 
take  great  interest  in  its  work.  At  one  of  the 
early  meetings  her  interpretation  of  "James 
Lee's  Wife"  was  received  with  marked  favor, 
being  the  forerunner  of  her  later  success  in  this 
line.  Until  1889  Mrs.  Robertson's  work  was 
in  ever-increasing  demand,  and  she  read  en- 
tirely for  charity  on  numberless  occasions. 

In  1890  she  made  a  tleparture  in  her  work 
by  giving  a  subscription  course  of  readings 
from  Shakespeare  and  Browning  in  Boston 
drawing-rooms.  Her  immediate  success  war- 
rantetl  her  continuance,  and  she  appeared  before 
many  wonien's  clubs  in  and  about  Boston  until 
1897,  when,  on  January  20,  she  gave  her  first 
public  reading  at  the  Christian  Association 
Hall,  Boston. 

During  Mrs.  Robertson's  school-days  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe  started  a  girls'  club  in  the 
Back  Bay  district,  Boston,  to  meet  Saturtlay 
mornings  to  read  and  discuss  literature,  with 
the  idea  of  fostering  the  literary  passion  which 
her  youngest  daughter  and  her  friends  had 
acquired  at  school.  This  Saturday  Morning 
Club  gave  occasional  theatricals  for  charity, 
and  in  a  production  of  Tennyson's  "Princess," 
in  May,  1885,  Mrs.  Robertson  for  the  first  time 
essayed  a  man's  part,  playing  the  Prince  with 
much  skill.  At  another  time  the  club  pro- 
duced Browning's  "In  a  Balcony"  in  Charles 
Adams's  little  hall  on  Tremont  Street,  ^\vs. 
Robertson  taking  the  part  of  the  Qu^en.  Th.is 
proved  so  successful  that  by  urgent  request 
the  performance  was  repeated  in  New  Yoi'k, 
for  charity,  at  the  Berkeley  Lyceum  Theatre. 
Mrs.  Robertson  has  played  the  t^ueen  manj^ 
times.  Mr.  Edward  H.  Clement,  editor-in- 
chief  of  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  says 
of  her  in  an  editorial,  April  3,  1897:  "To  judge 
only  by  her  truly  thrilling  performance — at 
once  graceful  and  tender  and  overw'helmingly 
powerful — of  the  Queen  in  Browning's  Balcony, 
if  Mrs.  Robertson  should  go  upon  the  profes- 
sional stage  and  play  the  great  tragic  roles, 
the  Saturday  Morning  Club  would  gain  perma- 
nent fame  as  the  Alma  Mater  of  the  finest 
genius  of  tragedy  since  Ristori." 

The  next  noteworthy  performance  of  this 
club  was  the  Sophocles  "Antigone,"  with  Mrs. 
Robertson  as  Creon  the  King.    The  play  was 


78 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


given  at  Bumstead  Hall,  Boston,  March,  1890, 
and  was  a  great  artistic  success.  In  the  diffi- 
cult nMe  of  Creon,  Mrs.  Robertson  showed  the 
possibilities  that  were  later  to  win  her  fame  in 
the  "Winter's  Tale,"  which  was  given  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1895.  The  extraordinary  interest  awak- 
ened by  this  performance  will  not  soon  be  for- 
gotten. Historically  it  was  absolutely  correct, 
dramatically  it  was  a  revelation.  Boston  was 
familiar  with  the  play  only  through  Mary 
Anderson's  production  of  it  during  her  last  visit 
here.  Her  Leontes  was  a  man  of  no  great 
dramatic  power,  who.se  work  was  mediocre  and 
colorless.  Mrs.  Robertson  had  fairly  to  create 
the  part.  The  Boston  Transcript  referred  as 
follows  to  hei'  undertaking:  "To  conciuer  Le- 
ontes with  tone  and  dress  and  stride  and  man- 
ner is,  to  begin  with,  an  apparently  impossible 
task,  but  it  was  accomplished. 

"  '  The  king  himself  has  followed  her 
"VVTieii  she  has  walked  before.' 

Then  to  win  sympathy  to  the  mea.sure  of  the 
dramatist's  desire  for  the  tyrant  who  doomed 
fair  Hermione  to  death  is  a  trial  for  kn  actor. 
Mrs.  Robertson  has  added  to  the  capabilities 
revealed  in  Creon,  and  shows  a  depth  of  pas- 
sion and  power  of  uncjualified  merit.  Criti- 
cism of  her  work  must  mean  chiefly  an  attempt 
at  appreciation." 

Henry  A.  Cla))p,  dramatic  critic  of  the  Bos- 
ton Daily  Advertiser,  in  the  issue  of  January 
21,  IS97,  says-  "Mrs.  Robertson  has  a  fine 
stage  presence,  an  earnest,  dignifietl,  antl  un- 
affected manner,  and  a  noble  voice,  the  reach 
and  symi)athetic  adaptai)ility  of  which  are  re- 
markable, the  range  being  from  a  great  depth 
of  note,  with  the  quality  of  a  profound  mascu- 
line bass,  up  to  a  fair  me?zo-soprai\o  altitude. 
Her  enunciation  is  excellent,  and  her  pronun- 
ciati(m  very  near  perfection,  both  having  the 
constant  mark  of  cultivation.  Thus  richly 
furnished  with  the  tools  of  her  art,  Mrs.  Robert- 
son's performance  demonstrated  (what  her 
friends  have  claimed  for  her)  that  her  powerful 
and  clear  intelligence,  pure  taste,  soimd  judg- 
ment, and  dramatic  sensibility  would  bring  her 
great  natural  gifts  to  noble  results.  Her  read- 
ing of  the  balcony  scene  from  '  Romeo  and 
Juliet'  put  it  once  niore  where  it  belongs — in 


the  Garden  of  Eden  before  the  fall.  Mrs. 
Robertson's  interpretation  of  Arlo  Bates's  'The 
Sorrow  of  Rohab'  is  to  be  singled  out  for  ex- 
ceptional praise.  Its  heroic  aspects  were  shown 
\\ith  full  fire  and  potency,  and  its  love  lyrics 
were  so  given  that  their  excjuisite  nmsic  seemed 
to  proceed  from  an  accomplished  singer,  ac- 
companied by  an  orchestra,  rather  than  from 
a  mere  reader  using  the  reatler's  tones.  Many 
of  the  audience  will  find  the  repetitions  of 
'Sweetheart,  sweetheart,'  as  strains  of  pas- 
sionate music  which  shall  long  haunt  the  mem- 
ory and  surge  up  from  it  to  stir  the  heart.  The 
best  word  yet  remains  to  be  said:  Mrs.  Robert- 
son practises  none  of  the  teasing  and  trivial 
trick(>ries  of  vocal  gymnastics  which  are  the 
ojjprobria  of  vulgar  elocutionism ;  she  eschews 
superelaboration  and  over-accent,  which  clog 
the  wheels  of  the  great  authors.  In  short,  her 
reading  is  a  triumph  of  intelligence  and  sym- 
pathy skilfully  applied  to  great  natural  gifts. 

"To  fully  appreciate  the  depth  arul  power 
of  Mrs.  Robertson's  work  it  nmst  be  borne  in 
mind  that  she  has  never  receiAcd  any  instruc- 
tion in  .so-called  elocution.  To  be  sure,  in 
the  Saturday  Morning  Club  performances  she, 
with  the  others,  was  coached  by  Mr.  Franklin 
Haven  Saigent,  of  New  Yoik,  and  she  grate- 
fullj'  acknowledges  deep  indebtedness  to  the 
late  William  H.  Ladd,  of  Chauncy  Hall  School, 
for  criticism  of  .some  of  her  Shakespeare  read- 
ings: but.  in  the  large,  it  may  truthfully  be 
said  that  she  is  self-taught.  This  very  lack 
of  conventional  training  it  is  which  gives  to 
her  work  the  delightful  freshness  and  originality 
for  which  it  is  remarkalile.  Moreover,  Mrs. 
Robertson  has  not  only  the  voice  and  personal- 
ity to  help  her  in  her  work,  but  also  the  sym- 
pathy and  the  intellectual  (jnalities  which 
worthy  inter|)retation  of  great  poets  like  Brown- 
ing, Tennyson,  and  Shakespeare  demands.  Her 
fervor  has  been  compared  to  Fanny  Kemble's, 
and  her  power  of  carrying  her  audience  with 
her  is  certainly  masterful.  Though  it  is  per- 
haps as  a  reader  of  Browning  that  sIk;  has  ap- 
peared most  often  in  drawing-rf)oms,  Mrs. 
Robert-son  finds  her  fullest  o])])ortunities  in 
Shakespeare." 

Her  repertory  of  readings  al.so  includes  Haupt- 
mann's  "The  Sunken  Bell,"  Stephen  Phillips's 


MARIE    D.  FAELTEN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


79 


"Paolo  and  Francesca,"  and  the  French  Cana- 
dian dialect  poems  of  Henry  Druiiirnond. 


MARIE  DEWING  FAELTEN,  one 
of  the  foremost  of  the  young  piano 
teachers  of  Boston,  was  born  in 
.San  Francisco,  Cal.,  April  26,  1869, 
being  the  eldest  child  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Shum- 
way  and  Louie  E.  (Collins)  Dewing.  Her  father 
was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  his  parents,  Ed- 
ward and  Susan  Dewing,  having  removed  to 
that  State  from  their  old  home  in  Salisbury, 
Conn.  The  Rev.  Charles  S.  Dewing  was  for 
a  number  of  years  a  teacher  of  Hebrew  anil 
Greek  in  Princeton  College,  of  which  he  was 
a  gratiuate.  Later  he  became  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  and  preached  in  the  West.  He  came 
to  Massachusetts  in  1<S,S6.  He  established  a 
church  in  Sonierville,  which  became  self-sus- 
taining before  he  left  to  accept  the  broader 
duties  of  minister  at  large.  Afterward  he 
established  churches  in  Brookline,  Brockton, 
Hyde  Park,  Haverhill,  Waltham,  and  Spring- 
field. Mrs.  Dewing,  who  survives  her  hus- 
band, is  now  living  in  Boston.  She  was  born 
in  Washington,  D.C.  Her  parents  were  James 
and  Catherine  (Osborn)  Hoagland,  natives  of 
New  Jersey  and  descendants  of  early  settlers. 
Mr.  Hoagland  lost  his  life  while  on  duty  in  the 
United  States  war-ship  "San  Jacinto"  in  Chi- 
nese waters  some  time  in  the  fifties  of  last  cen- 
tury. Mrs.  Hoagland  afterward  married  C.  E 
Collins,  of  California,  and  her  little  daughter, 
legally  adopted  by  him,  became  Louie  E.  Col- 
lins. Colonel  James  Osborn,  the  father  of 
Catherine  (Mrs.  Hoagland),  and  his  brother. 
Colonel  Abraham,  native-born  residents  of 
the  old  Osborn  homestead  near  Manasquan, 
Monmouth  County,  N.J.,  were  officers  of  the 
American  army  in  the  War  of  1812,  serving 
with  honor.  Their  father,  Samuel  Osborn, 
fought  in  the  Revolution.  He  was  taken  pris- 
oner, but  made  his  escape,  with  a  neighbor 
named  Allen.  His  farm  was  seven  times  raideil 
by  the  Briti.sh. 

The  earliest  bearer  of  this  surname  in  New 
England  was  probably  Thomas  Osborn,  who 
in  1635  was  at  Hingliam,  Mass.,  whence  he 
removed  to  Connecticut.     In  1649-50  he  was 


one  of  the  founders  of  East  Hampton,  L.I. 
His  sons  Joseph  ami  Jeremy  settled  in  Eliza- 
beth, N.J. 

A  similar  name  is  that  of  William  Fitz  Os- 
bern,  that  is,  William  son  of  Osbern  (spelled 
with  an  e),  who  went  to  England  in  1066  with 
William  the  Conqueror  and  after  the  battle 
of  Hastings  was  made  Earl  of  Hereford. 

At  the  age  of  eight  years  Marie  Dewing  began 
her  musical  education  under  Miss  A.  L.  Benson 
in  Binghamton,  N.Y.,  and  later  continued  her 
studies  at  Tuscarora  Academy  in  Peimsyl- 
vania.  After  the  removal  of  her  parents  to 
Boston  in  1886,  she  entered  the  New  England 
Conservatory  of  Music,  taking  up  her  studies 
under  Mr.  Carl  Faelten,  and  graduating  in 
1890,  while  he  was  director  of  the  Conserva- 
tory. In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  she  became 
one  of  the  teachers  in  pianoforte  and  hand 
culture  and  superintendent  of  the  normal  de- 
partment. During  this  period  she  introduced 
the  fundamental  training  course  in  the  chil- 
dren's classes  and  established  a  children's 
matinee.  Weekly  lectures  upon  pedagogi- 
cal subjects  to  teachers  in  the  normal  depart- 
ment also  became  a  regular  feature  through 
her  efforts.  In  the  meantime  she  was  organ- 
ist at  her  father's  church  in  Sonierville,  taking 
charge  of  musical  affairs  and  giving  her  hearty 
support  to  all  church  work. 

During  the  season  of  1894  she  met  Mr.  Rein- 
hold  Faelten,  brother  of  the  director  and  a 
teacher    in    the    Conservatory.     On    June    23, 

1896,  they  were  married,  both  remaining  on 
the  staff  of  Conservatory  teachers  for  another 
season,  when  they  resigned  to  associate  them- 
selves with  Mr.  Carl  Faelten  in  the  Faelten 
Pianoforte    School,    which    he    established    in 

1897,  after  resigning  his  directorship  in  the 
Conservatory,  at  the  close  of  seven  successful 
years.  The  Faelten  Pianoforte  School,  to  the 
work  of  which  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Faelten  have 
devoted  themselves  assitluously,  soon  outgrew 
its  quarters  on  Boylston  Street,  and  now  occu- 
pies a  complete  floor  in  the  new  Huntington 
Chambers.  Its  steady  growth  proves  the  merits 
of  the  principles. on  which  it  is  reared.  Cla.ss 
work  is  a  feature  of  the  school.  The  pupils 
are  assembled  in  large  class-rooms,  with  sev- 
eral pianos  in  each,  and  are  tlrilied  in  the  prin- 


80 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ciples  of  music,  including  sight  playing,  key- 
board, written  harmon'y,  touch,  and  technique. 
The  piano  lessons  proper  are  given  privately 
or  in  small  classes  of  from  two  to  four  students. 

A  pupil  studying  at  the  Faelten  Pianoforte 
School  finishes  his  course  a  well-roundetl  mu- 
sician, not  only  skilled  in  technique,  but  with 
an  understanding  of  the  great  masters,  great 
compositions,  and  musical  history,  which  gives 
him  a  right  to  claim  to  be  thoroughly  educated 
in  music.  This  instruction  week  by  week  is 
the  best  thing  to  supi)ly  that  musical  atmos- 
phere which  makes  the  German  conservatories 
so  valuable  to  students  of  music.  One  feels 
that  Mr.  Faelten  has  surrounded  his  pupils 
with  a  musical  spirit  which  is  a  stimulus  to 
growth;  and  their  public  recitals  prove  that 
"concentrated  attention,  positive  knowledge, 
intelligent  ear,  reliable  memory,  fluency  in 
sight  reading,  and  artistic  ])ianoforte  playing 
are  developed  simultaneously." 

Mrs.  Faelten  with  her  original  ideas,  cheer- 
ful nature,  and  love  of  music,  although  yet  a 
young  woman,  has  made  a  place  for  herself 
in  the  foremost  rank  of  nmsic  teachers.  Her 
teaching  and  playing  are  an  inspiration  to  both 
pupil  and  audience.  She  has  a  large  circle 
of  frientls  in  both  the  social  anil  musical  world, 
anfl  is  much  sought  after  outside  of  her  pro- 
fession. 


y^NNIE  GERTRUDE  MURRAY,  presi- 
ZA  dent,  1901-1902,  of  the  New  England 
X  .\.  Woman's  Press  Association,  is  a  Bos- 
tonian  by  birth  and  education.  Her 
father,  William  Devine,  who  died  in  1878,  was 
one  of  Boston's  pioneer  dealers  in  North  River 
flagging  stone.  Mrs.  Murray  resides  with  her 
mother,  at  the  old  homestead  525  East  Fifth 
Street,  South  Boston.  Her  brothers  are: 
John  A.  and  James  V.,  engaged  in  the  real 
estate  business  in  South  Boston  and  Dorchester; 
and  William  H.,  who  is  a  popular  medical 
practitioner  in  South  Boston;  Dr.  Devine,  late 
Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the  Second  Massachu- 
setts Brigade,  who  served  in  the  Spanish- 
American  War. 

In  1890  Annie  G.  Devine  became  the  wife  of 
George  F.  H.  Murray,  who  bears  the  title  of 


Major,  won  by  services  in  the  Spanish-American 
War. 

Educated  in  Notre  Dame  Convent,  Roxbury, 
Mass.,  Mrs.  Murray  early  showed  a  talent  for 
literary  composition,  her  stories  appearing  in 
the  early  eighties  in  various  magazines  and 
papers  under  the  nom  de  plume  "Annetta." 

In  late  years  articles  from  Mrs.  Murray's 
pen — stories,  sketches,  and  poems,  have  ap- 
peared in  the  Boston  Transcript,  Herald, 
Traveler,  Post,  the  Pilot,  the  National  and 
Donahoe's  Magazine,  and  many  out  of  town 
papers  and  other  magazines.  Mrs.  Murra}'  has 
composed  many  songs. 

In  1901  Mrs.  Murray  was  unanimously  chosen 
to  serve  as  president  of  one  of  the  leading  asso- 
ciations of  women  in  New  England — namely, 
the  New  England  Woman's  Press  Association, 
which  was  formed  in  1885  and  incorporated  in 
1890.  Its  object  is  "to  jiromote  acfjuaintance 
and  good  fellowship  among  newspaper  women, 
and  to  forward  by  concerted  action,  through 
the  press,  such  good  objects  in  .social,  philan- 
thropic, and  reformatory  lines  as  may  from 
time  to  time  present  themselves."  During  its 
existence  of  eighteen  years  this  association  has 
given  receptions  to  many  distinguished  people. 
The  "gentlemen's  nights,"  held  each  year  in  Feb- 
ruary, have  been  notable  affairs.  A  journalists' 
fund  gives  aid  to  "distressed  newspaper  people, 
in  need  of  temporary  help,  whether  in  or  out  of 
the  a.ssociation."  The  two  years  under  Mrs. 
Murray's  administration  were  years  of  added 
prosperity  and  harmony.  The  N.  E.  W.  P.  A. 
is  a  member  of  the  National  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs  and  of  the  Boston  Committee 
of  Council  and  Co-operation  of  the  State  Fed- 
eration. Its  honorary  members  are  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  Margaret  Deland,  Louise  Chandler  Moul- 
ton,  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford,  Elizabeth  Stuart 
Phelps  Ward,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  and  Ednah 
D.  Cheney. 

Mrs.  Murray  was  appointed  by  Mayor  Quincy 
anil  re-appointed  by  Ma3'or  Hart  as  one  of  the 
Trustees  of  the  Children's  Institutions  of  Suf- 
folk Coimty.  This  position,  an  unpaid  one, 
makes  steady  demand  upon  tim(>  and  attention, 
embracing  as  it  does  the  care  of  fourteen  hun- 
dred wards  in  the  several  divisions  of  the  Chil- 
dren's Department. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


81 


Mrs.  Murray  is  a  life  nieniber  of  the  New 
England  Women's  Club,  of  the  Boston  Brown- 
ing Society,  the  Boston  Business  League,  and 
the  Boston  Women's  Press  Club. 


BERTHA  VELLA  BORDEN,  a  recog- 
nized and  efficient  leader  in  Sunday- 
school  work,  for  nine  years  previous  to 
her  marriage  the  Primary  Secretary 
of  the  Massachusetts  Interdenominational  Sun- 
day-school Association,  is  a  native  of  Lynn, 
being  the  eldest  of  the  five  children  born  to 
Joseph  Franklin  and  Emma  Frances  Vella, 
both  natives  of  this  State. 

Her  father,  Joseph  Franklin  Vella,  of  Eng- 
lish and  French  descent,  died  in  1899.  He 
was  known  throughout  the  city  of  Lynn  as 
a  business  man  of  sterling  integrity,  great- 
heartedness,  faithfulness,  and  charity,  being 
a  thorough  Christian  gentleman. 

Her  mother,  Mrs.  Ennna  Frances  Vella,  of 
English  and  Scotch  descent,  a  woman  of  en- 
ergy, kindliness,  and  piety,  is  still  living  in 
Lynn. 

In  1877,  after  completing  her  course  of  study 
in  the  excellent  public  schools  of  Lynn,  Bertha 
Vella  entered  upon  a  thorough  training  for  the 
work  of  a  teacher  in  the  State  Normal  School 
at  Salem.  Here  she  displayed  such  unusual 
aptness  for  object  teaching  that,  although  the 
youngest  member  of  her  class,  she  was  chosen 
by  her  instructor  to  represent  that  part  of  the 
graduation  exercises  in  June,  1879. 

Two  years  of  successful  teaching  followed 
in  historic,  classic  Concord,  and  then,  to  the 
great  regret  of  the  Concord  School  Board,  she 
accepted  an  appointment  to  teach  in  her  home 
city,  where  later  she  became  the  honored  and 
beloved  principal  of  one  of  its  largest  primary 
schools,  and  developed  remarkable  tact  in 
controlling  and  interesting  the  children  under 
her  care. 

It  was  in  the  Sunday-school  connected  with 
the-  Lynn  Common  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
that  she  had  begun  her  work  as  a  teacher  at 
the  age  of  fifteen,  at  the  age  of  sixteen  being 
elected  superintendent  of  its  Primary  Depart- 
ment. She  resigned  this  position  when  in 
Concord,  but  after  she  returned  to  Lynn  was 


annually  re-elected  until  her  resignation  at 
the  close  of  1900.  She  reorganizetl  this  de- 
partment into  Kindergarten,  Primary,  and 
Junior  Departments,  and  supervised  the  teach- 
ing of  the  two  hundred  and  forty-five  jjupils. 

Richly  endowed  with  strong  intellectual 
powers,  possessed  of  ileep  religious  experience 
and  remarkable  teaching  abilities,  while  thus 
earnestly  devoting  herself  to  her  'duties  in 
Sunday-school  and  day  school  she  was,  un- 
consciously, fitting  herself  for  a  wider  field  of 
usefulness.  In  1892  she  received  a  call  which 
appealed  to  her  as  a  divine  vocation,  not  to  be 
resisted.  She  accordingly  resigned  her  posi- 
tion as  principal  of  the  Lynn  Primary  School, 
and  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  William  N. 
Hartshorn,  of  Boston,  recently  elected  chair- 
man of  the  International  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  Sunday-school  Work,  became  the  Pri- 
mary Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Inter- 
denominational Sunday-school  Association, 
being  the  first  woman  in  the  L'nited  States 
elected  as  an  acting  State  Primary  Secretary. 

In  this  office  Miss  Vella  displayed  good  abil- 
ities as  a  public  speaker,  clearness  antl  help- 
fulness as  a  writer,  antl  genius  as  an  organizer. 
In  her  public  addresses  she  aroused,  capti- 
vated, and  held  her  audiences,  often  stirring 
them  to  profound  gratitude  toward  Gotl  for 
his  love,  antl  sincere  determinations  to  utilize 
to  the  best  of  their  abilities  their  opportuni- 
ties to  teach  his  truths  to  their  children.  Her 
influence  over  children  she  taught  seemed  irre- 
sistible. The  irrepressible  were  checked,  the 
listless  aroused,  all  became  absorbed  in  her 
words  and  spiritual  pictures.  She  made  the 
Bible  ta  the  little  ones  a  perfect  delight;  to 
their  seniors,  a  new  revelation  from  God;  to 
all,  the  love  of  Christ  a  living  reality  and  the 
desire  to  serve  him  controlling. 

She  was  a  potent  factor  in  organizing  the 
evangelical  Sunday-schools  of  Massachusetts 
into  district  associations  that  hold  annual  con- 
ventions and  other  gatherings,  unifying,  har- 
monizing, and  intensifying  all  the  vital  inter- 
ests of  the  Sunday-schools  of  Massachusetts. 
She  also  organized  and  supervised  the  work 
of  thirty-five  primary  teachers'  unions,  taught 
weekly  the  Boston  Primary  Union,  and  super- 
intended  her   own   primary   Sunday-school   in 


82 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  historic  Lynn  Common  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church. 

In  addition  to  her  work  in  Massachusetts, 
she  gave  great  impetus  to  the  Sunday-school 
cause  by  her  addresses  at  annual  State  con- 
ventions in  all  the  New  England  States,  at 
primary  teachers'  institutes  in  the  New  Eng- 
land and  Central  States,  at  the  annual  Pro- 
vincial conventions  of  Montreal,  Quebec,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick,  and  the  Inter- 
national Conventions  held  at  St.  Louis  in  1893, 
at  Boston  in  1896,  at  Atlanta  in  1899,  and  at 
the  AVorld's  Convention  held  at  London,  Eng- 
land, in  1898.  At  St.  Louis  in  1893  Mrs.  Borden 
was  elected  Secretary  of  the  International 
Primary  Department,  but  refused  to  accept 
re-election  at  Boston  in  1896,  because  of  greatly 
increased  calls  for  addresses  and  correspond- 
ence in  the  State  work.  She  was  elected  Vice- 
President  of  the  International  Primary  De- 
partment, and  re-elected  in  1899.  Meanwhile 
she  kept  busy  a  ready  pen,  being  a  frequent 
and  highly  valued  correspondent  of  the  821.11- 
day-school  Times,  the  International  Evangel, 
the  Su7iday-school  Journal,  and  other  periodi- 
cals. She  is  also  the  author  of  several  popular 
Sunday-school  concert  exercises  and  of  two 
books,  "Song  and  Study  for  God's  Little  Ones" 
and  "Bible  Study  Songs."  These  books  are 
a  veritable  storehou.se  of  good  things,  from 
which  primary  teachers,  leaders  of  mission 
bands  and  of  other  children's  gatherings,  may 
obtain  helpful  Bible  exercises  and  suitable 
songs. 

At  the  close  of  1900  Miss  Vella  resigned  her 
position  as  State  Primary  Secretary  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  soon  after  she  was  married  to 
Mr.  Charles  F.  Borden,  a  merchant  of  Fall 
River.  Mr.  Borden  is  a  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  A.ssocia- 
tion  and  president  of  the  Fall  River  District 
for  Sunday-school  work. 

Since  her  marriage  Mrs.  Borden  has  lost 
none  of  her  interest  in  the  forward  movements 
of  the  Sunday-school  cause.  Amid  the  many 
duties  of  her  home  life  she  finds  time  to  dis- 
charge with  great  efficiency  the  superintend- 
ency  of  the  Junior  Department  of  the  Central 
Congregational  Bible  School  in  Fall  River,  to 
serve  as  a  wise  and  energetic  member  of  the 


District  Executive  Committee,  anil  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Fall  River  Primary  and  Junior 
Sunday-school  Teachers'  Union.  The  follow- 
ing extract  from  resolutions  adapted  unani- 
mously by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Massachusetts  Sunday-school  Association  show 
the  high  appreciation  felt  for  Mrs.  Borden  and 
her  work.  This  Executive  Committee  is  com- 
posed of  leading  Massachusetts  Sunday-school 
workers,  and  represents  one  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  nineteen  Sunday-schools  and 
three  hundred  and  forty-five  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty-three  Bible  students. 

"  She  has  organized  the  primary  teachers 
into  associations  for  mutual  and  helpful  in- 
tercourse and  for  the  interchange  of  plans  and 
purposes  in  department  effort,  and  has,  by 
her  lesson  studies,  her  literary  work,  her  song- 
books — that  have  effectively  touched  many 
young  lives — and  her  spirit  of  devotion  and 
unselfishness  and  her  exalted  Christian  char- 
acter, lifted  the  Primary  Department  to  a  high 
plane  of  active  and  useful  living;  and  she  has 
awakened  a  new  and  abiding  interest  in  the 
general  work  as  represented  by  the  State  As- 
sociation. 

"  Her  influence  in  the  work  for  the  children 
has  not  been  confined  to  our  own  State,  but 
has  extended  far  beyond  our  borders,  reach- 
ing all  parts  of  our  country.  The  wealth  of 
her  resources,  her  ripe  experience,  and  her  sym- 
pathy have  been  freely  and  generously  dis- 
tributed where  the  most  good  could  be  ac- 
complished. We  extend  to  her  our  best  wishes 
for  the  future,  and  pray  that  God's  choicest 
blessings  may  ever  attend  her  and  her  work." 


ELIZA  BUCKMAN  CAHILL,  M.D.,  was 
born  February  22,  1862,  in  Woburn, 
Mass.,  being  the  (laughter  of  Leander 
and  Ruth  M.  (Buckma;i)  Cahill.  Her 
father,  Leander,  and  her  jiaternal  grandfather, 
Barnaval  Cahill,  were  natives  of  Sackvillc,  Cum- 
berland County,  New  Brunswick,  Canada,  and 
belonged  to  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  widely 
known  families  in  that  country.  Barnavnl 
Cahill,  born  in  1804,  was  the  son  of  John  R. 
Cahill  and  grandson  of  John  Cahill,  a  native  of 
Ireland,    who    married    Teresa    Barnaval,    an 


EI.IZA    B.  CAHILL 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


83 


English  wonuiii,  and  lived  in  London,  England, 
engaged  in  business  as  a  merchant  and  ship- 
owner. 

Dr.  Cahill's  great-grandfather,  John  R.  Cahill, 
died  in  Sackville  in  1852.  He  was  born  in 
London,  England,  in  1777.  His  father,  decid- 
ing to  educate  him  for  the  church,  sent  him  to 
college.  During  a  vacation  he  cros.sed  the  At- 
lantic as  supercargo  of  one  of  his  father's  ves- 
sels. The  vessel  was  wrecked  on  the  return 
voyage,  while  off  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia, 
and  all  on  board  were  taken  to  Halifax.  For 
reasons  not  now  known  young  Cahill  remained 
in  the  British  Provinces,  and  for  a  time  taught 
school.  From  his  father's  estate  in  England 
he  received  regular  remittances  as  long  as  he 
lived.  He  married  a  Miss  Lesdernier,  a  sister 
of  Mrs.  Richard  John  Uniacke,  and  settled  in 
Sackville,  N.B.     They  had  eleven  children. 

Leander  Cahill,  Dr.  Cahill's  father,  elder  son 
of  Barnaval  and  Rebecca  (Chase)  Cahill,  was 
born  in  1834.  Coming  to  Massachusetts  at 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  a  wheelwright  and 
carriage-maker  by  trade,  he  lived  for  a  time 
in  Middlesex  County  and  afterward  in  Boston, 
where  he  engaged  in  the  business  of  carriage- 
making.  Ruth  M.  Buckman,  whom  he  mar- 
ried September  12,  1860,  was  born  in  Woburn, 
January  7,  1839,  the  daughter  of  Dennis  and 
Ruth  Brown  (Richard.son)  Buckman.  Her  pa- 
ternal grandparents  were  Jacob  and  I'^lizabeth 
(Munroe)  Buckman,  of  Lexington,  Elizabeth 
being  a  daughter  of  Marrett  and  Deliverance 
(Parker)  Munroe  anil  a  descendant  of  William' 
Munroe,  of  Lexington  (who  came,  it  is  said, 
from  Scotland  in  1652),  and  of  Thomas'  Parker, 
an  early  settler  of  Reading. 

Dennis  Buckman  was  brother  to  the  Hon. 
Bowen  Buckman  and  Willis  Buckman.  Ruth 
B.  Richardson,  his  wife,  was  a  daughter  of 
Jesse^  Richardson,  a  lineal  descendant  in  the 
fifth  generation  of  Samuel  Richardson,  one  of 
the  three  Richardson  brothers  who  were  among 
the  founders  of  the  town  of  Woburn.  The  line 
was:  Samuel,' ^^  Zechariah,''  Jesse,^  the  latter  a 
soldier  of  the  Revolution.  Zechariah,  born  in 
1720,  married  Phebe  Wyman,  a  descendant  of 
Lieutenant  John  Wyman,  of  Woburn.  (See 
Richardson  Genealogy.) 

Mrs.  Ruth  Buckman  Cahill  was  a  woman  of 


character  and  cultivation,  large-hearted  and 
clear-headed.  She  was  the  mother  of  three 
children.  The  second  child,  Annie  R.,  died  in 
infancy;  and  Frank  .\ll)ert,  born  in  1867,  died 
in  1883.  Eliza,  the  eldest  born,  was  named  for 
her  uncle  Bowen's  wife,  who  had  recently 
passed  away,  beloved  and  lamented.  In  1866, 
when  Eliza  was  four  years  old,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Cahill  removed  to  East  Boston,  where  she  at- 
tended the  public  schools  till  she  reached  the 
age  of  twelve.  In  1874,  on  account  of  the 
mother's  failing  health,  the  family  removed  to 
California.  The  warm  climate  proved  bene- 
ficial to  Mrs.  Cahill,  evidently  prolonging  her 
life,  and  they  remained  there  till  after  her 
death,  which  occurred  August  24,  1879.  In 
response  to  her  wishes,  Mr.  Cahill,  who  was  of 
a  kind  and  loving  nature,  and  remained  ever 
faithful  to  her  memory,  returned  East  to  make 
a  home  for  his  children  in  Boston,  where  they 
would  be  not  far  from  their  mother's  kinsfolk. 
Seven  years  later,  his  daughter  being  then  es- 
tablisheil  in  her  profession,  he  went  back  to  his 
birthplace,  the  old  homestead  in  Sackville,  N.B., 
to  be  with  his  younger  brother,  then  in  failing 
health.  In  Sackville  he  continued  to  reside 
till  his  death,  in  1897,  cared  for  tenderly  in  his 
last  years  of  invalidism. 

While  on  the  Pacific  slope,  Eliza  had  con- 
tinued her  studies  under  private  teachers. 
When  she  returnetl  to  Boston,  she  was  seven- 
teen, and  looking  forward  to  a  life  of  u.sefulness. 
With  the  memory  of  her  mother  as  a  prime 
motive  power  in  every  noble  aspiration  and 
endeavor,  she  chose  an  arduous  profession.  En- 
tering Boston  University  School  of  Medicine 
in  1883,  she  received  her  diploma  in  1886.  A 
week  before  her  graduation  Dean  Talbot  of 
the  University  called  her  into  his  room  and 
said:  "Miss  Cahill,  there  is  a  request  before  me 
for  a  resident  physician  for  the  New  England 
Conservatory  of  Music.  You  fulfil  every  de- 
mand they  make  of  the  incumbent  save  your 
age."  This  was  very  encouraging  to  an  ambi- 
tious young  novitiate.  She  accepted  the  posi- 
tion, and  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  Dr.  Tourjee 
asked  her  to  sign  a  five  years'  contract.  She 
declined,  on  the  ground  of  wishing  to  be  free 
to  change  the  scene  of  her  labors  if  found  de- 
sirable.    She  ditl,  however,  remain  for  fourteen 


84 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


years,  spending  lier  summers  in  Sackville,  N.B., 
with  her  father,  ever  attentive  to  his  comfort 
and  hapi)iness  as  long  as  he  Hved.  At  the  ex- 
piration of  five  years  she  had  leave  of  absence, 
and  went  to  Europe  for  hospital  work.  At 
various  times  she  has  taken  post-graduate 
courses  in  New  York  and  other  cities.  When 
she  had  been  at  the  Conservatory  nine  years 
(during  which  time  she  hatl  acquired  a  large 
outside  practice,  not  being  in  any  way  re- 
stricted by  tlie  trustees  of  the  Conservatory), 
she  became  lecturer  on  diseases  of  women  at 
Boston  University.  As  her  duties  increased  in 
other  directions,  she  wished  to  resign  her  posi- 
tion at  the  Conservatory,  but  was  obliged  to 
wait  three  years  before  her  resignation  would 
be  accepted.  She  is  ever  grateful  and  appreci- 
ative of  the  unfailing  courtesy  which  was  shown 
her  at  tliat  institution.  In  1900  she  took  uj) 
her  residence  at  the  Westminster,  Copley 
Square. 

Doctor  Cahill  is  a  busy  and  happy  woman, 
loving  the  profession  in  which  she  has  been  so 
successful.  She  is  president  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  Medical  Club,  second  vice-president  of 
the  Massachusetts  Surgical  and  Gynecological 
Society,  first  vice-president  of  the  Boston 
Homa>opathic  Medical  Society,  a  member  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy,  the  Electro- 
Therapeutical  Society,  Society  for  University 
Education  of  Women,  and  the  Actors'  Alliance, 
and  first  vice-president  of  the  Alunmi  Associa- 
tion of  Boston  University  School  of  Metlicine. 
Although  too  busy  to  be  often  present  at  the 
meetings,  she  is  a  member  of  the  New  England 
Women's  Club  and  the  Women's  Educational 
and  Industrial  Union  and  a  stockholder  in  the 
Woman'sClub-houseCorporation.  From  girlhood 
she  has  been  a  member  of  the  Methodist  churcli. 


ELIDA  RUMSEY  FOWLE.  philanthropic 
worker,  one  of  the  founders,  in  1863, 
of  the  Soldiers'  Free  Library  and  Read- 
ing Room  in  Washington,  D.C.,  has 
been  for  the  past  fifteen  years,  with  her  hus- 
band, Mr.  John  A.  Fowle,  a  resident  of  Dor- 
chester, Mass.  She  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  June  0,  1842,  daughter  of  John  WicklifTo 
and  Mary  Agnes  (Underbill)  Rumsey. 


In  1861  her  parents  removed  to  Washing- 
Ion.  Her  mother  was  constant  in  works  of 
love  among  the  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War, 
and  Miss  Ruinsey  (now  Mrs.  Fowle)  soon 
began  visiting  the  hospitals  with  a  desire  to 
add  .sunshine  to  the  dreary  days  of  the  sick 
and  wounded.  Realizing  that  her  musical 
talents  could  be  of  .'^eivice,  she  sang  to  them 
songs  that  were  an  inspiration.  Men  released 
from  Libby  Prison  and  located  temporarily  at 
the  Soldiers'  Rest  she  arou.?ed  from  a  state  of 
apathy  and  gloom  to  one  of  courage  and  ho]ie. 
Forming  jjlans  for  improving  the  condition  of 
the  convalescents  antl  other  soldiers  stationed 
at  Washington,  she  received  the  co-operation 
of  Mr.  John  A.  F'owle,  who  held  a  position  in 
the  Navy  Department  at  Washington.  They 
established  a  Sunday  evening  prayer  meeting 
in  Columbian  College  hospital,  an  upper  room 
in  "Auntie  Pomoroy's"  ward  being  assigned 
for  the  purpose.  It  was  crowded  every  night, 
and  overflow  meetings  were  held  in  a  grove 
near  by.  A  report  of  these  gatherings  in  "  Our 
Army  Nurses"  says:  "The  interest  steadily  in- 
creased, the  boys  often  doing  double  duty  in 
order  to  be  present.  The  enthusiasm  of  the 
soldiers  could  not  be  repressed  when  Miss 
Rum,sey's  sweet  voice  stirred  their  souls  and 
rekindled  the  noble,  self-sacrificing  spirit  that 
had  brought  them  to  such  a  place;  and  cheers 
shook  the  very  walls." 

Miss  Runisey  also  saw  active  ser\'ice  among 
the  wounded  and  dying  on  the  battle-fiekl. 
Mr.  Frank  Moore,  in  "Women  of  the  War," 
gives  the  following  account  <if  her  work  after 
the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  fought  August 
30,  1862:  "Mr.  Fowle  obtained  an  ambulance, 
and  Miss  Rumsey  loaded  it  with  some  four 
hundred  antl  fifty  loaves  of  bread,  meat,  spirits 
of  all  kinds,  bandages,  lint,  shirts,  and  other 
stores.  Leaving  Washington  late  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  they  drove  out  by  way  of  Bailey's 
Cross-roads,  ami  reached  Centreville  very  early 
on  Sunday  morning.  They  halted  at  a  little 
building  near  the  road,  which  was  already 
nearly  full  of  the  wounded.  .  .  .  Foi-  some  time 
Miss  Rumsey  ren\aincd  in  the  ambulance,  giv- 
ing out  bread  to  the  famishing  boys,  who 
crowded  around  as  soon  as  it  was  known  there 
was  anything  to  be  eaten  there.     Most  of  them 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


85 


had  eaten  nothing  for  twenty-four  liours,  anil 
were  hopelessly  separated  from  their  supply 
trains.  After  she  had  given  out  most  of  the 
bread  and  other  eatables,  she  stepped  down 
from  the  ambulance,  and  went  inside  to  see  if 
she  could  be  of  any  use  to  the  suffering."  The 
terrible  odor  and  scenes  of  suffering  caused  her 
to  faint,  hut  upon  recovering  she  chided  her- 
self, saying:  "To  think  that  I  have  come  all 
this  way  from  Washington  to  bind  up  the 
wounds  of  these  soldiers,  and  here  the  first  case 
of  running  blood  I  see  I  have  to  become  help- 
less. I  won't  faint.  I  will  go  back,  and  work 
among  these  poor  fellows.  That's  what  I  came 
for,  and  I'm  determined  to  accomplish  some- 
thing." 

During  the  year  1862  a  great  many  books, 
papers,  and  magazines,  received  from  friends 
in  the  North,  were  distributed  by  Mi.ss  Rum.sey 
and  Mr.  Fowle  in  their  hospital  visits.  In  a 
little  more  than  a  year  they  thus  disposed  of 
two  thousand  three  hundretl  and  seventy-one 
Bibles  and  Testaments,  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  seventy-fi\e  books  and  magazines, 
forty  thousand  tracts,  thirty-five  tliousand 
papers,  twenty-five  reams  of  writing  paper, 
nine  thousand  envelopes,  also  (juantities  of 
clothing,  sheets,  wines,  and  jellies.  In  the 
same  period  they  conducted  nearly  two  thou- 
sand singing  meetings  at  hospitals  or  in  camp. 

Tliere  were  times  when  thirty-four  thousand 
sick,  wounded,  or  convalescent  soldiers  were 
gathered  in  Wa.shington,  nearly  all  of  whom 
could  read.  Many  were  able  to  travel  through 
the  streets  on  crutches,  and  others  could  walk 
a  .short  distance  unaided.  For  the  benefit  of 
these  disabled  patriots  Miss  Rumsey,  Mr.  Fowle, 
and  Mrs.  Walter  Baker,  of  Dorchester,  Ma.ss., 
conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  a  free  library. 
To  this  end  Miss  Rumsey  and  Mr.  Fowle  gave 
in  Washington,  Boston,  and  other  places,  a 
number  of  patriotic  vocal  concerts,  the  i)rin- 
cipal  feature  of  which  was  the  songs  of  Miss 
Rumsey,  and  particularly  those  stirring  ami 
patriotic  airs  which  she  had  sung  to  so  manj' 
of  the  soldiers. 

In  the  meantime  a  petition  was  sent  to  Con- 
gress asking  permission  to  erect  a  library  build- 
ing on  land  in  .Judiciary  Square.  The  result  is 
seen  in  the  following  resolution-  "Resolved  by 


the  Senate  and  House  of  Rej^resentatives  of 
the  United.  States  of  America  in  Congress  as- 
sembled, 

"That  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  be  and 
is  hereby  authorized  to  grant  to  John  A.  Fowle 
and  Elida  B.  Rum.sey  the  use  of  a  portion  of 
the  land  owned  by  the  United  States  and  known 
as  'Judiciary  Square,'  to  erect  thereon,  free 
from  charge  to  the  Ignited  States,  a  suitable 
building  for  a  soldiers'  free  library  and  reading- 
room  for  .soldiers;  provided  that  the  same  can 
be  done  without  prejudice  to  the  public  inter- 
ests, and  provided  that  the  expenses  shall  be 
borne  by  said  Fowle  and  Rumsey,  and  that  all 
benefits  and  privileges  of  such  library  and 
reading-room  be  granted  to  our  soldiers  free 
of  charge,  and  that  said  building  be  removed 
whenever  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  shall 
require  the  same  to  be  done. 

"Approved  January  13,  1863." 

Mr.  Fowle  and  Miss  Rumsey  continued  their 
concerts,  the  proceeds  of  which,  with  one  hun- 
dred dollars  contributed  l)y  Mrs.  Walter  Baker 
and  sums  from  other  friends,  enabled  them  to 
erect  the  builtling.  It  contained  a  libiary  room, 
a  room  for  hospital  stores,  and  a  reading-room, 
and  was  dedicated  Sunday  evening,  March  1, 
with  aiipropriate  ceremonies.  A  circular  ap- 
pealing for  funds  and  books  received  a  generous 
response.  The  first  books  were  received  from 
four  little  girls  in  Dorchester,  Ma,ss.  Mrs. 
\\'alter  Baker  sent  eight  hundred  volumes,  and 
through  the  efforts  of  other  friends,  together 
with  receipts  from  concerts,  six  thousand  vol- 
umes of  good  reading  matter  were  in  the  library 
before  the  close  of  the  war.  Miss  Rumsej' 
served  as  librarian  for  a  while,  but  later  con- 
valescents from  the  hospitals  were  detailed  for 
this  position. 

Miss  Rumsey's  daily  journal  of  March,  1863, 
gives  information  of  interest:  "Number  of 
bortks  about  five  thousand,  all  covered,  num- 
bered and  catalogued.  Reading-room  opened 
daily  from  9  a.m.  State  papers  kept  on  file. 
The  decorations  of  the  hall  the  donations  of 
soldiers'  friends  at  the  North.  Writing  pajjci-, 
])en,  and  ink  always  to  be  found  on  tahles  for 
u.se  of  soldiers.  On  an  average  fifty  letters  sent 
to  the  i)ost-office  daily. 

"  A    soUliers'  prayer    and    conference    meet- 


86 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ing  Sunday  afternoons.  Room  accommodates 
about  four  hundred  with  comfortable  settees. 
Soldiers  take  an  active  part.  Citizens,  too, 
attend  these  meetings,  and  the  citizens  cheer 
the  soldiers.  Tuesday  evenings  a  soldiers'  con- 
cert, the  room  always  crowded.  The  use  of 
the  building  free  to  all  soldiers,  State  associa- 
tions, and  all  benevolent  objects.  The  privi- 
lege of  fifty  volumes  or  more  is  offered  to  the 
chaplain  and  friends,  to  be  distributed  in  hospi- 
tals out  of  the  city,  to  be  returned  or  exchanged 
for  others  within  two  weeks. 

"The  store-room  in  the  building  always  con- 
tains a  goodly  supply  of  articles  suitable  for 
the  soldiers'  use,  and  is  often  replenished  by 
the  noble  women  of  the  North." 

A  soldiers'  church  was  formed,  having  about 
two  hundred  members,  of  all  denominations; 
and  to  each  soldier  member  of  the  little  free 
library  church  was  given  a  small  certificate, 
having  a  picture  of  the  library  and  bearing  the 
name  of  the  soldier,  his  company  and  regi- 
ment, the  State  where  he  lived,  ancl  these  three 
simple  articles:  "(1)  I  will  try  to  the  best  of 
my  ability  to  be  a  Christian.  (2)  I  will  take 
the  Word  of  God  for  my  guide  and  trust  in 
Christ  alone  for  salvation.  (3)  I  solenmly 
pledge  myself  to  abstain  from  profane  language, 
from  alcoholic  drinks  as  a  beverage,  and  from 
all  vices  of  the  army  and  camp,  and  will  be  a 
true  soldier  of  my  country  and  the  cross." 
This  certificate  was  signed  by  Mr.  Fowle  and 
Miss  Rumsey,  with  date.  More  than  one  sol- 
dier boy  was  identified  on  the  battle-fields  by 
this  little  certificate,  found  in  his  pocket. 

Miss  Rumsey  was  married  on  Sunday,  March 
1,  1863,  to  Mr.  John  Allen  Fowle.  The  cere- 
mony was  performed  by  the  Rev.  Alonzo  H. 
Quint,  Chaplain  of  the  Second  Massachusetts 
Regiment  and  pastor  of  the  Congregational 
Church,  Jamaica  Plain,  Mass.,  where  Mr.  Fowle 
attended.  The  bride  and  bridegroom  were 
leaders  of  the  Capitol  Choir,  which  furnished 
the  music  for  the  Sunday  services  established 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1862;  and 
their  work,  which  had  given  them  a  national 
reputation,  was  appreciated  by  their  friends 
in  Congress.  Representatives'  Hall  in  the  Cap- 
itol was  offered  them,  and  the  announcement 
that  the  wedding  would  take  place  there  re- 


sulted in  an  attendance  of  four  thousand 
people.  President  Lincoln,  who  had  signified 
his  intention  of  being  present,  but  was  unex- 
pectedly detained,  sent  a  magnificent  basket 
of  flowers. 

Mr.  Fowle  was  born  April  4,  1826,  son  of 
George  Makepeace  and  Margaret  L.  (Eaton) 
Fowle.  He  is  a  descendant  in  the  seventh  gen- 
eration of  George  Fowle,  who  was  born  in  Scot- 
land in  1610,  and  was  admitted  a  freeman  in 
Concord,  Mass.,  in  1632.  He  has  been  a  dry- 
goods  and  wool  merchant  in  Boston  since  1855, 
with  the  exception  of  some  years  after  the  Civil 
War,  when  they  lived  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.  They 
were  active  in  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher's 
church.  In  Dorchester  they  are  interested  in 
the  Pilgrim  Congregational  Church.  Mr.  Fowle 
is  a  member  of  the  Dorchester  Historical  Soci- 
ety and  the  Improvement  Association.  Of  the 
"  Bungalow,"  the  summer  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Fowle  at  North  Scituate,  a  newspaper  corre- 
spondent has  said,  "Not  to  have  known  the 
'  Bungalow '  is  to  have  missed  one  of  the  quaint- 
est nooks  on  the  South  Shore." 

The  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fowle  in  Dorches- 
ter contains  many  valuable  relics.  "There  on 
the  wall  is  an  old  flag  with  its  thirteen  stars, 
which  saw  service  in  the  War  of  1812  as  well  as 
in  the  Civil  War.  Here  over  the  case  is  a  Con- 
federate flag,  one  of  the  first  captured,  and  pre- 
sented to  Mrs.  Fowle  by  Admiral  Foote,  now 
intertwined  with  the  stars  and  stripes.  Among 
other  relics  are  a  Washington  plate  and  a  china 
saucer,  both  of  which  were  presented  to  Mrs. 
Fowle  by  Aunt  Sally  Norris,  who  was  a  slave 
in  the  family  of  General  Lee;  some  pieces  of 
shell  taken  from  the  battle-field;  an  autograph 
album  containing  the  names  of  thousands  of 
soldiers;  several  letters  from  S.  F.  Smith,  the 
author  of  'America';  one  from  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  with  his  additional  verse  to  the  'Star- 
spangled  Banner';  a  directory  of  the  soldiers 
and  the  hospitals,  issued  by  Mr.  Fowle  in  Wash- 
ington." Mrs.  Fowle  has  the  writing-desk 
which  was  sent  her  from  Dorchester  and  which 
she  used  during  the  war;  an  old  chair  made  of 
hardtack  boxes  used  in  camp  of  the  Fourth 
Delaware  Battery;  also  a  melodeon,  useil  in 
camp,  ho.spital,  and  library;  and  many  other 
interesting    anil    valuable    souvenirs    of    those 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


87 


dark  years.  On  the  walls  is  a  copy  of  the 
above  mentioned  resolution  of  Congress.  This 
copy  was  signed  by  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the 
presence  of  Mrs.  Fowle. 

Mrs.  Fowle  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Rmnsey, 
were  among  the  earliest  workers  in  Mrs.  Bur- 
nap's  Free  Home  for  Aged  Women,  on  Han- 
over Court  (North  End),  Boston;  in  Mrs. 
Charpiot's  Home  for  Intemperate  Women,  on 
Worcester  Street;  the  New  England  Helping 
Hand  Home  for  Working-girls,  on  Carver 
Street;  Home  for  Aged  Couples,  on  Shawmut 
Avenue;  and  the  Charity  Hospital,  on  Chester 
Park.  At  present  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fowle 
are  interested  in  establishing  a  library  and 
reading  and  recreation  room  for  boys  and 
girls  on  old  Boston  Street,  near  Upham's 
Corner,  Dorchester.  She  has  been  connected 
with  the  Woman's  Christian  Tenij)erance  Union 
of  Dorchester;  is  a  member  of  the  Woman's 
Charity  Club;  of  the  Massachusetts  Army 
Nurses'  Association;  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  A.sso- 
ciation  of  the  Soldiers'  Home;  and  of  Bunker 
Hill  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution. 

Mrs.  Fowle  claims  the  honor  of  having  been 
the  first  person  to  sing  the  ^Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic"  at  a  public  meeting  in  Washing- 
ton. Its  previous  use  was  by  a  secret  society 
as  a  club  song.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Sunderland  read 
it  to  her  one  afternoon  in  his  home,  and  at 
her  request  gave  her  a  copy,  that  she  might  in- 
clude it  among  the  war  songs  she  was  to  sing 
in  the  evening  at  a  meeting  of  the  New  York 
State  Society  in  one  of  the  churches.  The 
meeting  was  presided  over  by  Senator  Ira 
Harris.  Toward  the  close  she  sang  the  inspir- 
ing words  of  Mrs.  Howe  to  the  old  familiar 
tune  of  "John  Brown,"  and  "as  the  audience 
joinetl  in  the  chorus,  especially  after  the  last 
verse,  beginning  with  'In  the  beauty  of  the 
lilies,'  the  very  foundation  stones  of  the  church," 
she  .says,  "seemed  to  vibrate  with  applause." 


JANE  W.   HOYT.— Among   tho.se  who,   in 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
anticipated    by    personal    application    to 
study  the  later  movement  for  the  higher 
education  of  women  was  Miss  Jane  W.  Hoyt. 


She  was  born  in  Phillips,  Franklin  County,  Me., 
August  26,  1827,  the  youngest  of  a  family  of 
nine  children.  Her  parents,  Samuel  and  Eliza- 
beth (Tower)  Hoyt,  were  of  early  New  Eng- 
land stock,  her  father,  a  native  of  New  Hamp- 
ton, N.H.,  being  a  lineal  descendant  of  John' 
Hoyt,  one  of  the  original  settlers  of  Salisbury, 
Mass.,  and  her  mother  belonging  to  the  family 
foimded  by  John'  Tower,  who  came  from 
Hingham,  Englanil,  and  settled  in  Hingham, 
Mass.,  in  1637.  From  John'  Tower  the  line 
continueil  through  Ibrook,"  Richard,^  Elisha,* 
Elisha,^  all  of  Hingham,  Mass.,  to  Sylvanus," 
born  in  1766,  who  married  Mercy  Card,  settled 
in  Farmington,  Me.,  and  was  the  father  of 
Elizabeth'  (Mrs.  Samuel  Hoyt)  and  her  brother 
Daniel. 

As  a  child,  Jane  Hoyt  evinced  a  love  for 
study  which  grew  with  her  years.  This  was 
gratified  in  her  native  town  and  at  Farmington, 
which  was  then,  as  now,  the  educational  centre 
of  the  county.  She  afterward  was  graduated 
with  honor  from  the  New  Hampton  Literary 
Institution,  in  New  Hampton,  N.H.,  and  became 
a  successful  teacher  and  principal  of  some  of 
the  higher  schools  then  open  to  women,  as  the 
Maine  State  Seminary  at  Lewiston,  the  semi- 
nary at  Olneyville,  R.I.,  and  Hillsdale  College, 
Hillsdale,  Mich.,  where  she  was  dean  of  the 
women's  department.  In  1871  and  1872  she 
took  an  exteiuled  trip  to  Europe,  antl  made  a 
special  study  of  German  under  private  teachers 
and  in  the  schools  of  Hanover.  On  her  return 
she  was  elected  to  a  professorship  in  Center 
College,  Penn.sylvania,  anil  later  was  at  the 
head  of  a  boarding  and  day  school  in  Goshen, 
N.Y.  In  1874,  her  health  becoming  impaired, 
she  resigneil  the  position  and  returned  to  Farm- 
ington. Here  her  home  life  was  exceptionally 
happy,  her  brother  Daniel,  her  sister  Ann,  and 
herself  making  a  most  hospitable  household. 
The  death  of  the  brother  in  1899  was  a  great 
grief  to  the  sisters;  but,  dwelling  not  on  their 
own  sorrow,  they  sought  to  comfort  others. 
Though  fond  of  books  and  much  engaged  with 
pupils,  MLss  Hoyt  was  ever  ready  to  give  her 
time  and  strength  to  aid  neighbors  and  friends. 

Soon  after  her  return  to  Farmington  and  be- 
fore taking  her  much  needed  rest,  she  sought 
two  friends  and  proposed  the  formation  of  a 


88 


REPRESENTATRE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


women's  club.  This  was  in  the  very  early 
days  of  clubs  for  women:  in  all  New  England 
there  were  only  a  few.  The  new  club  entered 
at  once  upon  its  work,  and  continued  for  many 
years  one  of  the  oldest  women's  clubs  in  Maine. 
In  its  origin  it  was  true  to  the  German  proverb, 
"All  good  things  go  in  tlirees":  it  had  but  three 
members.  That  tliere  might  be  no  favoritism, 
each  member  was  to  bear  the  Piclcwickian  title 
P.  P.  Miss  Hoyt  was  made  Perpetual  Presi- 
dent, and  the  two  remaining  members  were 
made  Perpetual  Poet  and  Perpetual  Penman. 
There  was  no  treasurer,  as  there  were  no  club 
dues.  As  the  membership  was  at  first  exclu- 
sive, one  who  was  not  invited  to  join  remarked 
that  she  thought  the  ladies  were  rather  "hifa- 
lutin."  The  term  so  pleased  the  members  of 
the  club  that  they  concluded  to  adopt  it;  anrl 
the  Hifalutin  Club,  with  an  increase  of  member- 
ship, continued  until  Maine  agitated  the  fed- 
eration of  its  women's  clubs,  when  the  Every 
Monday  Club  of  Farmington  was  organized, 
and  the  Hifalutin  fell  asleep.  It  was  the  orig- 
inal idea  of  the  club  to  read  at  home  and  dis- 
cuss the  matter  read  in  the  club.  It  was  in 
every  sense  a  working  club;  every  play  and 
many  of  the  sonnets  of  Shakespeare  were 
studied,  also  Spenser's  "Faerie  Queene,"  Chau- 
cer's Canterbury  Tales,  Milton,  Dante,  and 
other  classic  writers.  With  a  retentive  mem- 
ory and  viviti  imagination.  Miss  Hoyt  delighted 
to  review  for  the  benefit  of  the  club  the  lead- 
ing fiction  of  that  day.  The  writer  recalls 
"Uarda"  and  "The  Egyptian  Princess"  and 
many  other  books  thus  graphically  portrayed. 
Miss  Hoyt  believed  in  keeping  abreast  of  the 
times,  and  was  a  wise  reader  of  the  daily  news- 
papers. The  consideration  of  current  events 
formed  an  important  feature  in  the  Hifalutin 
Club. 

On  May  18,  1901,  there  came  a  hush  over 
the  village  of  Farmington,  when  it  was  an- 
nounced that  Jane  W.  Hoyt  was  dead.  For 
twenty-five  years  she  had  lived  her  useful,  un- 
ostentatious life  in  that  community,  loved  and 
respected  by  all  classes  of  society.  As  a  private 
tutor  she  had  given  direction  to  the  college  life 
of  many  young  men  and  women  by  imparting 
to  them  an  enthusia.sm  for  work.  They  lin- 
gered long  over  their  recitations,  that  between 


the  lines  they  might  catch  glimpses  of  the 
spirit  that  actuated  her.  Few  of  her  pupils 
will  fail  to  remember  the  talks  on  practical 
ethics  and  moral  philosophy  which  she  loved 
to  interweave  with  the  higher  mathematics, 
Latin,  French,  and  German.  In  addition  to 
her  labors  as  a  teacher  Miss  Hoyt  carrietl  on 
other  literary  work.  She  wrote  for  the  press, 
and  was  much  sought  after  as  a  lecturer  before 
women's  clubs  and  the  Chautautjuan  assem- 
blies, especially  those  at  Ocean  Park.  Her 
chiu'ch  affiliations  were  with  the  Free  Baptist 
denomination. 

Miss  Hoyt  was  a  woman  of  unusual  mental 
powers  and  of  a  highly  spiritual  nature.  She 
had  rare  literary  taste  and  an  ability  to  assimi- 
late knowledge  that  gave  her  abundant  re- 
sources. The  excellent  school  advantages  of 
her  early  days  were  supplemented  by  constant 
application  to  study  throughout  her  life.  Euro- 
pean travel  still  further  broadened  her  mental 
scope.  Her  love  of  study  was  not  confined  to 
secular  subjects:  she  devoted  a  great  deal  of 
attention  to  the  Bible,  and  lived  much  in  the 
contemplation  of  things  that  are  unseen  and 
eternal. 


EMMA  JANE  MAREAN  RIPLEY,  phi- 
lanthropist, wife  of  Sewall  C.  Ripley, 
president  of  the  Thomas  P.  Beals  Com- 
pany of  Portland,  was  born  in  Durham, 
Me.,  April  8,  1848,  the  daughter  of  Charles 
Livermore  Marean  and  Mary  Sherwood  Drink- 
water  Marean.  She  comes  from  patriotic 
stock.  Her  maternal  grandfather,  Perez 
Drinkwater,  second,  served  as  Lieutenant  on 
the  privateer  "Lucy"  in  the  War  of  1812, 
and  was  a  prisoner  in  Dartmoor  Prison,  Eng- 
land, for  thirteen  months.  His  father  and 
her  great-grandfather,  Perez  Drinkwater,  was 
an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Mrs.  Ripley  is  a  graduate  of  the  Casco  Street 
Seminary  in  the  city  of  Portland,  where  the 
most  of  her  life  has  been  spent,  and  has  been 
an  attendant  of  the  Second  Parish  Church, 
the  Payson  Memorial,  from  her  childhood. 
She  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  Ladies' 
Circle  and  the  Missionary  Auxiliary.  The 
poor  of  the  city  know  her,  for  she  never  turns 


ANNIE   COOLIDGE   RUST 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


89 


a  deaf  ear  to  their  appeals  nor  sends  them  away 
empty-handed.  She  not  only  gives  Uberally 
to  recognizetl  charities,  but  helps  with  generous 
and  wise  consideration  families  and  individ- 
uals who  need  assistance.  Her  quiet  deeds  of 
charity  are  as  numerous  as  those  which  are  gen- 
erally known.  For  fourteen  years  she  has  repre- 
sented the  church  as  ilirector  of  the  Diet  Mis- 
sion, in  which  she  holds  the  offices  of  room 
committee  and  ward  visitor.  This  society  sup- 
plies food  and  dainties  to  the  impoverished 
sick  of  the  city.  Mrs.  Ripley  has  al.so  been 
a  working  member  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  for  many  years  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Female  Samaritan  Association, 
which  is  the  oldest  charitable  association  in 
Portland,  and  celebrated  its  seventy-fourth 
birthday  on  March  4,  1901.  She  is  one  of  the 
oldest  members  of  the  Portland  A.ssociated 
Charities  as  well  as  a  ward  visitor.  She  be- 
longs also  to  the  Portland  Provident  Associa- 
tion, and  is  a  worker  in  the  Fraternity  House, 
a  social  settlement.  Mrs.  Ripley  is  likewise 
a  member  of  the  Conklin  Parliamentary  Club, 
the  Cresco  Literary  Club,  the  Woman's  Literary 
Union  of  Portland,  the  Equal  Suffrage  Club, 
the  National  Society  of  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution,  the  Elizabeth  Wad.s- 
worth  Chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  of  Portland,  Me.,  and  the  Na- 
tional Society  of  U.  S.  Daughters  of  1812,  State 
of  Maine. 

Guy  Liverraore  Ripley,  the  only  child  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ripley,  died  at  the  age  of  twenty 
years,  four  months.  A  handsome  memorial 
to  him  has  been  placed  in  the  Portland  High 
School. 


ANNIE  COOLIDGE  RUST  was  born  in 
/  \  Richmond,  Va.,  one  of  a  family  of 
X  jL  nine  children.  Her  father,  Thomas 
Adams  Rust,  a  very  successful  hard- 
ware merchant  in  Richmond,  was  a  native  of 
Salem,  Mass.  His  wife,  Miss  Rust's  mother, 
in  maidenhood  Phoebe  Cutler  Chamberlain, 
was  born  in  New  Hampshire,  but  had  removed 
to  Boston  with  her  parents  when  she  was  a 
child.  She  was  well  educated  and  very  ac- 
tive in  church  affairs  in  Boston,  being  a  mem- 


ber of  the  palish  of  the  Rev.  Robert  C.  Waters- 
ton,  by  whom  their  marriage  ceremony  was 
performed  in  18 — . 

Richmond  in  those  days  seemed  a  long  dis- 
tance for  the  bride  to  be  going  from  her  home 
and  mother,  and  it  was  agreed  by  the  husband 
that  a  part  of  each  year  should  be  passed  in 
"dear  old  Boston."  The  house  in  which  they 
lived  in  Richmond,  and  in  which  Mi.ss  Rust 
was  born,  was  a  typical  Southern  house  of 
many  large  rooms,  the  servants'  quarters  and 
kitchen  being  in  a  separate  building.  In  this 
Southern  home  many  Boston  friends,  also 
frientls  and  business  associates  from  England, 
were  hospitably  entertained. 

While  their  chiklren  were  still  young,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Rust,  being  anxious  that  they  should 
have  the  best  educational  advantages,  removed 
to  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and,  after  some  of  the  chil- 
dren were  graduated  from  the  Cambridge  schools, 
the  family  removed  to  Boston.  The  mother 
believed  that  it  would  be  of  great  advantage 
to  every  young  woman  to  have  a  knowledge 
of  the  Froebelian  jjrinciples  of  education,  known 
as  the  Kindergarten  System,  which  applies  to 
the  life  of  the  little  child,  but  knew  not  of  any 
such  school  in  this  vicinity.  While  visiting 
a  friend  in  Cambridge  one  day.  the  conversa- 
tion turned  upon  a  "  play  school"  that  had  been 
opened  in  Boston,  where  the  children  had  no 
books.  The  term  "play  school"  interested 
the  mother.  She  looked  into  the  matter,  and 
learned  that  the  name  was  given  in  irony  by 
those  who  did  not  know  what  it  was.  To  her 
great  delight,  it  was  a  Kinilergarten  antl  Normal 
Class,  which  Madame  Kreige  and  her  tlaughter, 
Alma  Kreige,  from  Berlin,  had  opened  in  Bos- 
ton, they  having  been  requested  by  their  teacher, 
Baroness  von  Marenholtz  Bulow,  to  come  to 
America  and  introduce  this  system  of  etluca- 
tion.  Mrs.  Rust  was  much  pleased  to  find 
just  what  she  hafl  been  looking  for,  and  at  her 
earnest  rei  [uest  her  daughter  entered  the  school 
as  a  pupil  in  one  of  the  first  Normal  Classes.  Mi.ss 
Rust  brought  to  this  work,  besides  an  aj:)titude 
for  it  and  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  rare  insight 
into  child  nature,  a  cultivated  mind,  and 
deep  religious  feeling.  Moreover,  ideas  gained 
from  conversations  with  her  teacher  were  so 
unlike  those  by  which  she  had  been  governed 


90 


REPRESENTATIX'E   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


when  in  school  that  she  was  deeply  attracted, 
and  wished  to  learn  more  of  this  beautiful 
system,  which  made  the  life  of  the  child  and 
its  studies  so  delightful.  Therefore  it  was 
with  great  pleasure  that  she  entered  upon  the 
work,  which  grew  for  her  more  and  more  in- 
teresting and  absorliing. 

Previous  to  this  time  Miss  Ellizabeth  Peabody 
had  gone  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  learning 
more  of  this  system  and  its  true  meaning,  and 
she  was  much  pleased  when  the  Baroness  in- 
formed her  that  Madame  Kreige  and  her  daugh- 
ter had  already  started  for  America  for  the 
purpose  of  opening  a  school  there.  On  the 
return  of  Miss  Peabody,  both  she  and  her  sis- 
ter, Mrs.  Horace  Mann,  rendered  all  the  as- 
sistance to  Madame  Kreige  and  daughter  that 
was  in  their  power,  materially  aiding  the  prog- 
ress of  the  school  and  work  as  a  whole. 

After  a  successful  course  of  study  Miss  Rust 
was  graduated  in  June.  She  was  in  good 
health  and  very  anxious  to  put  her  knowledge 
of  the  system  into  practice.  A  summer  kin- 
dergarten was  offered  her,  which  she  accepted, 
she  being  one  of  the  first  pupils  of  Madame 
Kreige  to  teach. 

In  the  following  autunm  through  her  in- 
structor, Madame  Kreige,  a  fine  opportunity 
to  teach  a  private  kindergarten  with  a  large 
salary  was  offeretl  her  in  the  A\'est,  which  she 
accepted.  There  she  was  most  pleasantly  lo- 
cated, both  educationally  and  socially,  and 
by  the  many  attentions  offered  her  was  made 
at  once  to  feel  at  home  in  a  strange  city.  Ac- 
cess was  also  given  her  to  the  private  libraries 
of  the  most  influential  people  of  the  city.  The 
fact  of  this  school  being  supported  by  the  most 
influential  people  was  what  gave  her  these 
advantages. 

At  the  approach  of  spring  Miss  Rust,  much 
to  her  regret,  found  that  the  climate  did  not 
agree  with  her,  and  felt  obliged  to  give  up  her 
position  and  return  to  Boston.  Not  long  after 
a  lady  came  to  Boston  to  secure  a  teacher 
for  a  private  school  near  New  York.  Miss 
Rust  being  recommended  to  her,  she  was  en- 
gaged for  this  promising  position  with  more 
healthful  surroundings.  Here,  also,  she  gave 
satisfaction.  One  of  the  mothers,  a  patron, 
sending  three  children  to  the  school,  was  so 


pleased  that  she  invited  Miss  Rust  to  come 
to  live  in  her  home,  for  the  sake  of  her  soul- 
ful influence  over  the  children,  which  she 
did,  and  remained  through  one  school  year, 
teaching  the  older  children  music  on  kin- 
dergarten principles,  at  the  same  time  that 
she  was  holding  her  position  as  teacher  of  the 
private  school.  At  the  close  of  this  school 
year  Miss  Rust  was  invited  to  visit  the  family  at 
their  summer  home  on  the  seashore. 

From  that  place  she  was  called  South  by 
her  father  and  mother,  to  as.sist  in  the  dispo- 
sition of  their  property,  as  her  opinion  was 
always  desired  by  them  in  all  matters  of  busi- 
ness. She  remained  South  through  a  part 
of  the  summer,  until  this  was  accomplislied, 
the  family  returning  in  the  autumn  to  their 
own  house  in  Boston. 

A  parent  who  had  heard  of  Miss  Rust  tlirough 
Madame  Kreige  desired  that  she  should  open 
a  private  kindergarten  at  her  (Miss  Rust's) 
own  house,  saying  she  would  secure  pupils  for 
her  from  her  own  friends,  which  she  did.  Miss 
Rust  was  extremely  happy  in  this  kindergar- 
ten; she  was  able  to  do  so  much  more  for  the 
children  in  her  own  home.  One  morning  a 
mother  entered,  saying  she  would  like  to  send 
her  children  to  the  school  for  a  half-year,  "  not 
expecting  them  to  learn  anything,"  but  from 
selfish  motives,  as  she  wished  the  children  kept 
away  from  her  in  the  morning,  as  she  was 
a  writer.  One  morning  six  or  eight  weeks 
later,  instead  of  the  maid,  the  mother  came 
to  the  kindergarten  with  the  children,  offering 
an  apology  for  the  remark  she  had  matle  at 
her  first  visit,  and  bringing  words  of  ajiprecia- 
tion  from  the  father  of  what  the  children  had 
voluntarily  expressed  at  home,  also  asking  the 
favor  of  coming  every  morning  for  the  week,  to 
realize  what  was  being  done  for  them  and  what  it 
all  meant.  A  few  weeks  after  a  lengthy  arti- 
cle appeared  in  the  Boston  Transcript,  written 
by  this  mother  and  relating  to  Miss  Rust's 
work,  then  not  a  year  old  in  Boston.  This 
article  was  an  elucidation  of  the  system  from 
a  mother's  standpoint,  treating  not  only  of 
the  work  done  l)y  tlie  children,  but  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  kindergartner  upon  the  life  of  each 
child,  which  is  the  soul  of  the  kindergarten. 
Instead   of   the   children   remaining    the   half- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


91 


year,  as  first  agreed,  they  remained  in  the  school 
for  four  years.  As  a  result  of  the  article  in 
the  Transcript  there  were  many  visitors  to  the 
kindergarten  each  day,  both  residents  of  Bos- 
ton and  strangers.  A  gentleman  from  Chicago, 
an  educator,  after  a  visit  to  the  school,  pro- 
nounced it  education  in  its  highest  sense,  and 
said  that  he  would  like  to  take  some  of  the 
material  as  a  means  of  rendering  instruction 
to  his  young  ladies  in  .some  of  the  higher 
branches. 

And  thus  the  interest  grew,  and  the  class 
increased  in  numbers,  until  a  larger  room  was 
taken  in  their  house.  Here  a  Mothers'  Class 
was  started;  and,  as  Miss  Rust  considered  her- 
self too  much  of  a  novice  to  assume  the  respon- 
sibility of  this  class,  at  her  request  Miss  Pea- 
body  took  the  charge.  She  was  a  great  in- 
spiration to  the  work,  and  this  Mothers'  Class 
and  also  this  home  was  blessed  by  her  presence, 
as  she  often  remained  after  the  hour  of  the 
class,  and  thus  the  family  pas.sed  many  happy 
hours  with  her  socially. 

One  of  the  patrons  of  this  school  now  removed 
to  Brookline,  and,  desiring  her  children  to 
remain  under  Miss  Rust's  instruction,  made 
arrangements  for  an  afternoon  kintlergarten  to 
be  established  in  her  home,  the  location  of 
which  was  unusually  adapted  to  such  a  pur- 
pose, the  house,  with  pine  woods  near,  being 
surrounded  by  nature  in  all  its  beauty.  This 
kindergarten  was  carried  on  until  the  city 
classes  had  gro^\^l  to  such  a  size  that  they  re- 
quired Mi.ss  Rust's  full  attention,  time,  and 
strength.  Not  long  after  this  the  health  of  Mrs. 
Rust  failed,  her  strength  not  being  equal  to  hav- 
ing the  school  (which  with  its  advanced  classes 
it  had  now  become)  in  the  house;  therefore  it 
was  removed  from  the  home.  These  advanced 
classes  were  beyond  the  kindergarten  age,  but 
none  were  allowed  to  enter  them  who  had  not 
had  previous  preparation  either  in  this  kinder- 
garten or  in  another,  equally  genuine,  thus 
making  the  school  a  strong,  connected  whole, 
without  disturbance  or  confusion  for  the  pupils' 
minds,  one  class,  as  it  were,  evolving  from  an- 
other. Children  were  received  from  three  or 
four  years  of  age,  as  the  child's  health  allowed, 
until  the  age  of  twelve.  All  the  instruction 
was  given  upon   Froebelian   principles.     Usu- 


ally chiUlren  at  six  years  were  startetl  in  the 
so-called  primary  work,  which,  with  their  pre- 
vious jjreparation,  was  easily  grasped,  the  chil- 
tlren  being  just  as  eager  about  their  arithmetic, 
for  example,  as  they  had  been  about  the  attrac- 
tive kindergarten  gifts  and  occupations.  The 
originality  of  each  child  had  been  preserved,  and 
now  was  most  beautifully  manifested  along  the 
Hues  of  art,  music,  games,  and  so  forth.  Music 
was  taught  on  kindergarten  principles,  and  in 
this  way  it  is  a  possession  to  the  pupil  not  easily 
forgotten.  Pupils  returning  to  the  school  in 
the  fall  went  right  on  with  their  music  as  if 
there  had  been  no  vacation.  The  folding  oc- 
cupation, previously  taught,  prepared  the  flex- 
ible little  hand  for  music,  making  the  fingers 
deft  and  securing  the  right  position  of  the  hand, 
thus  saving  two  or  more  terms  of  instruction. 
In  fact,  the  analytical  and  synthetical  method 
of  the  child's  previous  instruction  made  all  its 
after  work  and  study  a  pleasure,  and  proved 
that  it  was  fully  grasped,  being  its  own  posses- 
sion. 

Miss  Rust  had  desired  to  have  the  extreme 
pleasure  of  proving  the  benefit  of  the  system 
by  taking  the  children  on  in  these  advanced 
classes  after  the  kindergarten  stage,  and  it  is 
now  a  great  source  of  delight  to  her  to  look 
back  upon  this  experience,  and  also  to  receive 
voluntary  testimonials  like  this  from  pupils 
who  have  passeil  (jn  through  other  schools 
to  the  Boston  Institute  of  Technology:  "We 
did  not  know  what  was  being  done  for  us.  Miss 
Rust,  when  we  were  little  fellows  in  your  kin- 
dergarten, but  now  we  realize  what  it  meant 
for  us  all  along  the  line  and  here  in  our  instruc- 
tion." In  order  to  have  justice  done  to  this 
system,  the  child  must  have  it  as  a  whole. 
Thus  much  time  and  waste  of  nervous  energy 
are  saved  in  the  higher  grades. 

In  the  meantime  the  school  had  grown  to 
such  a  size  that  a  hou.se  was  taken,  and  Miss  Rust 
associated  henself  with  a  kindergarten-trained 
mother,  they  together  undertaking  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Kindergarten  Normal  Class  for 
young  ladies.  Mi.ss  Rust  modestly  felt  that 
this  mother,  being  older  and  more  experienced 
in  life,  was  better  fitted  than  herself  to  under- 
take the  responsibility  of  training  young  la- 
dies, although  urged  to  do  it.     She,  however, 


92 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


assisted  this  mother.  After  a  while  the  health 
of  the  mother  failed,  and  the  class  was  con- 
tinued for  one  year,  being  finished  by  the 
assistance  of  one  of  its  older  pupils. 

At  this  tinie  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  "estab- 
lish a  school  in  a  new  location  out  of  the  city, 
with  larger  grounds  and  surrounded  by  the 
beauties  of  nature.  A  location  quite  near  Bos- 
ton was  decided  upon  as  being  the  most  desirable 
and  delightful  one  for  a  class  of  this  kind. 
A  kindergarten  was  soon  started  by  Miss 
Rust,  and  after  three  years'  time  here  again 
were  the  different  classes  above  the  kinder- 
garten department.  It  was  impossible  to  se- 
cure suitable  rooms  for  the  size  of  the  school, 
and  for  this  reason  for  a  time  the  school  was 
limited  to  nearly  one-half,  consequently  the 
patrons  decided  to  build  a  model  build- 
ing, with  the  understanding  that  Miss  Rust 
should  hire  the  building  and  carry  on  her 
school,  as  before,  in  a  much  improved  way, 
and  more  in  harmony  with  her  ideas  of  a 
model  Froebelian  school,  as  all  the  work  was 
based  upon  the  Froebelian  principles  of  educa- 
tion. 

During  the  summer  Miss  Rust  was  often  con- 
sulted as  to  the  best  arrangement  of  the  build- 
ing, and  helped  in  its  plans,  .she  coming  for  this 
purpose  several  times  from  the  seashore  at 
Magnolia,  where  she  usually  passed  her  sum- 
mers, having  nature-study  classes,  thus  collect- 
ing specimens  of  sea  flora,  minerals,  and  so 
forth,  for  the  fall  classes  of  the  new  school. 

This  building  was  soon  accomplished,  the 
promoters  using  the  name  of  Miss  Rust  in  sell- 
ing shares.  Sixty  shares  at  one  hundred  dol- 
lars each  were  soon  sold,  mostly  to  patrons  of 
the  school,  with  the  understantling  that  the 
money  was  to  be  used  for  her  school.  Unfort- 
unately, one  who  had  financial  rather  than  edu- 
cational interests  at  heart,  and  who  had  with 
a  view  to  this  purpose  bought  up  a  number 
of  shares  of  the  stock,  decided  that  other  ar- 
rangements should  be  made,  and  that,  while 
Miss  Rust  should  occupy  the  building,  she 
should  be  allowed  to  do  so  on  a  salary,  and  they 
would  own  the  school.  This  Mi.ss  Rust  in  a 
dignified  manner  positively  refused  to  do,  say- 
ing she  had  built  a  school  and  they  had  built 
a  building,  and  she  preferred  to  have  nothing 


to  do  with  it,  unless  she  could  carry  on  the 
school  in  the  building  as  first  agreed.  With 
their  plans  her  hands  would  be  completely 
tied,  as  it  was  upon  a  financial  basis  rather 
than  an  educational,  and  her  reputation  as  a 
teacher  of  these  principles  was  far  more  to  her 
than  the  salary  offered. 

At  this  decision  of  hers,  generous  offers  were 
made  by  parents  to  retain  her,  saying  they 
would  make  up  the  deficiency  in  salary  if  she 
would  but  remain;  but  Miss  Rust,  while  grate- 
ful to  these  patrons  for  their  sympathy  and 
kind  offers,  said  she  saw  no  reason  for  accept- 
ing presents,  it  being  with  her  a  matter  of 
principle ;  as,  under  the  proposed  conditions,  she 
would  be  unable  to  make  it  the  model  school 
she  desired,  or  add  to  it  her  Kindergarten 
Normal  Classes. 

About  this  time  an  urgent  appeal  came  to 
Miss  Rust  from  a  Western  city  to  accept  the 
position  of  head  instructor  in  a  Kindergarten 
Normal  Class,  which  had  been  started  by  the 
Free  Kindergarten  Association,  and  also  as 
instructor  in  one  of  the  free  kindergartens, 
numbering  one  hundred  children,  started  that 
autumn,  both  of  which  she  accepted.  It  is 
a  great  pleasure  to  her  to  refer  to  this  large 
work  with  the  less  fortunate  little  ones. 
She  was  also  very  successful  with  the  Normal 
Class.  But  the  climate  of  that  city,  with  its 
strong  lake  winds,  was  too  severe  for  Miss 
Rust,  and  she  was  suddenly  stricken  down  by 
pneumonia,  for  several  days  her  life  hanging 
upon  a  thread.  Upon  her  recovery  she  was 
unable  to  resume  her  work  there,  and  felt  the 
need  of  returning  to  Boston,  which  she  did. 
After  a  short  rest  she  was  advised  to  go  to  an 
inland .  city,  and  having  an  opportunity  to 
purchase  in  Worcester  a  private  school,  of  chil- 
dren from  three  to  twelve  years  of  age,  she 
accepted,  naming  it  the  Froebel  School,  at  the 
same  time  starting  a  Kindergarten  Normal 
Class,  being  urgetl  to  do  this  by  a  member  of 
the  State  Board  of  Education,  as  there  was  no 
such  Training  School  in  Worcester.  Her  work 
there  also  was  very  successful,  graduating  large 
classes,  employing  some  of  our  best  pecial 
lecturers  for  the  instruction  of  the  classes  as 
well  as  for  the  graduation  exercises.  Miss 
Rust,  in  addition  to  her  school  work  in  Worces- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


93 


ter,  gave  talks  before  different  clubs  in  that 
city  and  elsewhere. 

After  several  years  of  successful  work  in 
Worcester,  Miss  Rust,  being  closely  confined 
by  the  amount  of  labor  required  in  her  schools, 
realized  that  she  was  shut  off  from  many  things 
with  which  she  needed  to  keep  in  touch  in 
order  to  grow.  She  therefore  felt  that  she  must 
return  to  her  former  home,  Boston,  where  she 
would  have  all  desired  advantages,  and  here 
re-establish  herself  in  her  Kindergarten  Normal 
Classes. 

Although  urged  by  former  pupils,  being  now 
parents,  to  again  organize  a  kindergarten  and 
school  for  children,  she  has  decided  to  give  her 
time  to  the  instruction  of  Normal  Classes  only 
and  to  talks  before  clubs.  Miss  Rust  has  now 
returned  to  this  city  for  her  permanent  home, 
and  has  her  Kindergarten  Normal  Classes 
well  established  at  the  New  Century  Building. 
She  was  a  member  of  the  American  Froebel 
Union  started  in  Boston  by  Miss  Elizabeth 
Palmer  Peabody.  This  became  the  Kindergar- 
ten Department  of  the  National  Etlucational  As- 
sociation. At  this  time  s}ie  was  urged  by  Miss 
Peabody  to  join  the  New  England  Woman's 
Club.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Eastern  Kin- 
dergarten Association,  the  National  Education 
Association,  the  International  Kindergarten 
Union,  and  the  AVomen's  Educational  and 
Industrial  Union.  She  was  formerly  a  member 
of  the  Worcester  Woman's  Club,  and  helped 
to  organize  the  Women  in  Council  Club,  Rox- 
bury,  Mass.  In  all  the  years  since  she  started 
as  a  Kintlergartner,  she  has  never  lowered  her 
high  standard,  nor  hesitntetl  to  make  any  sacri- 
fice demanded  by  the  cause  to  who.se  advance- 
ment her  life  is  consecrated.  She  belongs  to 
Trinity  (Episcopal)  Church,  Boston. 

She  has  lived  to  see  the  children  of  her 
earlier  classes  develop  in  noble  men  and  women, 
several  of  the  number  having  distinguished 
themselves  in  literature,  science,  and  art. 

The  strongest  testimony  to  her  abilit\  as 
an  educator  is  given  in  these  results  of  char- 
acter and  achievement,  which  in  a  special 
way  have  marked  Miss  Rust's  work  in  Boston 
and  elsewhere  in  her  Froebel  School  and  Kinder- 
garten Normal  Classes.  It  is  just  aiid  right, 
however,  that  those  of  a  later  generation  who 


now  reap  from  fruitful  fields  should  acknowl- 
edge their  debt  to  the  pioneer  kindergartners 
who  prepared  the  ground  and  planted  the 
good  seed. 


MARY  ELIZA  KNOWLES,  Past  Na- 
tional Chaplain  of  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps,  was  born  in  Boston, 
February  14,  1847.  Daughter  of 
Jacob  and  P'mmeline  (Reed)  Clones  and  one 
of  a  large  family  of  children,  .she  was  brought 
up  at  the  North  End,  in  a  locality  rich  in  his- 
toric and  patriotic  associations,  her  home  being 
in  the  vicinity  of  Christ  Church  ami  Copp's 
Hill,  and  was  educated  at  the  Hancock  School. 
After  her  graduation  she  made  a  special  study 
of  elocution,  of  which  she  has  been  a  successful 
teacher.  She  is  also  a  popular  public  reatler. 
The  marriage  of  Mary  E.  Clones  and  Zoeth  Rich 
Knowles  took  place  June  14,  1866. 

Mrs.  Knowles's  father  was  the  third  Jacob 
Clones  in  tlirect  line  residing  in  Boston.  His 
grandfather  Clones  died  in  1799.  His  father, 
Jacob  Clones,  2d,  who  married  Phebe  Ann 
Low,  daughter  of  William  Low,  died  in  1815. 
W'illiam  Low,  great-grandfather  of  Mrs. 
Knowles,  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  belong- 
ing to  a  company  of  militia  that  was  called  into 
service  at  the  time  of  the  Lexington  alarm, 
April  19,  1775. 

Mrs.  Knowles  is  a  charter  member  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  Corps,  No.  39,  auxiliary  to  Post 
No.  1 1 ,  Charlestown.  She  was  installed  April 
22,  1884,  as  its  first  Senior  ^'ice-President,  and 
in  January,  1885,  accepted  the  position  of  Presi- 
dent, serving  continually  in  office  and  on  com- 
mittees. Her  first  participation  in  a  Depart- 
ment Convention  was  in  1886,  when  she  was 
invited  to  present  a  baimer  procured  by  con- 
tribution from  members.  The  pleasing  manner 
in  which  she  performed  this  duty  made  such 
a  favorable  impression  that  she  was  elected 
Department  Chaplain,  and  re-elected  in  1887. 
In  her  second  annual  report  as  Chaplain  she 
reconnnended  that  a  special  service  in  honor 
of  the  unknown  dead  and  of  deceased  army 
nurses  be  })repare(l  for  use  on  Memorial  Day. 

Mrs.  Knowles  was  elected  Department  Junior 
Vice-Presitlent   in    1888,   and   m   this  capacity 


94 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


attended  the  National  Convention  at  Colum- 
bus, Ohio.  In  1889  she  was  chosen  Depart- 
ment Senior  Vice-President,  and  in  February, 
1890,  received  the  highest  office  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Massacliusetts,  that  of  Department 
President.  It  was  in  August  of  this  year  that 
the  National  Encampment  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic  was  held  in  Boston,  antl  many 
extra  duties  devolved  upon  her.  She  was  a 
vice-president  of  the  general  committee  and 
a  member  of  the  executive  committee  of  arrange- 
ments for  the  National  Convention,  also  chair- 
man of  the  reception  committee  and  an  active 
worker  on  the  committee  on  finance,  press,  and 
invitation.  In  her  general  order  to  the  corps 
some  time  previous  she  said:  "This  year  prom- 
ises to  be  the  most  important  one  in  the  history 
of  this  Department.  This  dear  old  State  of 
ours  will  be  honored  above  all  others  during 
the  month  of  August.  From  all  parts  of  the 
country  the  veterans  of  the  G.  A.  R.  and  our 
sisters  of  the  W.  R.  C.  will  come  to  us.  Prove 
to  them  that  the  Mother  Department  of  our 
order  can  be  as  royal  in  her  hospitality  as  she 
is  generous  and  tender  in  her  care  and  protec- 
tion of  her  country's  defenders." 

Mrs.  Knowles,  in  her  official  visits  to  corps 
and  at  public  meetings,  earnestly  referred  to 
the  plans  for  encampment  week  in  Boston,  and 
awakened  great  interest  in  the  object.  She 
had  a  prominent  part  in  the  festivities  of  the 
week,  and  assisted  in  welcoming  to  Boston  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  other  dis- 
tinguished citizens.  The  liberal  respon.se  of 
the  corps  and  the  able  management  of  the 
committee  enabled  all  bills  to  be  paid,  with  a 
surplus  of  one  thousand  tlollars  on  hand. 
Therefore  the  sum  of  three  thousand  dollars 
appropriated  by  the  G.  A.  R.  for  the  expenses 
of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  during  the  week 
was  returned  to  the  Grand  Army  committee. 

In  presenting  her  annual  address  to  the  De- 
partment Convention  of  1891,  Mrs.  Knowles 
thanked  the  members  for  their  hearty  interest, 
and  said:  "When  the  word  was  brought  back 
to  us  from  Milwaukee  that  the  eighth  National 
Convention  would  be  held  in  Boston,  every 
niembfT  in  the  Department  began  to  feel  that 
she  would  do  her  part  toward  welcoming  those 
who  would  come  from  all  sections  of  our  be- 


loved land,  wearing  the  little  bronze  badge. 
The  work  of  preparation  for  this  memorable 
event  occupied  many  months  of  careful  and  un- 
tiring labor,  and  the  grand  results  accom- 
plished elicited  words  of  prai.ie  and  gratitude 
from  the  visiting  members  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic  and  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps." 

Captain  George  L.  Goodale,  chairman  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  G.  A.  R.,  when  for- 
warding the  official  thanks  of  the  committee, 
extended  congratulations  upon  the  grand  suc- 
cess of  the  efforts  of  the  AV.  R.  C,  and  added: 
"No  feature  of  the  week  of  duty  and  of  pleas- 
ure was  more  enjoyable  than  the  camp-fire  at 
Tremont  Temple  on  the  evening  of  Friday, 
August  15."  Three  thousand  people  attended 
this  Relief  Corps  gathering  in  Tremont  Temple, 
and  three  thousand  more  were  turned  away, 
disappointed  that  they  were  unable  to  gain 
admittance.  Governor  Brackett,  Mayor  Hart, 
General  W.  T.  Sherman,  Commander-in-chief 
Wheelock  G.  Veazie,  Mrs.  Annie  Wittenmeyer 
(National  President),  Miss  Clara  Barton,  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  and  other  distinguished 
speakers  were  present.  One  of  the  attractive 
features  of  the  programme  was  a  rearling  by 
Mrs.  Knowles  of  a  poem  entitled  "The  Massa- 
chusetts AVoman,"  written  for  the  occasion  by 
Mrs.  Kate  B.  Sherwood,  of  Canton,  Ohio,  a  past 
National  President. 

In  an  address  at  the  Department  Convention 
in  Boston,  February,  1891,  she  gave  a  sum- 
mary of  the  year's  work,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  are  taken:  "The  growth  of  our 
order  in  Ma.ssachusetts  during  the  past  year 
has  been  most  encouraging.  At  the  end  of  the 
official  year  of  1890  our  roster  bore  one  huntlred 
and  twenty-five  corps  with  a  membership  of 
nine  thousand  and  ten.  To-day  we  have  one 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  corps,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  ten  thousand  six  hundretl,  a  gain  of 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  ninety.  The 
sum  of  seventeen  thousand  one  hundred  and 
tliirty-four  dollars  and  thirty-four  cents  repre- 
sents the  value  of  relief  expenditures  and 
money  turned  over  to  posts. 

"On  the  7th  of  last  June  I  was  honored  with 
an  invitation  from  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
the  Soldiers'  Home  to  participate  in  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  new  part  of  the  home.    The  in- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


95 


teresting  exercises  and  incidents  of  the  occasion 
will  be  remembered  as  long  as  life  shall  last. 
I  have  visited  the  home  whenever  it  was  possi- 
ble for  me  to  do  so. 

"The  official  correspondence  of  the  year 
has  required  much  time  and  thought.  I  have 
written  more  than  a  thousand  letters,  and  have 
issued  eight  general  orders  antl  one  circular 
letter.  Many  invitations  to  fairs,  camp-fires, 
anniversaries  of  posts  and  corps,  have  been  ac- 
cepted and  thoroughly  enjoyed.  I  have  always 
been  received  at  these  gatherings  with  much 
courtesy  and  cordiality.  I  have  assisted  at  the 
opening  of  four  fairs,  atteniled  four  receptions, 
eleven  anniversaries,  instituted  two  corps,  in- 
stalled the  officers  of  twenty-four  corps,  visited 
many  other  corps  and  delivered  the  Memorial 
Day  address  at  Leominster.  Have  been  present 
at  headcjuarters  every  Tuesday,  Thursday,  and 
Satunlay,  with  but  two  exceptions." 

Mrs.  I\iiowles  served  as  Department  Coun- 
sellor in  1891,  and  continued  her  active  inter- 
est, visiting  corps,  participating  in  camp-fires, 
and  other  patriotic  gatherings.  By  invita- 
tion of  Granil  Army  posts  she  has  delivered 
Memorial  Day  adtlresses  in  many  parts  of  the 
State  and  in  New  Hampshire,  and  has  been  an 
elo(iuent  missionary  for  the  order.  She  con- 
tinues her  active  work  in  the  Department 
W.  R.  C,  and  has  great  influence  in  the  con- 
ventions. 

Her  portrait  hangs  upon  the  walls  of  the 
Department  headiiuarters  in  Boston.  It  was 
presented  by  Abraham  Lincoln  Corps,  of 
Charlestown,  in  which  she  is  still  an  active 
and  honored  member.  Colonel  Allen  Corps,  of 
Gloucester,  the  first  corps  instituted  by  Mrs. 
Knowles,  has  placed  in  its  room  at  the  Soldiers' 
Home  in  Chelsea  a  beautiful  banner  bearing 
her  name. 

She  was  assistant  secretary  at  the  National 
Convention  at  Detroit  in  1891,  and  at  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  in  1892,  was  unanimously  elected 
National  Chaplain  for  the  ensuing  year. 

As  a  professional  elocutionist,  Mrs.  Knowles 
has  filled  engagements  in  many  halls  and 
churches  in  Ma.ssachusetts  and  other  New 
England  States,  and  has  thus  aided  financially 
many  churches,  posts,  corps,  and  other  societies. 
Mrs.  Knowles  is  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the 


Executive  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the 
National  Convention  in  Boston  in  August,  1904. 
One  of  the  most  elo(|uent  addresses  ever  given 
at  a  public  gathering  of  the  order  was  her 
presentation  of  a  flag  to  the  Girls'  High  School 
of  Boston  on  behalf  of  the  Department  of  Mas- 
sachusetts at  its  anniversary  observance  in  the 
People's  Temple,  Boston,  February  10,  1904. 
She  is  sure  of  appreciative  audiences  whenever 
taking  part,  in  any  service. 

She  was  a  member  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Soldiers'  Home,  and  now  belongs 
to  the  New  England  Helping  Hand  Society. 
She  is  State  treasurer  of  the  Independent  Order 
of  Odd  Ladies,  and  was  for  several  years  secre- 
tary of  the  relief  fund  of  this  order.  Her  re- 
ports to  the  insurance  conmiissioner  of  Massa- 
chusetts were  complimented  by  that  official, 
who  regarded  them  as  the  best  reports  receivetl 
from  any  fraternal  insurance  organization. 

Mrs.  Knowles  is  actively  interested  in  church 
and  Sunday-school  work.  For  many  years 
connected  with  the  Bulfinch  Place  Church  (Uni- 
tarian) in  Boston,  she  is  now  a  member  of  the 
Winter  Hill  Universalist  Church. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Zoeth  Rich  Knowles  have  lived 
in  Somerville  since  1894.  They  have  no  chil- 
dren. Mr.  Knowles  was  in  the  signal  service 
of  the  Union  army  during  the  Civil  War.  He 
is  a  Past  Commander  of  Abraham  Lincoln  Post, 
No.  11,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Charlestown,  where  they 
formerly  resitled.  Mr.  Knowles  was  one  of 
the  conu-ades  of  the  Grantl  Army  of  the  Re- 
public who  early  in  its  history  advocated  form- 
ing Relief  Corps,  auxiliary  to  posts. 


ETHEL  HYDE.— The  earthly  sojourn  of 
Miss  Ethel  Hyde,  comprised  within  the 
brief  period  of  twenty-eight  years,  was 
a  healthy,  contentetl,  happy  life,  that 
reflected   the  sumiy  radiance  of  a  pure  soul, 
and,  measured  by  quality,  may  be  said  to  have 
been  rounded  out  anil  complete. 

Miss  Hyde  was  born  in  Bath,  Me.,  on  the 
thirtieth  day  of  August,  1871.  Her  father  was 
General  Thomas  Worcester  Hyde,  and  her  pa- 
ternal grandparents  were  Zina  and  Eleanor 
(Davis)  Hyde.  As  a  leading  merchant  of  Bath 
in  his  day,  Zina  Hyde  held  an  influential  posi- 


96 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


tion  in  the  community.  He  was  a  man  of 
scholarly  and  artistic  tastes,  and  travelled  ex- 
tensively in  Europe.  Thomas  Worcester  Hyde 
was  born  in  Florence,  Italy,  January  15, 1841 ,  and 
was  graduated  at  Bowdoin  College  in  1861.  In 
the  .sununer  of  that  year  he  raised  a  companj' 
of  volunteers  for  the  Seventh  Maine  Regiment. 
Appointed  Major  in  August,  he  had  the  honor, 
in  the  ab.sence  of  the  colonel  and  lieutenant 
colonel,  of  leading  the  regiment  to  the  field. 
He  commanded  the  Seventh  Regiment  at  An- 
tietam  and  ui  other  engagements.  Later  he 
was  connni.ssioned  Colonel  of  the  First  Maine 
Veteran  Volunteers,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  years  he  was  commander  of  the  Third 
Brigade,  Second  Division,  Sixth  Army  Corps. 
He  was  nmstered  out  in  the  summer  of  1865, 
after  four  years  of  gallant  service,  and  was 
brevetted  Brigadier-general.  Later  on  he  re- 
ceived from  Congress  a  medal  of  honor.  Re- 
turning to  Bath,  he  jnirchased  the  Warden 
Foundrj',  which  soon,  owing  to  his  energy  and 
business  ability,  developed  into  the  famous 
Bath  Iron  Works,  of  which  he  was  president. 
He  also  established  the  Hyde  Windlass  Com- 
pany. 

General  Hyde  endeared  himself  to  all  by  his 
manly  bearing,  business  integrity,  courteous 
manner,  and  cultivated  conversation.  He  was 
frequently  chosen  to  fill  high  political  offices  in 
both  city  and  State.  His  classical  attainments 
and  literary  abilities  are  evinced  in  a  transla- 
tion of  some  of  the  odes  of  Horace,  published 
by  the  Bibliophile  Society  of  Boston,  and  in  an 
interesting  book  of  reminiscences  of  the  Sixth 
Corps,  entitled  "Following  the  Greek  Cross." 
He  died  greatly  mourned  in  November,  1899. 

His  wife,  Mrs.  Annie  Hyde,  who  survives  her 
husband,  was  well  qualified  to  be  the  compan- 
ion of  such  a  man.  Her  father,  John  Hayden, 
was,  to  (]Uote  a  newspaper  account  of  him,  "  an 
astronomer,  a  mathematician,  and  a  profound 
scholar."  He  was  one  of  the  early  abolition- 
ists, and  he,  too,  held  some  of  the  highest  politi- 
cal offices  in  the  city  and  State.  Mrs.  Hytle's 
mother,  Mrs.  Martha  Brown  Hayden,  was  noted 
for  her  beauty  and  wit.  Mrs.  Hyde  herself, 
finely  educated,  sympathetic,  kindly,  of  pol- 
ished manner,  keen  intelligence,  and  gracious 
presence,  has  maintained  her  position  as  chate- 


laine of  Elmhurst,  her  beautiful  home  in  Bath, 
with  dignity  and  happy  hospitality.  To  her 
mother's  influence  Ethel  owed  much  of  her 
charm  of  manner  and  brilliance  of  conversa- 
tion. The  relation  between  Mrs.  Hyde  and 
her  children  is  ideal. 

Miss  Ethel  Hyde  went  through  the  usual 
routine  of  the  schools  in  Bath,  the  instruction 
there  received  being  supplemented  by  private 
tuition.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  with  her  aunt, 
Mrs.  Eames,  mother  of  the  famous  vocalist, 
Emma  Eames,  she  went  to  Europe  to  "finish 
her  education,"  as  the  expression  is,  although, 
as  a  fact,  her  education  never  was  complete. 
She  was  always  learning,  not  satisfied  with 
that  which  she  had  already  acquired,  but  eager 
to  gain  knowledge  in  all  directions.  The  result 
was  the  possession  of  a  well-balanced,  resource- 
ful mind,  which  appreciated  the  higher  im- 
pulses of  life  while  not  disdaining  its  lighter 
claims.  Bles,sed  with  a  fine  physique  and 
graceful  in  form,  she  united  in  her  person  the 
classic  requirements  of  the  healthy  mind  in 
the  healthy  body.  She  was  fond  of  outdoor 
life,  and  excelled  in  all  athletic  exercises.  Her 
artistic  sense  was  highly  developed.  This  was 
characteristically  displayed  in  her  love  of 
flowers,  of  which  the  beautiful  beds  at  Elm- 
hurst were  her  especial  care.  Her  fine  percep- 
tion and  good  judgment  as  an  amateur  of  art 
were  attested  by  her  fine  collection  of  pictures 
from  European  galleries. 

But,  of  all  the  gifts  with  which  nature  had 
endowed  her,  none  was  more  marked  than  that 
of  music.  It  was  born  in  her,  inherited  to  a 
large  extent  from  her  mother,  who  is  a  finished 
and  artistic  musician.  Early  promise  of  a 
musical  voice  was  detected  by  the  mother,  who 
fostered  and  cared  for  it  until  the  time  came 
for  higher  cultivation.  Miss  Clara  Munger,  of 
Boston,  was  her  first  teacher.  She  subse- 
quently studied  under  Olivieri  in  Boston  and 
Madam  Picciotto,  Van  den  Heuvel,  and  Manouri 
in  Paris.  The  promise  of  early  tlays  was  more 
than  fulfilled.  A  voice  of  exquisite  beauty  and 
purity  of  tone  had  been  trained  in  the  highest 
and  most  artistic  method,  and  a  brilliant  singer 
ai)])eared.  Had  her  ambitions  tended  in  that 
direction.  Miss  Hyde  would  have  won  laurels 
on  the  operatic  stage;  and,  indeed,  she  was 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


97 


often  urged  to  devote  herself  to  this  career. 
Eminent  critics  who  had  heard  her  were  unani- 
mously of  the  opinion  that  she  would  adorn 
the  lyric  profession.  Anton  Seidl  declaied  she 
had  "a  voice  of  velvet,"  while  Jean  de  Reszke 
pronounced  it  the  best  amateur  voice  he  had 
ever  heard.  But  her  own  tastes  did  not  lie  in 
that  way,  and  she  voluntarily  gave  up  an  oppor- 
tunity that  many  might  covet. 

The  gift,  however,  was  not  hidden;  and  Miss 
Hyde  was  ranked  among  the  highest  of  amateur 
singers.  Not  only  in  her  own  home,  but  in 
social  circles  of  New  York,  Boston,  Newport, 
and  Lenox,  as  well  as  in  Paris,  Venice,  and 
other  places  abroad,  she  delighted  all  who  heard 
her.  In  Washington  she  was  a  guest  of  the 
British  and  German  Ambassadors,  and  on  more 
than  one  occasion  was  specially  invited  to  sing 
at  the  White  House.  In  accordance  with  her 
habitual  desire  of  making  good  use  of  her  ac- 
complishments and  acting  up  to  the  beneficent 
instincts  of  her  nature,  she  devoted  her  talents 
largely  to  the  cause  of  benevolence  and  charity. 
To  this  end  she  frequently  organizetl  concerts 
or  gave  recitals,  in  order  to  be  able  to  minister 
to  the  wants  of  needy  and  deserving  people, 
and  there  are  many  to-daj'  who  owe  education 
and  all  that  they  are  to  her  thoughtful  consitl- 
eration. 

Confirmed  in  Grace  Church,  Bath,  Miss  Hyde 
was  sincere  and  unostentatious  in  her  religious 
life.  The  Christian  virtues  and  graces  Ijeauti- 
fied  her  character.  She  took  an  active  part  in 
church  work,  and  her  own  parish  gratefully 
recalls  the  practical  and  financial  assistance 
she  renderetl.  Thus,  adorning  her  station  in 
society,  pursuing  a  life  of  un.selfish  goodness, 
she  was  respected  and  loved  by  all. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  such  a  life,  so  bright 
and  useful,  that  Miss  Hyde  was  suddenly 
stricken  down  with  incurable  disease.  Ten- 
derly ministered  to  with  all  that  loving  hearts 
could  supply,  for  three  months  she  bore  her 
sufferings  with  beautiful  patience  and  Christian 
fortitude.  Then  God  called  her  to  higher  ser- 
vice on  Sunday,  August  27,  1899.  On  the 
twenty-eighth  anniversary  of  her  birth  all  that 
was  mortal  of  Ethel  Hyde  was  laid  to  rest  amidst 
a  sorrow  that  was  universal.  Many  glowing 
tributes  have  been  paid  to  her  memory.     The 


regard  in  whidi  she  was  held  by  those  among 
whom  she  lived  may  be  gathered  from  the 
words  of  her  rector  at  the  funeral  service, 
when,  speaking  of  the  wonderful  voice,  he  said, 
"  It  seemed  as  if  it  were  the  very  expression  of 
her  life,  tuned  to  a  higher  key — as  all  her  life 
was — sweet,  true,  pure,  inspiring,"  and  from 
the  opening  and  closing  sentences  of  an  etli- 
torial  in  the  local  paper:  "The  entire  city 
mourns  to-day  for  the  sad  death  of  Miss  Ethel 
Hyde.  .  .  .  She  will  be  held  in  long  and  grateful 
remembrance  for  her  many  deeds  of  charity 
and  loving  kindness." 


PAULINE  J.  WALDEN,  LUCY  JAME- 
SON SCOTT,  AND  LOUISE  MANNING 
HODGKINS  are  officially  connected 
with  the  monthly  publications  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Eiiisco{)al  Church.  Miss  Walden 
may  be  considered  the  dean  of  the  journalistic 
corps,  she  having  occupied  the  responsible 
jjosition  of  publisher  for  more  than  twenty 
years.  Mrs.  Scott  accepted  the  editorship  of 
the  Children'' s  Friend  in  1890;  and  Miss  Hodg- 
kins,  on  the  occasion  of  the  annual  executive 
meeting  of  the  society  at  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  in 
1893,  was  elected  editor  of  its  official  organ, 
now  known  as  the  Woman's  Missionary  Friend, 
originally  the  Heathen  Woman's  Friend.  These 
publications  and  two  others,  Fraueit  ifissions 
Freund  and  The  Study,  are  issuetl  monthly  at 
36  Bromfield  Street,  the  Boston  office  of  the 
above  nanietl  society. 

The  AVoman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America 
was  organized  in  the  Treniont  Street  Methotlist 
Episcopal  Church,  Boston,  on  a  stormy  March 
day  in  1869  by  eight  women  who  responded 
to  a  call  sent  to  thirty  churches.  A  window 
in  the  Tremont  Street  Church  commemorates 
the  event  and  preserves  their  names.  The 
first  public  meeting  of  the  society  was  held 
in  the  Bromfield  Street  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  May  26,  1869.  The  speaking  was 
quickly  followed  by  decisive  action.  At  a 
business  meeting  held  by  the  women  at  the 
close  of  the  public  occasion  it  was  voted  to 
raise  money  to  send  as  a  missionary  to  India 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Miss  Isabella  Thoburn,  sister  of  Bishop  Thoburn. 
An  appeal  for  a  medical  woman  soon  followed. 
As  a  result  of  prompt  and  efficient  measures 
to  procure  funds,  the  services  of  Miss  Tho- 
burn and  of  Clara  A.  Swain,  M.D.,  were  secured. 
These  two  women  sailed  from  New  York  for 
India,  via  England,  on  November  3,  1869, 
reaching  their  destination  early  in  January, 
1870.  These  first  laborers  of  the  new  society 
in  a  foreign  field  were  cordially  received,  and 
soon  entered  upon  a  good  work,  Miss  Thoburn 
organizing  schools  and  superintending  the 
work  of  Bible  readers,  and  Dr.  Swain's  medical 
ability  gaining  for  her  admission  to  many  places 
that  w^ere  closed  to  others.  This  society  sent  to 
India,  China,  Korea,  and  Japan  the  first  woman 
medical  missionary  ever  received  in  those 
countries.  Now,  in  its  thirty-fourth  year  (1903) 
it  has  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  missionaries 
carrying  on  its  work  in  far  India,  China,  Japan, 
Korea,  Africa,  Bulgaria,  Italy,  South  America, 
Mexico,  and  the  Philippines,  by  means  of 
women's  colleges,  high  schools,  seminaries, 
hospitals,  dispensaries,  day  schools,  and  "  settle- 
ment work,"  as  it  is  called  in  America. 

The  society  was  incorporated  under  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  New  York  in  1884.  Its  receipts 
during  the  first  year  were  four  thousand  five 
hundred  forty-six  dollars  and  eighty-six  cents, 
and  in  the  year  1903  four  hundreil  ninety-one 
thousand  ninety-one  dollars  and  seventy-five 
cents,  with  a  total  from  the  beginning  of 
six  million  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
eight  hundred  fifty-three  dollars.  Six  Branches 
were  organized  the  first  year.  There  are  now 
eleven,  the  first  the  New  England,  and  the 
eleventh  the  Columbia  River  Branch. 

The  first  number  of  the  society's  first  peri- 
odical, the  Heathen  Woman's  Friend,  appeared 
in  June,  1869.  Mrs.  Warren,  wife  of  William  F. 
Warren,  D.D.,  President  of  Boston  University, 
was  its  editor  for  twenty-four  years,  be- 
ginning at  the  time  when  women  editors  were 
so  rare  as  to  make  the  position  one  of  isola- 
tion. Financially  it  was  a  plunge  into  the  unex- 
plored wilderness,  there  being  no  money  behind 
the  paper  and  no  influence,  except  that  of  a 
handful  of  women  whose  hearts  and  brains 
were  devoted  to  sending  to  foreign  fields  their 
first   missionaries.     But   the   result   proved   to 


be  a  financial  success,  for  in  thirty  years  it 
not  only  paid  its  own  expenses,  but  contributed 
over  thirty  thousand  dollars  for  the  publica- 
tion and  scattering  of  leaflets  and  other  mis- 
sionary literature  which  has  proved  to  be  the 
"  leaves  of  the  tree  for  the  healing  of  the  na- 
tions." Mrs.  Warren  penned  her  last  editorial, 
"The  Bugle-call,"  on  Thursday,  January  5, 
1893,  two  days  before  the  close  of  her  earthly 
life. 

Harriet  Cornelia  Merrick  Warren,  daugh- 
ter of  John  M.  and  Mary  J.  Merrick,  was  born  in 
Wilbraham,  Mass.,  September  15,  1843,  and 
was  educated  at  Wilbraham  Academy,  of  which 
her  father  was  a  trustee.  Married  April  14, 
1861,  to  the  Rev.  William  F.  Warren,  slie  went 
with  him  to  Bremen,  Germany,  where  he  served 
for  some  time  as  a  professor  in  the  Missions- 
Anstalt.  Possessed  of  scholarly  tastes  and 
capabilities,  Mrs.  Warren  while  abroad  con- 
tinued to  cultivate  her  mind,  successfully  pur- 
suing advanced  studies  in  history,  languages, 
literature,  music,  and  art,  also  spending  some 
time  profitably  with  her  husbantl  in  travelling. 
"  She  returned  after  five  years  a  large-minded  and 
thoroughly  ecjuipped  woman,  full  of  resources, 
and  with  good  practical  judgment  and  tact  that 
admirably  fitted  hei'  for  the  position  .she  was  to 
occupy  as  the  wife  of  a  man  at  the  head  of  one 
of  the  most  important  educational  enterprises 
in  the  church  and  in  tlie  country."  She  was 
an  untiring  worker  in  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society,  its  first  recording  secretary, 
and  for  years  president  of  the  New  England 
Branch,  and  an  accomplished  editor. 

Louise  Maxning  Hodgkins,  M.A.,  Mrs. 
Warren's  successor  in  the  editorial  chair,  has 
won  for  herself  a  name  in  both  literary  and 
educational  fields.  Born  in  Ipswich,  Mass., 
August  5,  1846,  daughter  of  Daniel  Luiimuis 
and  Mary  (Willett)  Hodgkins,  she  is  a  descend- 
ant of  early  .settlers  of  that  historic  town.  P'or 
two  years  in  her  girlhood  she  attended  the 
Ipswich  Seminary,  then  under  the  charge  of 
Mrs.  Eunice  P.  Cowles.  At  Wesieyan  Acad- 
emy, Wilbraham,  where  she  was  next  enrolled 
as  a  pupil,  she  was  grailuated  in  1870.  For 
six  years   (1870-76)   she   was   connected   with 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


99 


Lawrence  University  at  Appleton,  Wis.,  both  as 
a  teacher  and  student.  She  received  from  the 
institution  her  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1876. 
In  1877,  as  professor  of  EngUsh  hterature  at 
\\'ellesley  College,  she  entered  upon  her  next 
notable  educational  work,  beginning  a  term 
of  efficient  antl  highly  appreciated  service, 
that  lasted  fourteen  years.  The  enterprise 
was  a  new  one,  and  upon  her  devolved  the  task 
of  arranging  a  course  of  study  in  her  depart- 
ment suited  to  the  needs  of  the  times.  In  1891 
she  resigned  her  professorship,  that  she  might 
give  her  time  solely  to  literary  work.  She  has 
been  successful  both  as  an  author  and  lecturer. 
Among  the  books  that  she  has  written  may 
be  named  "  Nineteenth  Century  Authors  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,"  "Study 
of  the  English  Language,"  and  "Via  Christi," 
the  last  a  fascinating  volume  of  missionary 
annals,  published  by  Macmillan  in  October, 
1902,  which  in  less  than  two  years  had  reachetl 
a  sale  of  nearly  fifty  thousand  copies.  Miss 
Hodgkins  has  edited  Milton's  Lyrics  and  Mat- 
thew Arnold's  "Sohrab  ami  Rustum." 

To  the  Woman'a  Missio)iary  Friend  Miss 
Hodgkins,  it  is  said,  "has  given  a  fresh  impetus 
on  many  lines,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  its 
subscription  list  lengthens  each  year." 

Mi.ss  Hodgkins  has  visited  Europe  four  times 
for  special  studies,  attentling  lectures  at  the 
College  PVan^ais  in  Paris,  studying  in  the  Girls' 
Normal  School  at  Hanover  and  with  private 
tutors  in  Leipzig  and  Berlin,  also  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford.  Her  present  home  is  in  Auburn- 
dale,  Mass. 

Lucy  Amelia  J.\meson,  now  Mrs.  Lucy 
Jameson  Scott,  was  born  in  Irasburg,  Vt., 
November  27,  1843,  daughter  of  Alexantler 
and  Sarah  (Locke)  Jameson.  She  completed 
her  school  studies  at  the  \''ermont  Conference 
Seminary,  and  was  graduated  as  the  valedic- 
torian of  her  class.  On  July  17,  1867,  she  be- 
came the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Orange  W.  Scott, 
a  minister  of  the  Methodist  P^piscopal  Church. 
Soon  after  the  organization  of  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  Mr.  Scott  was  pastor 
of  a  church  in  Haverhill,  Ma.ss.  Joining  an  aux- 
iliary, Mrs.  Scott  served  for  some  time  as  its 
corresponding  secretary,  later  as  the  first  sec- 


retary of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference. 
In  1874  she  represented  the  New  England 
Branch  at  the  executive  committee  meeting. 
As  the  years  went  on,  she  became  more  and 
more  widely  known  as  a  worker  in  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  and  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union  and  as  a  contributor 
to  the  Youth's  Companion  and  other  popular 
papers,  as  well  as  to  religious  {)eriodicals,  also 
as  a  writer  of  books  for  Sunday-school  libraries. 
The  latest  of  her  productions  is  "  Twelve 
Little  Pilgrims,"  pul)lished  by  Revell,  an  in- 
teresting story  and  a  valuable  book  to  interest 
children  in  missionary  work.  Since  this  writer 
of  children's  books  and  stories  became,  in  1890, 
editor  of  the  Children  s  Missionary  Friend, 
this  publication  has  reached  a  circulation  of 
nearly  thirty  thousand.  Time  has  shown  that 
she  is  the  right  woman  in  the  right  place.  Mrs. 
Scott  is  the  mother  of  three  sons  anil  two 
daughters. 

P.\ULiNR  J.  Walden,  chosen  at  the  meeting 
in  Philadelphia  in  November,  1882,  to  succeed 
Mrs.  Daggett  as  the  publishing  agent  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  entered 
at  once  upon  the  duties  of  this  position.  As 
publisher  of  the  four  periodicals  above  men- 
tioned and  general  manager  of  affairs  at  the 
Bromfield  Street  office,  she  has  shown  herself 
thoroughly  qualified  to  administer  the  trusts 
committed  to  her  charge,  and  can  perhnps  be 
best  described  in  the  words  of  a  Boston  business 
man  of  forty  years'  experience,  "Why,  accord- 
ing to  her  opportunity,  she's  one  of  the  best 
business  men  in  the  city."  She,  too,  is  a  New 
England  woman.  Born  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  she  is 
of  mingled  Methodist  and  Quaker  ancestry. 
In  the  simimer  of  1897  she  visited  England 
and  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  studying  mis- 
sionary work,  giving  considerable  time  to 
the  work  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society  in  Rome.  In  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer of  1903  she  made  a  tour  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  visiting  California,  Oregon,  and  Washing- 
ton, embracing  the  Columbia  River  and  Pacific 
Branches  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society,  in  the  interests  of  the  work.  The  total 
monthly  output  of  the  four  periodicals  is  now 
(December,    1903)    over  ninety-five   thousand. 


100 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


with  eighty-eight  thousand  nine  hundred  sev- 
enty-six paid  subscriptions.  Miss  Waldcn,  witli 
her  genial  manners  and  her  cheering  business 
budget,  has  been  a  welcome  official  visitor  at 
annual  executive  committee  meetings.  With 
her  clear  head,  her  lofty  aims,  and  earnest 
spirit,  she  is  an  appreciated  force  in  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 


GULIELMA  PENN  SANBORN  was 
born  in  Readfield,  Me.,  February  20, 
1839,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  and 
Joanna  (Pierce)  Sanborn.  Among 
her  ancestors  on  both  sides  were  some  who 
held  responsible  jiositions  in  early  colonial  life 
and  some  who  served  in  the  war  for  indepen- 
dence. She  is  therefore  eligible  to  membership 
in  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution 
and  the  Society  of  Colonial  Dames.  Miss  San- 
born accjuired  her  elementary  education  in 
the  little  red  school-house  of  the  district  in 
which  she  lived.  Her  family  moving  to  the 
suburbs  of  Augusta  when  she  was  ten  years 
old,  she  had  a  few  yeai's  of  such  teaching  as 
the  country  schools  then  afforded.  During  this 
time  she  had  plenty  of  good  books  anfl  news- 
papers to  read  at  home. 

Stress  of  circvmistances  sent  each  child  of 
the  household  as  a  wage-earner,  and  at  the  age 
of  fourteen  the  cotton-mill  in  Augusta  became 
the  scene  of  her  labors.  Wearying  of  the 
monotony'  and  small  pay  in  that  locality,  she 
went  to  Lawrence,  Mass.,  where  she  was  em- 
ployed in  the  Pacific  Print  Works.  The  free 
library  connected  with  this  place  afforded  Miss 
Sanborn  the  greatest  pleasure.  She  speaks 
enthusiastically  of  the  benefits  derived  from 
its  use. 

The  year  LS61  found  her  at  home  in  Augusta 
with  her  mother  and  the  younger  children,  as 
the  men  had  all  "gone  to  the  war."  For  a  few 
months  she  worked  on  soldiers'  coats;  but  this 
labor  was  not  satisfactory,  and  plans  were  marie 
for  learning  type-setting,  then  a  comparatively 
new  business  for  women.  With  fair  success 
this  occu|)ation  was  followed  for  five  years, 
when  failing  health  compelled  its  abandon- 
ment.    Circumstances  opened  a  way  for  sew- 


ing. Orders  were  received  from  the  best  and 
most  influential  families,  among  them  the 
Blaines.  Mr.  Blaine  was  Speaker  of  the  House 
at  Washington  in  1872;  and  Mrs.  Blaine,  need- 
ing some  one  to  accompany  her  thither,  as 
family  assistant  in  various  ways,  proffered  the 
situation  to  Miss  Sanborn,  who  welcomed  the 
[ileasant  change.  This  proved  a  most  delight- 
ful winter,  as  the  generous  and  kindly  ways 
of  the  family  accorded  her  many  privileges  not 
usually  vouchsafed  to  an  employee.  She  went 
everywhere,  saw  everybody  and  everything 
worth  .seeing,  joining  the  family  at  their  table 
and  meeting  their  guests,  a  bit  of  education 
novel  and  broad.  At  the  end  of  the  session 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blaine  gave  her  a  pass  from  Balti- 
more to  California  and  return.  She  left  at 
once  for  the  sunny  land.  Making  her  home 
there  with  a  brother  and  finding  immediate 
emi)loyment  at  her  trafle,  she  earned  enough 
to  travel  the  length  and  l)readth  of  that  State, 
visiting  among  other  places  of  note  the  Yo- 
semite  Valley  and  the  big  trees.  She  made  these 
journeys  on  horseback,  after  the  manner  of 
those  days.  In  October  of  the  same  year  she 
s))ent  three  months  in  the  frontier  .settlements  of 
Kansas,  and  tarried  in  several  other  States, 
reaching  Maine  in  the  early  part  of  1873.  In 
March  she  opened  dressmaking  rooms,  with 
dreams  of  the  Centennial  in  her  mind,  a  dream 
that  was  realized  and  so  thoroughly  enjoyed 
that  the  larger  plan  for  attending  the  Paris 
P]xposition  in  1878  seemed  feasible.  As  her 
aged  parents  on  the  farm  were  then  in  comfort- 
able circumstances,  the  trip  was  taken;  and  the 
three  and  a  half  months  in  England,  Scot- 
land, and  France  were  a  never-to-be-forgotten 
pleasure. 

Craving  something  beyond  the  walls  of  her 
busy  dressmaking  establishment,  and  having 
no  special  journey  in  view,  in  1880  she  took  up 
the  Chautauqua  literary  and  scientific  course  of 
study  by  correspondence.  Working  busily  in 
her  rooms  all  day,  this  meant  study  for  e^'enings 
and  Sundays.  In  1884  the  two  weeks'  vacation 
found  her  at  Chautauciua  ready  to  be  grad- 
uated in  a  class  numbering  fourteen  hundred. 
Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  delivered  the  address  and 
awarded  the  ilijilomas.  In  this  immense  class 
Miss  Sanborn  ranked  well. 


GULIELMA   PENN   8ANB0RN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


101 


Again  application  to  business  imtil  her  father 
and  mother  neede(^l  her  personal  attention.  In 
1891  she  bought  a  beautiful  home  on  a  high 
hill  in  Augusta,  which  she  named  "Ren  Venue." 
Here  her  parents  came  from  the  lonely  farm  to 
live  with  her,  and  here,  when  the  summons 
came,  they  "lay  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 

For  the  past  ten  years,  having  built  green- 
houses, she  has  carried  on  a  most  successful 
florist's  business.  Each  year  she  has  done 
something  to  improve  the  land  and  surround- 
ings, not  the  least  of  her  enterprises  being  the 
drilling  of  an  artesian  well,  five  hundred  antl 
sixty  feet  deep,  and  the  erection  of  a  tower, 
tank,  and  windmill,  the  whole  costing  not  less 
than  three  thousand  dollars. 

Miss  8anborn  was  a  pioneer  in  the  ten-hour 
system  for  working  women,  being  the  first  to 
run  her  business  on  that  rule.  In  all  ways 
she  has  tried  to  better  the  condition  of  wage- 
earning  women.  Busy  as  she  is,  she  has  been 
active  in  W.  C.  T.  U.  work,  has  been  a  club 
woman  since  the  birth  of  clubs,  and  a  tower  of 
strength  in  the  Sunday-school  and  church.  She 
counts  it  among  her  greatest  privileges  that 
she  has  been  favored  with  the  opportunity  of 
listening  to  cultivated  and  eminent  preachers, 
as  the  Rev.  Drs.  A\'ebb,  and  iMcKenzie,  Bing- 
ham, Ecob,  and  others. 

Looking  back  upon  a  long  and  busy  life,  that 
has  been  a  happy  one,  she  is  still  actively  en- 
gaged as  a  florist,  and  cherishes  the  hope  that 
her  declining  years  may  be  useful,  heli)ful  to 
others,  and  not  a  burden  to  herself. 

Miss  Gulielma  P.  Sanborn  joined  Koussinoc 
Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, in  the  autumn  of  1902,  and  has  since  joined 
the  National  Society  of  that  patriotic  order, 
her  application  for  membership  in  the  latter 
having  been  accepted  by  the  board  of  manage- 
ment in  Washington,  D.C.,  April  27,  1903, 
and  her  name  placed  on  the  list  of  members. 
Her  eligibility  in  these  two  instances,  as  well 
as  her  qualifications  for  uniting  with  the  So- 
ciety of  Colonial  Dames,  comes  from  the  pub- 
lic services  of  some  of  her  maternal  ancestors, 
briefly  recorded  below. 

Miss  Sanborn's  parents,  Samuel  Sanborn,  of 
Yarmouth  (born  May  17,  1806,  died  February 
11,   1893),  and  Joanna  Pierce,  of  Westbrook, 


Me.,  were  married  in  1828.  They  had  eight 
children — Elizabeth  Dunbar,  Joiseph  Pierce, 
Albion  Irving,  Gulielma  Penn  (the  subject  of 
this  sketch),  Thomas  Tristram,  Samuel  Porter 
Elwell,  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  Cora  Frances — 
the  eldest  born  in  Westbrook  in  1830,  and  the 
youngest  in  Augusta  in  1855.  The  four  now 
living  are  Albion  and  Porter  in  California, 
Gulielma  in  Augusta,  and  Cora  near  Boston. 
Albion  and  Thomas  served  in  the  Civil  War 
as  third  assistant  engineers  on  gunboats  in  the 
navy. 

The  mother,  Mrs.  Joanna  Pierce  Sanborn, 
who  dietl  October  13,  1895,  was  born  in  West- 
brook, Me.,  November  29,  1810,  daughter  of 
Thomas  and  Elizabeth  (Storer)  Pierce  and  a 
descendant  in  the  seventh  generation  of  Daniel 
Pierce,  of  Newbury,  Mass.  The  Pierce  line 
is:  Daniel,'^  Benjamin,'  Thomas,^  the  Rev. 
Thomas,^  Thomas,"  Joanna.' 

Daniel'  Pierce,  the  immigrant  progenitor 
of  this  branch  of  the  Pierce  family,  joining  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  at  an  early  date, 
resided  for  three  or  four  years  in  Watertown, 
and  about  the  year  1638  removed  to  Newbury, 
Mass.,  where  he  died  in  1677. 

DanieP  Pierce  served  as  Deputy  from  New- 
bury to  Massachusetts  General  Court,  1682-83; 
member  of  the  Council  of  Safety,  1689;  Rep- 
resentative to  General  Court,  1692;  Councillor, 
1693-1703;  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  for  the  county  of  Essex,  1698-1703.  He 
was  made  Captain  of  the  NeA'bury  foot  com- 
pany, October  7,  1678,  and  appointed  Colonel 
of  the  Second  Essex  County  Regiment  soon  after 
the  organization  of  the  Provincial  government 
under  the  new  charter  in  1692.  He  died  in 
1704. 

Benjamin'  Pierce,  born  in  February,  1668-9, 
son  of  Colonel  Daniel,  resided  in  Newbury. 
He  married  Lydia  Frost  (born  in  1674),  daugh- 
ter of  Major  Charles^  Frost,  of  Kittery,  Me., 
by  his  wife,  Mary  Bolles. 

Thomas*  Pierce,  born  in  1706,  son  of  Benja- 
min and  Lydia,  married  in  February,  1732-3, 
Abigail  Frost,  born  in  1712,  daughter  of  Lieu- 
tenant Charles'  Frost  (son  of  Major  Frost)  and 
his  wife,  Sarah  Wainwright.  The  Rev.  Thomas^ 
Pierce,  born  in  Newliury  in  1737,  was  ordained 
in  Newbury  as  a  Presbyterian  minister  in  Sep- 


102 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


tember,  1762,  and  settled  as  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Scarboro,  Me.,  where  he  died  in  1775. 
Coffin  mentions  him  as  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
in  1759,  evidently  an  error,  as  his  name  is  not 
in  the  college  catalogue.  He  probably  studied 
at  Harvard  for  a  time  before  going  to  Cilouces- 
ter,  Mass.,  where  he  taught  school  previous 
to  entering  the  ministry,  and  where  he  found 
his  wife,  Anna  Haskell,  whom  he  married  in 
November,  1762.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Captain  William^  Ha.skell,  of  Gloucester,  the 
fourth  of  the  name  in  direct  line.  William' 
Haskell,  the  immigrant  progenitor,  settled  in 
Gloucester.  He  was  made  Lieutenant  of  the 
train-band  in  1661,  and  afterward  was  Cap- 
tain. In  1672  and  in  several  later  years  he 
served  as  Representative  to  General  Court. 

Thomas"  Pierce,  born  in  October,  1763,  son 
of  the  Rev.  Thomas  and  his  wife  Anna,  mar- 
ried about  1783  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Joseph 
and  Joanna  (Graves)  Storer,  of  Westbrook, 
then  Falmouth,  Me.  Of  this  union  were  born 
eleven  children,  Joanna,  who  became  the  wife 
of  Samviel  Sanborn,  as  recorded  above,  being 
the  youngest. 

Major  Charles^  Frost,  father  of  Lydia,  the 
wife  of  Benjamin  Pierce,  was  born  in  England, 
and  came  to  this  country  with  his  father,  Nich- 
olas Frost,  in  1634.  He  was  killed  by  Indians 
in  1697,  in  the  sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He 
served  as  Deputy  from  Kittery  to  Massachu- 
setts General  Court  in  1658  and  in  five  later 
years.  He  was  commissioned  Captain  in  July, 
1668;  was  made  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
military  forces  of  Maine,  with  the  title  of  Ser- 
geant Major,  in  August,  1689;  and  served  as  a 
Councillor  or  Assistant,  1693-97. 

Sarah  Wainwright,  wife  of  Lieutenant 
Charles'  Frost  and  mother  of  Abigail,  wife  of 
Thomas*  Pierce,  was  daughter  of  Captain  Simon 
Wainwright,  of  Haverhill.  Her  father  com- 
manded a  garrison  during  the  Indian  troubles, 
and  was  slain  in  an  attack  on  the  town,  August 
29,  1708.     His  wife  was  Sarah  Gilbert. 

Joseph  Storer,  of  Falmouth,  father  of  Eliza- 
beth, Miss  Sanborn's  maternal  grandmother, 
was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution.  He  enlisted 
for  three  years  in  the  latter  part  of  1776,  but 
tiled  at  Fishkill,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  in 
1777.     In  the  Revolutionary  Rolls   of   Massa- 


chusetts, in  the  State  archives,  "Joseph  Storer: 
Appears  in  a  list  of  men  raised  to  serve  in 
the  Continental  Army  from  Col.  Peter  Noyes's 
(1st  Cumberland  Co.)  regt.  Town  belonged 
to,  Falmouth.  Town  enlisted  for,  Falmouth. 
Term  of  enlistment,  3  years.  Joined  Capt. 
Blaisdeir§  co..  Col.  Wigglesworth's  regt."  (vol. 
xHii.  43  c). 

Again:  "Joseph  Storer:  Appears  with 
rank  of  Corporal  on  Continental  Army  Pay 
Accounts  of  Capt.  Smart's  co..  Col.  Smith's 
regt.,  for  service  from  Jan.  6,  1777,  to  July 
19,  1777.  Residence,  Falmouth.  Reported, 
'died.'"  (Vol.  xiii.,  part  1,  p.  152.)  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Smith  succeeded  Colonel  Wig- 
glesworth. 

Joseph  Storer  was  survived  by  his  wife  Jo- 
anna, whom  he  married  in  Falmouth  in  1764. 
Nearly  half  a  century  after  his  death,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  resolve  passed  by  the  Legislature 
of  Maine  in  March,  1835,  entitled  a  "Resolve 
in  favor  of  certain  officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  the  widows  of  the 
deceased  officers  and  soldiers,"  and  in  answer 
to  her  application  made  in  June,  1835,  Joanna 
Storer  received  a  grant  of  State  bounty  land. 
She  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety-nine  years  and 
three  months. 


J4NNE  WHITNEY,  Boston's  most  noted 
/  \  woman  sculptor,  is  a  native  of  Water- 
X  JL  town,  Mass.  The  daughter  of  Na- 
thaniel Ruggles  Whitney,  Jr.,  and  his 
wife,  vSarah  Stone,  she  was  born  on  September 
2,  1821,  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  seven  chil- 
dren. Her  father  was  a  lineal  descendant 
in  the  seventh  generation  of  John  Whitney, 
a  native  of  Westminster,  England,  who  set- 
tled in  Watertown  in  1635. 

As  revealed  by  genealogical  research,  John 
Whitney  was  the  third  son  of  Thomas  and  Mary 
(Bray)  Whitney,  and  was  baptized  July  26, 
1592.  Thomas  Whitney,  his  father,  was  buried 
in  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  April  14,  1637. 
He  was  a  son  of  Robert  Whitney  and  grand- 
son of  Sir  Robert  Whitney,  member  of  Parlia- 
ment in  1559.  "The  Ancestry  of  John  Whit- 
ney," compiled  by  Henry  Melville  and  pub- 
lished in   1896,  mentions  the  names  of  heads 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


103 


of  Whitney  families  in  England  for  fourteen 
generations,  tracing;  the  line  of  John  of  Water- 
town  and  his  father,  Thomas  of  Westminster, 
England,  back  to  a  Sir  Robert  de  Witteneye, 
living  in  1242,  who  is  spoken  of  by  Mr.  Mel- 
ville as  the  "first  historic  \Vhitney." 

From  John  Whitney,  the  English  immigrant, 
and  his  wife  Elinor,  to  Anne,  the  American 
sculptor,  the  line  was  continued  through  John, 
Jr.,^  Benjamin,'  Daniel,^  Simon,^  Nathaniel 
Ruggles,"  and  Nathaniel  Ruggles,  Jr.,'  the 
father  above  named. 

Daniel'  Whitney  married  Dorothy,  daughter 
of  Deacon  Simon  and  Joanna  (Stone)  Tainter, 
of  Watertown.  Simon'^  Whitney  marrietl  Mary 
Ruggles.  Nathaniel  Ruggles  Whitney,  born 
in  1759,  served  as  Town  Clerk  of  Watertown, 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  anil  schoolmaster.  His 
wife,  Abigail  Frothingham,  born  in  1760,  was 
a  daughter  of  James°  and  Abigail  (Bradish) 
Frothingham,  of  Charlestown,  and  aunt  to 
the  artist,  James  Frothingham,  third  of  the 
name,  born  in  1788,  who  ranked  seventy  years 
ago  as  "one  of  our  best  portrait  painters," 
being  thus  mentioned  by  Dunlap  in  1834. 

Nathaniel  R.  Whitney,  Jr.,  born  in  1782, 
married  in  1806  Sally  (or  Surah)  Stone,  who 
was  born  in  1784.  Her  father,  Jonathan  Stone, 
of  Watertown,  Miss  Whitney's  paternal  grand- 
father, was  a  descendant  in  the  fifth  genera- 
tion of  Deacon  Simon  Stone,  who  came  from 
England  with  his  wife  Joan  and  four  children 
in  the  ship  "Increa.se"  in  the  spring  of  1635, 
and,  settling  at  Watertown,  became  the  founder 
of  a  prominent  branch  of  the  Stone  family 
in  New  England.  The  record  of  the  baptism 
of  Deacon  Simon  Stone,  of  Watertown,  has 
been  found  in  the  parish  register  of  Much  Brom- 
ley, now  Great  Bromley,  Essex  County,  Eng- 
land, thus:  "1585-6,  9  Feb.,  Simond,  son  of 
Davie  Stone  &  Ursly  his  wife."  His  marriage 
record,  also  at  Much  Bromley,  is  as  follows: 
"  1616,  5  Aug.  Symond  Stone  and  Joan  Clarke." 

To  return  now  to  Miss  Whitney,  the  sculptor. 
Twenty  years  ago,  hi  a  book  on  "  Famous 
Women,"  appeared  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Anne 
Whitney,  which,  though  incomplete,  later 
biographers  and  paragraphists  writing  on  the 
same  subject  have  failed  to  surpass  in  sympa- 
thetic   flelineation   of   character   and    achieve- 


ment. "Fortunate  in  her  parentage  and  in 
her  early  training,"  says  this  sketch,  "Anne 
Whitney  passed  through  childhood  and  youth 
into  womanhood  under  most  favorable  condi- 
tions. The  simplicity  and  nobility  of  nature 
which  strongly  marked  the  parents  are  traits 
in  the  daughter,  as  are  their  individualism, 
their  strength  of  character,  their  loftiness  of 
moral  tone.  She  has  also  inherited  an  inter- 
est in  public  affairs  and  reform,  an  uncon- 
querable aversion  to  any  and  every  form  of  in- 
justice, and  a  vital  belief  in  human  betterment." 

"As  a  child  she  was  bright  and  joyous,  over- 
flowing with  animal  spirits."  In  the  school- 
room she  was  a  general  favorite.  "Said  one 
of  her  teachers,  'She  always  brought  in  with 
her  such  a  sense  of  freshness  and  purity  that 
instinctively  I  thought  of  the  coming  in  of  the 
morning.  Every  teacher  in  the  school  observed 
her,  anil  all  rejoiced  in  her.  ...  A  gentle  grav- 
ity, a  .sweet  intelligence  of  infrequent  speech, 
or  a  pervasive  kindliness  of  manner  marked 
her  intercourse  with  her  fellow-students,  it 
being  always  apparent  that  she  was  with,  but 
not  of,  them.'" 

Slowly  her  girlhood  pas.sed  into  womanhood. 
With  soul  growth  came  new  susceptibility 
to  outward  impressions,  whether  of  beauty  and 
of  joy,  or  of  sorrow  and  pain,  while  far  above 
the  possibility  of  attainment  soared  her  cher- 
ished ideals.  Fortunately  the  gift  of  expres- 
sion was  not  denied.  She  wrote  as  prompted- 
from  within,  wrote  as  the  spirit  gave  utterance. 
\  modest  volume  of  poems,  published  in  1859, 
was  the  result.  Poems  of  "remarkable  qual- 
ity," says  Mrs.  Livermore.  Not  that  they  made 
their  author  famous:  rather  may  it  be  said, 
"Fit  audience  they  found,  though  few."  It 
was  Samuel  Johnson,  himself  a  poet  in  the 
same  order,  who  wrote  of  them,  "They  send 
the  repose  of  absolute  truth  and  spiritual  in- 
tuition through  the  aspirations  and  conflicts 
of  life,  and  give  us  its  poetry  and  highest  philos- 
ophy." 

An  extended  critique,  both  admiring  and 
judicial,  appeared  in  the  North  Avierican  Re- 
view, contributed  l)y  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford. 
"The  publishers,"  she  remarks,  "did  not  give 
it  [the  book]  their  best  style.  The  advertise- 
ment   was    limited,    the    criticism    casual.  .  .  . 


104 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


'Earnest'  and  'thoughtful'  have  been  the  only 
adjectives  to  spare.  Earnest  and  thoughtful! 
What  verses,  if  otherwise,  would  deserve  a 
notice?  Was  there  no  more  to  say  for  poems 
overflowing  with  beauty,  serene  and  calm,  yet 
instinct  with  the  fire  of  a  proud,  passionate 
nature?  .  .  .  But  neither  keen  eye  nor  sym- 
pathetic h(\art  makes  a  poet.  ...  A  lyrical 
and  tlramatic  power  is  needed,  together  with 
that  sway  over  language  which  welds  a  fancy 
immutably  into  its  own  sentences.  This  last 
the  author  has  in  the  highest  degree:  every 
word  strikes  home;  every  line  is  clear,  distinct 
as  if  cut  in  stone ;  the  pen  in  her  hands  becomes 
so  like  the  sculptor's  chisel  that  one  questions 
if  poetrj'  be  the  fittest  exponent  of  her  genius. 
Her  logical  power  is  entirely  beyond  question, 
but  the  dramatic  element  is  entirely  wanting. ' ' 
"A  Last  Dream,"  the  dream  of  an  arctic  hero — 
Kane — is  characterized  as  a  "wonderful  poem, 
which  climbs  with  strong  and  stately  steps  to 
the  last  line." 

"The  'Hymn  to  the  Sea'  is  full  of  felicitous 
phrasing,  also  rich  in  picturesque  effects.  That 
this  Hymn  loses  no  jot  of  its  regal  resonance 
in  the  presence  of  its  subject,  but  interprets 
and  is  interpreted  best  there,  is  its  highest 
praise.  It  is  certainly  the  finest  single  piece 
among  the  poems,  though  'Camille'  (first  pub- 
lished in  the  Atlantic,  vol.  i.)  affects  us  more, 
from  its  warmer  hvmianity  and  the  better  de- 
veloped power  it  exhibits.  There  is  no  fault 
to  be  found  with  'Camille.'  It  is  the  work  of 
an  artist.  Its  pathos  is  unsurpassed.  .  .  .  The 
keynote  of  this  poem  is  struck  most  clearly 
in  the  fourth  stanza: — 

"  'To  .swell  some  vast  refrain  beyond  the  sun, 
The  very  weed  breathed  niiLsic  from  its  sod: 
And  night  and  day,  in  ceaseless  antiphon, 

Rolled  off  throiigh  windless  arches  in  the  broad 
Abyss.     Thou  saw'st  I  too 
Would  in  my  place  have  blent  accord  as  true, 
And  justified  this  great  enshrining,  (JodP 

"The  three  chief  faults  of  these  poems  are 
obscurity,  lack  of  euphony,  and  defect  of  ar- 
tistic polish."  However,  "there  are  no  words 
woven  to  conceal  the  absence  of  thought:  on 
the  other  hand,  the  line  teems  with  more  sig- 
nificance  than   it   can   express.  .  .  .  We   ovight 


in  justice  to  say  that  the  artist's  soul  is  keenly 
representetl,  especially  in  the  'Five  Sonnets 
Relating  to  Beauty,'  most  worthily  so  entitletl. 
In  these  the  love  of  beauty  is  a  passion.  ...  In 
beauty  is  found  the  reconciliation  of  pain  and 
jov,  the  riddle  of  the  earth,  the  secret  of  the 
sea." 

Referring  to  the  sonnets  entitled  "Niglit" 
as  "the  heart  of  the  book":  "All  through  the 
preceding  pages  has  rvm  the  golden  cord  on 
which  the.se  gay,  many-colored  beads  are  strung 
— a  pure,  high,  and  profounil  religious  love.  .  .  . 
A  truth,  never  so  keenly  felt  as  at  the  present 
day,  revolves  in  all  its  phrases  here — the  ne- 
cessity of  joy  in  faith,  the  (luintessence  of  the 
text,  'Rejoice  evermore.'  " 

Higher  attainments  in  verse  were  looked  for 
by  Miss  Whitney's  friends,  but,  so  far  as  the 
world  knows,  she  had  sung  her  last  note.  Her 
genius  called  her  in  another  direction.  A  heap 
of  wet  sand  in  the  greenhouse  responded  to 
a  thought  in  her  brain  to  which  she  at  once  sought 
to  give  visible  form.  The  success  of  this  at- 
tempt at  modelling  was  so  gratifying  that  she 
resolved  to  devote  herself  thenceforth  to  sculpt- 
ure. For  a  long  time,  in  the  absence  of  teach- 
ers, .she  was  self-taught..  Working  at  home 
in  a  studio  in  the  garden,  she  made  portrait 
busts  of  her  father  and  mother  and  of  several 
friends.  Her  first  ideal  work  was  a  statue 
in  marble  of  Lady  Godiva  of  Coventry,  a  beau- 
tiful figure.  Her  next  creation — during  the 
period  of  the  Civil  War—  was  a  symbolical 
work,  "Africa,"  a  colossal  statue  of  a  woman 
who  has  been  sleeping  for  ages,  and  is  now 
half-awakened  by  the  tramj)  of  armies,  the  roar 
of  artillery,  and  the  din  of  battle.  In  her  look 
of  startled  wonder  and  hope,  as  with  her  right 
hand  she  shades  her  eyes  from  the  too  power- 
ful light,  is  foreshadowed  the  deliverance  of 
a  race  held  in  bondage,  the  illumination  of  a 
dark  continent.  Exhibited  both  in  Boston 
and  in  New  York,  "it  received,"  says  Mrs. 
Livermore,  "some  intelligent  and  some  ex- 
travagant praise,  as  did  the  Godiva,  and  also 
much  criticism,  which  its  a\ithor  welcomed." 

Not  long  after  the  production  of  a  third 
statue,  the  "Lotos  P]ater,"  she  carried  out 
a  long-cherished  plan  of  going  abroad.  With 
her  friend  Miss  Manning,  devoted  to  another 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


105 


branch  of  art,  she  spent  four  years  in  Europe, 
studying  ancient  sculpture,  drawing,  and  mod- 
elling, chiefly  in  Rome  and  Paris.  In  this 
period  she  made  many  sketches  and  modelled 
several  statues,  among  them  the  "  Chaldean 
Astronomer,"  "Toussaint  L'Ouverture,"  and 
"Roma."  In  the  latter  Miss  Whitney  personi- 
fied the  Rome  of  Pio  Nono's  time,  "Childless 
and  crownless  in  her  voiceless  woe,"  a  beggar 
"whose  aged  and  wrinkletl  face  shows  traces 
of  early,  majestic  beauty.  She  sits  on  a  broken 
Corinthian  capital,  with  lier  head  bowed  in 
profound  reverie." 

After  her  return,  with  increased  technical 
skill,  enlarged  conceptions  of  art,  and  the  in- 
spiration born  of  years  of  contact  and  com- 
munion with  the  great  masterpieces  of  the 
world,  Miss  Whitney  resumed  her  work  in  the 
studio,  and  continued  to  design  and  motlel. 
She  executed  several  conmiissions  for  portrait 
busts,  which  gave  entire  satisfaction  to  the 
large  constituencies  interested.  Among  the.se 
were  busts  of  President  Stearns  of  Amherst 
College,  President  Walker  of  Harvard,  of  Gar- 
rison, of  the  poet  Keats,  of  Mrs.  Livermore, 
Lucy  Stone,  Alice  Freeman  Palmer,  and  many 
others.  One  of  her  best  works  is  the  statue 
of  the  Revolutionary  patriot,  Samuel  Adams, 
which  she  was  commissioned  by  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  to  execute  for  the  National  Gal- 
lery in  Washington,  D.C.  Of  this  statue  a 
reproduction  in  bronze  was  ordered  for  the 
city  of  Boston;  and,  having  been  put  in  place, 
it  gave  the  name  to  Adams  S(|uare. 

Of  later  date  is  Miss  Whitney's  portrait 
statue  of  Harriet  Martineau,  representing  her 
in  the  prime  of  life,  sitting  in  a  garden  chair, 
her  face  raised,  her  thought  far-reaching.  This 
statue  was  exhibited  in  Boston  in  1888,  and 
is  now  at  Wellesley  College. 

An  ideal  figure  in  bronze,  commended  as 
a  "work  of  rare  genius  in  physical  detail,"  and 
a  "notable  addition  to  the  put:)lic  decorations 
of  the  city"  of  Boston,  is  that  of  Leif  l<]ric.son, 
standing  on  the  edge  of  Back  Bay  Fens,  just 
beyond  Commonwealth  Avenue  parkway. 
The  dedication  of  this  statue,  on  October  29, 
1887,  was  an  occasioii  of  rare  interest.  At 
a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  ])resided  over  by 
Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  a  scholarlv  address 


relating   to  the  Norscnicn  and   their  tliscover- 
ies  was  given  by  Professor  E.  N.  Horsford. 

The  statue  of  Leif  Ericson  is  of  heroic  size. 
It  stands  on  a  pedestal  of  red  sandstone,  being 
about  eighteen  feet  in  height.  The  figure  is 
symbolical.  It  represents  a  youth  gazing  ea- 
gerly at  the  distant  horizon,  his  left  hand  par- 
tially shading  his  eyes,  not  from  the  light  on 
sea  or  land  to-tlay,  but  from  the  glory  of  the 
futui'e,  as  he  dimly  forecasts  the  events  of  com- 
ing centuries  in  the  new  land  that  meets  his 
vision.  The  inscription  on  one  side  of  the 
pedestal,  giving  the  date  of  the  voyage  of  Leif 
the  tliscoverer,  is  in  runic  characters.  On 
the  opposite  side  it  is  in  English.  A  replica 
of  this  statue  is  in  Milwaukee  on  the  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan. 

A  later  production,  a  statue  of  Charles  Sum- 
ner, in  sitting  posture,  completed  about  three 
years  ago,  has  received  the  recognition  of 
critics.     It  is  in  Cambridge. 

St' 11  more  recent  is  a  bronze  fountain  in 
memory  of  a  woman  of  rare  beauty  of  character 
— Mrs.  Catherine  Lambert — which  was  put  in 
place  in  West  Newton  in  September,  1903.  A 
HI}'  held  in  the  upraised  hands  of  a  sturdy 
little  cherub  is  the  cup  whence  issues  the  spark- 
ling spray. 

Mi.ss  \Vhitney  took  up  her  residence  in  Bo.s- 
ton  in  1872.  For  a  number  of  years  she  had 
her  home  and  her  studio  at  92  Mount  Vernon 
Street.  She  is  now  in  the  locality  designated 
as  the  "New  Back  Bay,"  where,  in  a  smaller 
studio  than  the  former  one,  the  sculptor's 
chi.sel  still  displacing  the  long-discarded  pen, 
her  high  poetic  thought  continues  to  find  its 
truest  expression.  m.  h.  g. 


BARONESS  ROSE  POSSE,  director  of 
the  Posse  Gymnasium,  Boston,  is  suc- 
cessfully carrying  on  the  work  begim 
by  her  late  husband.  Baron  Posse. 
Her  maiden  name  was  Rose  Moore  Smith. 
Born  in  Newburyport,  Mass.,  the  daughter  of 
Foster  W.  and  Catherine  M.  (Ballou)  Smith, 
she  is  descended  from  good  old  Engli.sh  stock, 
which,  we  are  told,  has  been  tracetl  back  to 
the  time  of  Cromwell.  Her  paternal  grand- 
father, Foster  Smitli,  who  married  Jane  Ger- 


106 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


rish,  was  a  merchant  in  Newburyport,  Mass. 
He  was  bom  in  Thornton,  N.H.,  in  1791,  a  son 
of  Stephen  and  Betsy  (Gerrish)  Smith.  The 
Gerrish  family,  to  which  his  mother  and  his 
wife  belonged,  was  founded  by  Captain  William' 
Gerrish,  who  came  to  Newbury,  Mass.,  with 
Percival  Lowle  (Lowell).  Stephen  Smith, 
father  of  Foster,  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. His  name  is  on  the  Revolutionary  Rolls 
of  New  Hampshire. 

Baroness  Posse's  maternal  grandparents  were 
John  and  Catherine  (Moore)  Ballou  (name 
legally  changed  from  Bullough),  the  grand- 
mother belonging  to  the  Moore  family  of  Sud- 
bury, Mass.,  dating  from  early  colonial  times. 
John  Ballou  was  son  of  Joseph  and  Abigail 
(Symmes)  Bullough,  of  Newton,  Mass.  Joseph 
Bullough  is  spoken  of  in  Vinton's  "Symmes 
Memorial"  as  "a  native  of  England  and  a  man 
of  large  property."  Abigail  Symmes,  whom 
he  married  in  1774  (Mnton),  was  daughter 
of  Zechariah^  Synnnes,  of  Charlcstown.  Her 
father  was  son  of  the  Rev.  Thomas'  Symmes 
and  great-grandson  of  the  Rev.  Zechariah' 
Symmes  (a  graduate  of  Emmanuel  College, 
Cambridge  University),  who  came  to  New 
England  in  1634,  and  was  for  many  years 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Charlestown. 

Rose  M.  Smith  was  educated  in  the  Newbury- 
port public  schools  and  at  the  State  Normal 
School  in  Salem.  After  her  graduation  she 
taught  Latin  and  French  in  a  fashionable  pri- 
vate school  in  Philadelphia  until  her  marriage. 
Possessing  an  excellent  contralto  voice,  she 
gave  much  time  to  music,  and  studied  under 
leading  teachers  in  this  country  and  abroad. 
While  in  Philadelphia  she  sang  in  one  of  the 
church  choirs,  and  after  removing  to  Boston 
sang  in  one  of  the  churches  until  1900.  During 
the  summer  of  1885  she  travelled  in  Europe  for 
pleasure,  and  it  was  in  England  that  she  first 
met  Baron  Posse,  who  was  on  his  way  to  Amer- 
ica. The  friendship  then  begun  was  continued 
in  this  country,  and  in  1887  they  were  married 
and  settled  in  Boston. 

Baron  Nils  Posse,  K.G.V.,  M.G.,  born  in 
Stockholm  in  1862,  came  of  a  noble  Swedish 
family  whose  history  dates  l^ack  fully  one 
thousand  years.  His  father  was  Baron  Knut 
Henrik  Posse,  K.S.,  Governor  of  the  Artillery 


and  Engineering  School  of  the  Swedish  army 
and  Major  of  the  First  Field  Artillery.  His 
mother  was  Lady  Sophia  Lilliestrole,  of  an- 
cient Swedish  nobility.  In  1880  he  was  grad- 
uated from  a  Swedish  college  with  a  degree  equiv- 
alent to  Bachelor  of  Science  in  America,  and 
fourteen  months  later  was  graduated  with  high 
honors  from  the  Military  Academy.  Brevetted 
by  the  King  as  a  Lieutenant  in  the  Life  Grena- 
diers in  1881,  he  was  transferred  to  the  Field 
Artillery  with  the  same  rank  in  1883.  While 
in  the  army  he  took  his  first  yearly  course  at 
the  Royal  Gynmastic  Central  Institute,  com- 
pleting his  training  at  the  expiration  of  his 
military  service,  and  receiving  his  diploma  in 
1885.  In  1884  he  was  assistant  in  the  Medico- 
Gymnastic  Department  of  the  Institute,  also 
an  instructor  in  the  Stockholm  Gymnastic  and 
Fencing  Club;  and  from  1881  to  1885  he  was 
an  active  member  in  the  Stockholm  Gymnastic 
Association,  the  leading  organization  of  its 
kind  in  that  country.  Before  he  left  Sweden 
he  was  an  instructor  in  the  army  as  well  as  in 
the  public  schools. 

Coming  to  America  in  1885,  he  settled  per- 
manently in  Boston,  and  for  three  years  prac- 
tised medical  gymnastics  exclusively.  The  out- 
growth of  a  normal  class  in  Swedish  gymnastics, 
of  which  he  was  asked  to  take  charge  in  1886, 
is  the  Boston  Normal  School  of  Gymnastics, 
for  whose  estal^lishment  he  was  largely  indebted 
to  the  assistance  of  Mrs.  Mary  Hemenway,  the 
well-known  philanthropist.  Of  this  school  the 
Baron  was  director  until  January  1,  1890. 

In  February,  1890,  he  opened  a  gymnasium 
of  his  own  in  the  Harcourt  Building,  on  Irving- 
ton  Street.  This  was  the  small  beginning  of 
the  Posse  Gynmasium,  which  at  the  time  of 
the  founder's  death  had  over  five  hundred 
pupils,  and,  with  its  three  departments,  peda- 
gogical, educational,  and  medico-gymnastic, 
its  complete  apparatus  and  appointments, 
adapted  to  Swedish  and  other  forms  of  gym- 
nastics, anthropometric  e.xercises,  fencing,  danc- 
ing, anil  so  forth,  and  its  comprehensive  cur- 
riculum, has  come  to  be  recognized  as  one  of 
the  finest  in  the  country.  His  useful  activities, 
however,  were  not  confined  to  the  gymnasium. 
He  not  only  found  time  to  make  translations 
from  famous  Swedish  authors  on  gymnastics 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


107 


and  kindred  subjects  and  contribute  articles 
to  papers  and  magazines,  but  wrote  several 
valuable  text-books  on  physical  education, 
among  these  being  "  Special  Kinesiology  of 
Educational  Gynmastics,"  "Handbook  of 
School  Gymnastics,"  "The  Scientific  Aspect  of 
Swedish  Gymnastics,"  "Columl)ian  Essays  on 
Swedish  Gymnastics,"  "Medical  Gymnastics." 

The  Journal  of  Education,  in  a  notice  of  one 
of  his  books,  spoke  of  Baron  Posse  as  having 
come  to  this  country  bringing  the  gospel  of 
the  Ling  system  of  educational  gynmastics, 
and  said,  "  We  do  not  recall  any  man  of  any 
land  who  has  taken  sucli  a  hold  of  the  teachers 
and  friends  of  education  in  Boston  as  has 
Baron  Nils  Posse.  Through  his  judicious,  un- 
ostentatious introduction  of  physical  culture, 
that  subject  has  been  advanced  as  far  in  a  few 
months  as  manual  training,  for  instance,  in  as 
many  years." 

In  1890-91  Baron  Posse  was  lecturer  on  medi- 
cal gymnastics  to  the  McLean  Asylum  and  in 
1890  to  the  New  England  Hospital  for  Women. 
He  w  as  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Physical 
Education;  and  at  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position in  Chicago  he  was  vice-president  of 
the  Congress  of  Physical  Education,  also  Swed- 
ish Commissioner  of  the  Tourists'  Dei)artnient, 
Gynmastics  and  Sports,  and  was  awarded 
medals  for  his  method  of  instruction.  Boston 
honored  him  similarly  in  1892,  and  Antwerp 
in  1894.  In  October,  1893,  he  was  placetl  in 
charge  of  the  medico-gymnastic  clinic  in  the 
Boston  Dispensary. 

On  May  15,  1895,  his  thirty-third  birthday, 
he  received  from  the  King  of  Sweden  a  decora- 
tion of  a  class  never  before  issued  to  so  young 
a  man — that  of  Knight  of  Gustavus  Vasa, 
which  is  bestowed  only  on  those  who  have 
brought  honor  to  their  native  land  through 
special  merit  or  industry. 

His  untimely  death,  December  18,  1895, 
from  thrombus,  the  result  of  u  long  periotl  of 
over-taxation  of  his  strength,  occasioneil  wide- 
spread sorrow,  and  calleti  forth  many  warm 
appreciations  of  his  work  and  character.  Said 
the  Boston  Journal:  "  Baron  Nils  Posse  was  of 
the  type  of  nobleman  that  America  likes  best. 
He  was  an  earnest  and  successful  worker,  and 


leaves  behind  a  record  of  having  accomplished 
something  and  of  having  done  the  world  some 
good,  and  both  through  his  own  individual 
efforts." 

The  estimate  of  one  who  knew  him  appeared 
in  the  Herald,  in  part  as  follows:  "To  every 
life  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  he  was  a 
source  of  inspiration  and  courage.  Such  kind- 
ness was  mixed  with  his  sterling  qualities,  in- 
tegrity, fearlessness,  and  steadfastness,  that  he 
won  and  held  the  deepest  heart  affection,  as 
well  as  the  highest  respect  of  all  who  knew  him 
peisonally.  He  had  spent  only  ten  short  years 
of  professional  work,  but  those  years  marked 
achievement  sufficient  for  a  lifetime." 

Baroness  Posse,  who  was  attending  RadciifTe 
College,  at  once  gave  uj)  her  studies  and  assumed 
the  management  of  the  gymnasium,  her  one 
idea  being  that  her  husband's  life-work  must 
be  carried  on.  The  pupils,  when  they  returned 
from  their  Christmas  vacation,  fintling  her  in 
charge,  showed  their  loj^alty  by  remaining. 
The  alumni  and  friends  of  the  school  foinied 
themselves  into  the  Posse  Memorial  Associa- 
tion. Their  object  was  to  purchase  the  name 
and  good  will  of  the  Posse  Gymnasium,  to  re- 
organize it,  and  to  incorporate  it  under  the 
name  of  the  Posse  Institute  of  Gynmastics. 
They  were  to  raise  a  sum  of  money  sufficient  to 
place  the  school  on  a  firm  basis,  its  future  wel- 
fare to  be  guarded  by  a  board  of  trustees. 

During  that  summer  Baroness  Posse  took 
her  husband's  remains  to  Sweden.  She  re- 
turned in  August  to  find  the  affairs  of  the  Memo- 
rial A,ssociation  in  a  chaotic  condition  and  a 
certain  faction  talking  of  opening  an  iutlepen- 
(lent  school.  After  brief  (leliljeration  she  de- 
cided to  continue  the  school  under  her  own 
management.  In  the  two  weeks  that  inter- 
vened before  it  was  to  open,  an  almost  incred- 
ible amount  of  work  was  acconiplisheil ;  new 
teachers  were  engagetl  and  some  of  the  old  ones 
re-engaged,  and  the  gymnasium  itself  was  put 
in  repair.  On  the  day  and  hour  appointed,  the 
rc-organized  school  opened  with  the  largest 
senior  class  on  record,  anel  a  large  entering 
class.  The  Memorial  Association  clevoted  the 
larger  portion  uf  the  funds  in  the  treasury  to 
erecting  a  monument  over  Baron  Po.sse's  grave 
in   Stockholm,    Sweden.     The   balance   of   the 


108 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


money  was  spent  in  purchasing  a  picture  which 
was  hung  in  the  gynniasium.  The  school  con- 
tinued under  the  new  management  with  unvaried 
success  until  the  fall  of  1900,  when  the  old 
rooms  on  Irvington  Street  were  exchanged  for 
new  and  improved  cjuarters  at  206  Massachu- 
setts Avenue.  The  continued  success  of  the 
gymnasium  is  proof  of  the  executive  ability  of 
its  manager,  who  for  over  seven  years  has 
carried  on  the  work  with  such  results  as  to 
maintain  the  reputation  first  established  of 
being  one  of  the  leading  normal  schools  of 
Swedish  gymnastics  in  the  country.  Every 
graduate  of  this  school  is  now  occupying  a  good 
position. 

Baroness  Posse  is  also  interested  in  litei'ary 
and  philanthropic  work  and  in  nuisic.  Since 
December,  1892,  she  has  edited  the  Posse  G^jm- 
nasium  Jourrial,  which  is  the  only  paper  of  the 
sort  in  the  country,  and  has  been  self-supporting 
from  the  start.  This  paper  has  been  conducted 
under  her  sole  management  for  over  ten  years. 
It  is  taken  by  most  of  the  State  university 
libraries,  and  it  has  subscribers  in  England, 
France,  Germany,  and  Sweden.  The  Baroness 
has  delivered  lectures  liefore  leading  educational 
societies  and  clubs  in  Boston  and  suburbs.  Al 
one  time  she  gave  a  talk  on  Swedish  Gymnastics 
before  an  educational  body  in  London.  For 
years  she  held  an  office  in  the  Working  Girls' 
Club,  to  which  she  devoted  much  time.  She 
also  assisted  in  college  settlement  work. 

For  a  number  of  years  she  was  the  ])resident 
of  the  Literary  Club  of  the  Posse  Gynmasium, 
a  club  composed  of  about  four  hundred  mem- 
bers, which  gave  several  plays  with  success. 
She  has  served  on  various  educational  conunit- 
tees,  and  was  first  vice-president  of  the  Boston 
Physical  Education  Society  from  1896  to  1900, 
when  she  resigned  to  accept  the  office  of  secre- 
tary of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Physical  Education.  She  has 
recently  been  appointed  vice-president  of  the 
Physical  Education  Department  of  the  National 
Education  Association.  For  several  years  she 
was  chairman  of  the  Hygiene  Committee  of 
the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union. 
She  is  a  member  of  the  Longwood  Cricket  CIuli, 
of  the  Commonwealth  Golf  Club,  in  which  she 
held  offices,  and  is  vice-president  of  the  Mas- 


sachusetts Medical  Gymnastic  Society.  The 
Baroness  is  very  popular  socially,  and  has  a 
large  circle  of  friends. 


A  NNIE    ANDROS    HAWLEY,    librettist 

/\  and  musical  composer,  the  wife  of 
X  A.  George  Hawley,  was  born  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  being  the  daughter  of 
Henry  Sanford  and  Adelaide  Eleanor  (Little) 
Andros.  On  her  father's  side  she  is  descended 
from  the  well-known  Andros  family  of  Connecti- 
cut, one  of  her  direct  ancestors  having  been 
Benjamin  Andros,  of  Norwich,  who  was  prom- 
inent in  State  and  town  affairs  about  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Mrs.  Hawley's  musical  talent  comes  by  in- 
heritance from  both  her  parents.  Her  father, 
the  late  Henry  Andros,  was  endowed  by  nature 
with  a  rarely  sweet  tenor  voice,  and  was,  more- 
over, a  thorough  musician  by  education  and 
training.  For  thirty  consecutive  years  he  filled 
the  position  of  choirmaster  of  St.  Peter's  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Cambridge,  being  the  incum- 
bent of  that  position  until  within  two  years  of 
the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  suddenly 
in  August,  1902. 

Mrs.  Hawley's  mother  is  a  grand-daughter  of 
Captain  Abraham  Shackleton,  of  Nottinghanr, 
England,  who  was  an  officer  in  the  Oxford 
Blues,  and  fought  under  Wellington  at  the 
battle  of  Waterloo.  An  accomplished  musician, 
Mrs.  Andros  has  been  organist  at  St.  Peter's 
ever  since  her  hasband  began  his  directorship, 
and  since  his  death  has  filled  the  dual  office  of 
organist  and  chorister.  She  is  also  a  teacher 
of  sight  reading  and  harmony,  and  a  successful 
trainer  of  men's  voices. 

Mrs.  Hawley's  native  musical  talent  was 
carefully  fostered  by  her  parents,  she  receiving 
from  an  early  age  competent  instruction  in 
vocal  and  instrumental  music  as  well  as  in 
harmony.  Her  general  education  was  obtained 
in  the  public  schools  of  Cambridge  and  at 
Radcliffe  College,  which  she  entered  soon  after 
graduating  from  the  English  High  School. 
Her  literary  ability  was  early  displayed  in  the 
writing  of  lyrics,  which  were  soon  followed  by 
the  words  and  nmsic  of  plays.  The  first  work 
by  which  she  became  publicly  known  was  a 


CLARA    E.  GAHV 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


109 


musical  comedy  entitled  "The  Dove's  Supper," 
which  was  first  given  at  the  Bijou  Theatre 
in  1896.  This  was  afterward  enlai'ged  and 
changed  to  "A  Social  Escapade,"  and  given  at 
the  Tremont  Theatre.  Some  of  her  most  at- 
tractive songs  have  been  widely  sung  by  some 
of  the  best  known  comic  opera  stars  before  the 
public.  "The  Potentate,"  a  comic  opera  of 
which  she  wrote  the  libretto,  lyrics,  and  music, 
was  chosen  by  the  Algonquin  Club  of  Brockton 
out  of  fifty  submitted  to  them  for  production 
in  February,  1903.  The  piece  was  given  a 
large  and  costly  production,  and  received 
much  enthusiastic  commendation.  The  num- 
ber of  comic  opera  writers  has  long  been  so 
small  that  for  a  number  of  years  all  the  comic 
0]ieras  produced  have  been  the  work  of  a  very 
few  men.  Thus  enterprising  managers  hail 
with  delight  the  advent  of  this  young  authoress 
and  composer.  Her  work  is  attracting  the  at- 
tention of  some  of  the  most  prominent  mana- 
gers in  the  country. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hawley  reside  in  Winchester. 

Mr.  Hawley  is  a  choir  director  of  Boston,  and 
himself  a  fine  singer.  For  a  mmiber  of  years 
previous  to  her  marriage,  which  took  place  in 
April,  1897,  Mrs.  Hawley  played  'cello  in  the 
"Fadettes"  (women's  orchestra),  and  she  is 
still  a  valued  member  of  that  organization, 
though  her  many  duties  deter  her  from  often 
playing  with  them.  She  possesses  a  rich  so- 
prano voice,  and  is  an  advanced  pui)il  of  Mme. 
Gertrude  Franklin  Salisbury.  She  has  done 
much  church  and  concert  singing,  and  her 
voice  has  both  flexibility  and  compass.  She 
is,  without  doubt,  the  only  womrm  before  the 
public  who  is  both  a  librettist  and  a  musical 
composer.  With  her  ambition,  talent,  and  in- 
dustry, a  brilliant  future  seems  to  be  assured 
her. 


CLARA  EMERETTE  GARY-vM.D.,  was 
born  in  Mitldlesex,  Vt.,  a  daughter  of 
Ephraim  and  Sarah  A.  (Robinson) 
Gary.  When  she  was  six  years  old, 
her  parents  removed  from  Middlesex  to  Mont- 
pelier,  \"t.,  eight  miles  distant,  where  she  spent 
her  childhood  days.  At- an  early  age  she  gave 
evidence  of  her  mental  bent,  prophetic  of  her 


future  career,  manifesting  a  great  interest  in 
medical  and  surgical  subjects,  experimenting 
on  the  broken  legs  of  fowls,  and  improving  every 
opportunity  of  gaining  a  knowledge  of  the  heal- 
ing processes  of  nature.  She  was  educated  in 
the  public  schools  of  Montpelier,  including  the 
high  school,  and  at  the  Montpelier  Seminary. 
In  accortlance  with  the  desire  of  her  parents, 
she  then  engaged  in  teaching,  but  after  a  while, 
having  become  dissatisfied  with  her  acquire- 
ments, she  entered  the  School  of  Cognate  Lan- 
guages at  Morgan  Park,  near  Chicago,  111., 
where  she  studied  untler  the  direction  of  Profes- 
sor W.  R.  Harper,  now  the  President  of  Chicago 
University. 

About  this  time  occurred  the  death  of  her 
father  and  eldest  brother,  William  H.  Gary, 
and  under  the  severe  mental  strain  occasioned 
by  the  double  bereavement  her  health  gave  way, 
anil  she  was  prostrated  by  a  severe  illness. 
Naturally  of  a  frail  physique,  she  was  left  in  an 
impaired  condition,  which  finally  resulted  in 
lameness,  compelling  her  to  use  a  crutch.  Ac- 
tive and  sensitive  in  her  temperament,  she  was 
led  through  this  cause  to  desire  to  occupy  her 
mind  and  time  with  some  clearly  defined  work 
pertaining  to  the  good  of  others.  Fearing  op- 
position on  account  of  her  health,  she  secretly  con- 
sulted with  her  brother,  Frank  E.  H.  Gary,  Esq., 
and  at  his  request  entered  in  1882  the  Boston 
I'niversity  School  of  Metlicine,  from  which  she 
was  gratluated  in  1885.  In  1884  she  received  an 
appointment  as  house  surgeon  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Homoeopathic  Hospital,  being  the  first 
woman  who  had  that  honor;  and  she  was  acting 
in  this  capacity  at  the  time  of  her  graduation. 
In  the  meanwhile  her  health  and  strength  im- 
proved untler  the  skilful  care  and  guidance  of 
Dr.  Conrad  Wesselhoeft  and  Dr.  J.  Heber 
Smith. 

In  September,  1885,  she  openeil  her  first 
office  at  767  Tremont  Street,  Boston.  Here 
the  early  struggles  of  her  practice  commenced. 
She  kept  in  touch  with  college  anil  ilispeii- 
sary  work,  holding  the  positions  of  pharmacist 
to  the  dispensary  and  physician  to  one  of  the 
children's  clinics.  Becoming  very  much  inter- 
ested in  el(>ctricity  as  applied  to  medicine,  she 
entered  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology for  study  of  the  science,  in  order  to  lay 


110 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


a  good  foundation  for  work  in  that  line,  attend- 
ing the  lectures  outside  of  her  office  hours. 
Afterward  she  studied  electricity  as  applied  to 
medicine  under  Dr.  Rockwell  in  the  Post- 
graduate School  of  New  York  City.  In  1888 
she  removed  her  office  to  546  Columbus  Avenue, 
Boston,  where  she  continued  her  work  as  a 
general  practitioner  and  electrotherapeutist 
for  twelve  years.  At  the  end  of  that  periotl 
the  death  of  her  mother,  to  whom  she  was 
devotedly  attached,  so  affected  her  health 
that  she  felt  compelled  to  temporarily  relin- 
quish her  practice.  8he  then  went  to  Europe 
for  the  double  purpose  of  recuperating  and 
of  studying  more  deeply  the  science  of  elec- 
trotherapeutics. The  latter  object  was  ac- 
complished under  Dr.  Planet,  of  Paris,  France, 
the  skilled  assistant  of  the  late  Dr.  Apostle, 
and  in  the  large  hospital  at  Vienna.  When  she 
returned  to  Boston,  .she  removed  her  office  to 
"The  Marlborough,"  416  Marlborough  Street, 
where  she  is  now  practising. 

Dr.  Gary  has  occupied  in  the  Boston  Univer- 
sity School  of  Metlicine  the  positions  of  demon- 
strator in  anatomy  and  lecturer  in  osteology 
and  electrotherapeutics.  She  is  a  member  of 
the  National  Society  of  Electrotherapeutists, 
of  which  she  has  served  as  secretary  in  1894, 
second  vice-president  in  1895,  first  vice-presi- 
dent in  1896,  and  presitlent  in  1897.  She  is 
a  member  of  the  American  Institute  of  Home- 
opathy, Massachusetts  Homoeopathic  Medical  So- 
ciety, Massachusetts  Surgical  and  Gynecologi- 
cal Society,  Boston  Homceopathic  Medical  Soci- 
ety, and  La  Socicte  Fran^aise  d'Electrotherapie 
et  de  Radiologic,  Paris,  France.  In  nearly 
all  of  these  societies  she  has  held  official  posi- 
tions. 

Dr.  Gary  is  also  a  member  of  many  social  or- 
ganizations, and  has  written  many  articles  and 
papers  bearing  upon  medical  and  scientific  sub- 
jects. It  is  hardly  needful  to  say  that  one  of 
her  greatest  delights  is  in  helping  women  less 
fortunate  than  herself.  In  religious  affiliations 
she  is  a  Baptist,  having  united  at  the  very  early 
age  of  fourteen  with  the  First  Baptist  Church 
of  Montpelier,  Vt.,  a  church  which  her  father 
and  mother  were  largely  instrumental  in  estab- 
lishing. She  is  now  a  member  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  Clarendon  Street,  Boston. 


E  FLORENCE  BARKER,  the  first  Pres- 
ident of  the  National  Woman's  Relief 
,  Corps  (elected  in  July,  1883),  was  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  a  resident 
of  Maiden,  Mass.,  where. .she  died  September  11, 
1897.  She  was  the  daughter  of  William  A. 
and  Mary  J.  (Skinner)  AVhittredge,  was  born  in 
LynnfieUl,  Mass.,  March  29,  1840,  and  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  school  of  Lynnfield  and  at 
the  academy  in  Thetford,  Vt. 

On  June  18,  1863,  she,  then  E.  Florence 
Whittredge,  became  the  wife  of  Colonel  Thomas 
Erskine  Barker,  of  Gilmanton,  N.H.,  he  being 
on  a  furlough,  recovering  from  wounds  received 
in  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville.  In  July  of 
the  same  year  Colonel  Barker  was  able  to  re- 
sume command  of  his  regiment,  the  Twelfth 
New  Hampshire.  His  bride  joined  him  in 
August  at  Point  Lookout,  Md.,  and  remained  at 
the  front  until  the  following  April.  Her  tent 
was  tastefully  decorated,  and  was  a  cheerful 
rendezvous  for  the  officers.  This  experience 
gained  of  camp  life  during  wartime  increased 
her  regard  for  the  ITnion  soldiers,  whom  she 
so  often  met  in  camp  and  hospitals,  for  Mrs. 
Barker  was  intensely  patriotic. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
Barker  settled  in  Maiden,  Mass.  When  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  was  formed,  Mrs. 
Barker  became  deeply  interested  in  its  success. 
She  joined  Major-general  H.  G.  Berry  Relief 
Corps,  auxiliary  to  Post  No.  40,  G.  A.  R.,  in 
May,  1879,  and  served  as  its  President  four 
years  in,succe.ssion.  At  the  convention  of  the 
Department  of  Massachusetts  W.  R.  C.  in  1880 
she  was  elected  Department  Senior  Vice-Presi- 
dent, and  in  1881  was  re-elected.  She  was 
chosen  Department  President  the  following 
year,  and  filled  the  office  so  acceptably  that 
she  was  re-elected  in  1883. 

Eighteen  cor})s  were  instituted  during  her 
administration.  While  presiding  over  the  State 
convention  in  Boston,  January,  1883,  she  had 
the  pleasure  of  welcoming  Paul  Van  Der  Voort, 
of  Omaha,  Neb.,  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  other  promi- 
nent comrades.  That  the  eloquent  manner  in 
which  Mrs.  Barker  reviewed  the  work  and  princi- 
ples of  the  )\'onian's  Relief  Corps  impressed  the 
commander-in-chief  with  the  value  of  such  an 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


111 


auxiliary  is  witnessed  by  the  following,  which 
he  officially  promulgated  in  a  general  order 
dated  February  16,  1883:— 

"The  commander-in-chief  is  delighted  to 
learn  that  the  loyal  women  of  the  land  are  form- 
ing auxiliary  societies  everywhere.  The  grand 
work  done  by  these  organizations  is  worthy  of 
the  highest  praise. 

"The  Woman's  Relief  Corps  of  Massachusetts 
is  hereby  particularly  mentioned  on  account  of 
its  perfect  organization  and  the  work  it  has 
accomplished.  The  President  of  the  same, 
Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker,  of  Maiden,  Mass.,  will 
be  happy  to  furnish  information. 
"  By  commantl  of 
"Paul  Van  Der  Voort, 

"  Commander-in-chiej . 
"F.  E.  Brown,  Adjutant-general." 

In  general  orders  issued  May  1,  1883,  an- 
nouncing the  arrangements  for  the  Seventeenth 
National  Encampment,  to  be  held  in  Denver, 
Col.,  July  24-28,  Commander-in-chief  Van  Der 
Voort  cordially  invited  representatives  of  the 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  and  othej-  societies  work- 
ing for  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Rejjublic  to  meet 
at  Denver  and  perfect  a  national  organization, 
adding:  "They  should  bring  their  rituals,  rules, 
by-laws,  and  plans  of  organization,  and  if  pos- 
sible agree  on  a  uniform  mode  or  system  of 
procedure  throughout  the  country.  I  pledge 
the  noble  women  who  compose  these  societies 
that  they  will  be  warmly  greeted  and  given  all 
the  encouragement  possil)le.  Miss  Clara  Barton 
has  promised  to  be  present." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 
Department  of  Mas.sachusetts,  W.  R.  C,  held 
in  Boston,  June  27,  1SS3,  Mrs.  E.  Florence 
Barker,  Mrs.  Sarah  E.  Fuller,  and  Mrs.  Liza- 
beth  A.  Turner  were  chosen  delegates  to  repre- 
sent this  department  at  the  convention  in 
Denver.  It  was  voted  that  the  Department  of 
New  Hampshire  be  invited  to  unite  with  Massa- 
chusetts in  sending  delegates. 

Mrs.  Barker  presided  with  grace  and  tact 
over  the  deliberations  of  the  women's  con- 
vention at  Denver,  which  was  attended  by 
delegates  from  several  States.  At  the  sec- 
ond day's  session  it  was  voted  to  form  a  Na- 


tional Woman's  Relief  Corps  on  the  same 
basis  as  that  of  the  Department  of  Massachu- 
setts, provided  the  National  Encampment  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  shoukl  decide 
to  recognize  this  action.  Several  of  the 
delegates  present  refused  to  endorse  the 
clause  in  the  rules  and  regulations  admitting 
to  membership  other  women  than  relations  of 
soldiers. 

This  clause  also  caused  a  lengthy  discussion 
in  the  National  Encampment  when  the  resolu- 
tion of  endorsement  was  debated,  for  several 
conu'ades  who  believed  in  a  woman's  national 
organization  opposed  any  movement  in  its  be- 
half that  would  not  restrict  the  membership 
to  relations  of  soldiers. 

Past  Conunantler-in-chief  George  S.  Merrill, 
of  Massachusetts,  said :  "  We  certainly,  com- 
rades of  the  Grand  .\rmy  of  the  Republic, 
cannot  afford  to  do  anything  that  can  by  any 
possible  means  be  construetl  as  discourteous 
or  hostile  to  any  of  the  loyal  women  of  America." 

Comrade  William  Warner,  of  Missouri  (since 
Commander-in-chief),  participated  in  the  de- 
bate, saying  in  part :  "  I  come  from  a  State  that 
has  no  organization,  and  that  has  no  interest 
in  any  differences  between  the  various  organi- 
zations. I  come  from  a  State  in  which  there 
does  not  breathe  a  loyal  man  who  does  not  ex- 
tend the  right  hantl  of  welcome  to  every  sister, 
mother,  or  sweetheart  within  her  borders, 
whose  heart  beats  in  sympathy  with  us." 

The  resolution  which  was  offered  by  Chap- 
lain-in-chief Foster  was  atlopted,  namely:  "That 
we  cordially  h:iil  the  organization  of  a  National 
Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  extend  our  greeting 
to  them.  We  return  our  warmest  thanks  to 
the  loyal  women  of  the  land  for  their  earnest 
support  and  encouragement,  and  bid  them 
Gotl-speed  in  their  patriotic  work." 

A  messenger  was  sent  to  the  W.  R.  C.  Con- 
vention with  an  invitation  for  its  members  to 
attend  the  installation  of  officers  of  the  G.  A.  R., 
and  the  meeting  was  adjouinetl  at  noon  until 
three  o'clock  p.m.  Proceeding  to  the  Tabor 
Opera  House,  the  delegates  were  officially  noti- 
fied of  the  vote  of  endorsement.  Robert  B. 
Beath,  of  Philadelphia,  the  historian  of  the 
G.  A.  R.,  was  installed  as  Commander-in-chief, 
and,  upon  assuming  the  office  and  addressing 


112 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  encampment,  he  said:  "I  have  not  been 
able  to  enter  into  the  details  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  Ladies'  Aid  Society  by  the  good  ladies 
who  have  assembled  in  this  city  of  Denver  for 
this  purpose;  but,  whatever  they  shall  do  that 
tends  to  perpetuate  the  great  humane  work 
of  the  \yar,  that  has  now  devolved  on  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  and  upon  all  their  wives 
and  sisters  and  friends,  I  can  assure  them  of 
my  most  hearty  support." 

The  auxiliary  also  received  a  cordial  welcome 
from  other  speakers,  among  them  General  John 
A.  Logan,  who  said:  "I  was  once  a  sufferer  on 
a  battle-held  and  long  afterward  in  a  hospital, 
and  every  morn  I  coukl  feel  as  if  a  silver  cord 
was  twined  aroimd  a  capstan  in  the  region  of 
glory  and  reached  to  my  heart,  where  it  was 
anchored  by  the  hand  of  woman.  I  thank 
God  that  he  has  brought  to  the  front  this  aux- 
iliary; that  there  was  mind  enough,  charity 
enough,  generosity  enough,  to  bring  into  ex- 
istence the  Woman's  Relief  Corps." 

The  convention,  upon  reassemljling,  voted  to 
hold  its  annual  sessions  on  the  date  and  in  the 
city  chosen  by  the  National  Encampment, 
G.  A.  R.,  and  then  elected  officers  for  the  en- 
suing year,  namely:  President,  E.  Florence 
Barker,  Maiden,  Mass. ;  Senior  Vice-President, 
Kate  B.  Sherwood,  Toledo,  Ohio;  Junior  Vice- 
President,  E.  K.  Stimson,  Denver,  Col. ;  Sec- 
retary, Sarah  E.  Fuller,  East  Boston,  Mass.; 
Treasurer,  Lizabeth  A.  Turner,  Boston,  Mass. ; 
Chaplain,  Mattie  B.  Moulton,  Laconia,  N.H.; 
Inspector,  Emily  Gardner,  Denver,  Col.;  Con- 
ductor, P.  S.  Runyan,  \\'arsaw,  Ind.;  Guard, 
J.  W.  Beatson,  Rockford,  111.;  Corresponding 
Secretaries,  Mary  J.  Telford,  Denver,  Col.,  and 
Ellen  Fay,  Topeka,  Kan. 

Mrs.  Barker  accepted  an  invitation  to  in- 
stall the  officers-elect,  and  after  performing 
this  ceremony  she  was  duly  installetl  as  National 
President  by  Mrs.  Fuller.  At  the  close  of  the 
convention  its  members  were  guests  at  a  re- 
ception tendered  in  the  evening  to  Commander- 
in-chief  Beath  antl  Past  Commander-in-chief 
Van  Der  Voort. 

An  invitation  was  extended  the  women  from 
Massachusetts  to  accompany  the  commander- 
in-chief's  l)arty  on  a  trip  through  the  Colorado 
caiions.     This  afforded   an   excellent  opportu- 


nity for  conference  upon  the  work  of  the 
year,  and  the  mutual  interests  of  the  two 
national  organizations  were  considered  by  their 
leaders. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  George  S.  Evans, 
Department  Conmiander,  national  headquar- 
ters W.  R.  C.  were  established  at  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Department  of  Massachusetts, 
G.  A.  R.,  in  Pemberton  Square,  Boston. 

To  prove  that  a  national  order  was  needed, 
that  the  plan  adopted  at  Denver  was  the  best, 
and  that  women  were  capable  of  managing 
a  large  organization  with  ritualistic  forms  ami 
parliamentary  rules,  required  excellent  judg- 
ment, tact,  and  a  love  for  the  work.  These 
qualities  were  combined  in  Mrs.  Barker,  who 
sought  advice  from  the  officials  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  and  recognized  the 
importance  of  harmonious  co-operation  with 
them. 

In  her  first  general  order,  dated  September  1, 
1883,  she  said:  "While  working  in  unison  with 
the  G.  A.  R.,  we  can  accomplish  great  results 
and  build  well  the  structure,  which  we  hope 
will  stand  years  after  the  watchful  comrades 
have  left — as  they  must — their  unfinished  work 
to  our  willing  hands." 

At  the  National  Convention  at  Minneapolis 
in  July,  1884,  Mrs.  Barker  was  able  to  say: 
"Our  success  far  exceeds  the  high  anticipations 
of  our  most  sanguine  friends."  She  wrote 
over  a  thousand  letters  during  the  year  she 
served  as  National  President,  visited  the  De- 
partments of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Con- 
necticut, and  performed  numerous  other  duties. 
She  declined  a  re-election,  but  was  made  a  life 
member  of  the  National  Executive  Board,  and 
until  her  ileath  was  a  leader  in  the  affairs  of 
the  order.  A  woman  of  commanding  presence, 
always  presiding  with  grace  and  dignity,  Mrs. 
Barker  was  also  an  elocjuent  speaker,  and  she 
addressed  many  patriotic  gatherings  in  different 
parts  of  the  coimtry.  She  represented  the 
order  at  the  International  Council  of  Women 
held  in  Washington,  D.C.,  in  1889,  and  favored 
progressive  action  when  advocating  the  claims 
of  woman's  work  for  the  veterans. 

The  National  Woman's  Relief  Corps  has  re- 
ceived the  cordial  endorsement  of  every  Na- 
tional Encampment  since  1883,  and  is  the  only 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


113 


recognized  auxiliary  to  the  GraiKl  Army  of  the 
Republic.  It  is  conducting  a  great  work  in 
every  State  and  Territory  of  the  Union,  and 
numbers  over  one  hundred  forty  thousand 
members.  It  has  expended  more  than  two 
million  dollars  in  relief  and  many  thousands 
of  dollars  additional  in  behalf  of  patriotic  edu- 
cation in  the  public  schools,  in  the  erection  of 
monuments  and  memorial  halls,  in  the  sacred 
observance  of  Memorial  Day,  in  securing  pen- 
sions for  army  nurses,  and  in  other  legislative 
work  of  importance. 

A  National  AVoman's  Relief  Corps  Home 
has  been  founded  at  Matlison,  Ohio,  for  the 
wives  and  mothers  of  soldiers  and  for  dependent 
army  nurses ;  and  homes  have  also  been  founded 
and  are  being  supported  by  the  order  in  several 
States. 

Mrs.  Barker  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
Soldiers'  Home  in  Chelsea,  Mass.,  and  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Ai?.sociation 
which  co-operates  with  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
of  which  Colonel  Barker  was  treasurej.  A 
room  at  the  home,  furnished  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Massachusetts  W.  R.  C,  contains  her 
portrait,  and  is  designated  by  a  banner  with 
the  inscription,  "Dedicated  in  honor  of  Mrs. 
E.  Florence  Barker,  first  National  President 
of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps." 

When  Mrs.  Barker,  in  1884,  retired  from  the 
office  of  President,  her  associates  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Massachusetts  presented  to  her  an  en- 
grossed testimonial  as  a  mark  of  appreciation 
and  esteem,  saying  in  part:  "The  excellent 
judgment  ever  manifested  during  the  two  years 
in  which  you  .servetl  this  department  as  Presi- 
dent, the  fidelity  with  which  you  rendered 
service  as  first  National  President  of  the  order, 
your  influence,  everywhere  recognized,  hare 
conferred  honor  upon  our  work,  and  aided  in 
giving  it  a  permanent  endorsement  by  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  throughout  the 
land." 

Mrs.  Barker  did  not  confine  her  interests 
entirely  to  Grand  Army  and  Soldiers'  Home 
work.  She  was  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Union  ex-Prisoners  of  War  National  Memorial 
Association,  treasurer  (and  president  one  year) 
of  the  Woman's  Club  House  Corporation  of 
Boston,  a  trustee  of  the  Maiden  Hospital,  and 


a  director  of  the  Hospital  Aid  Association. 
She  exerted  an  influence  in  public  work  and 
social  life,  and  thoroughly  enjoyed  her  asso- 
ciations in  both. 

In  all  her  public  work  Mrs.  Barker  received 
the  hearty  co-operation  of  her  husband,  Thomas 
Erskine  Barker.  He  was  born  in  Canterbury, 
N.H.,  in  1839,  and  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools.  He  enlistetl  in  Company  B,  Goodwin 
Rifles,  Second  Regiment,  New  Hampshire  Vol- 
unteers, May  31,  1861,  and  on  the  next  day 
was  made  Captain.  He  was  taken  by  the  enemy 
at  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  was  con- 
fined in  Libby  Prison  at  Richmond,  Va.,  and 
in  Salisbury,  N.C.  After  nine  months  in  rebel 
prisons  he  was  paroled  and  sent  N(jrth.  At 
his  own  request  he  was  tlischarged  from  the 
army  in  July,  1862.  He  re-enlisted  as  a  pri- 
vate, joining  Company  B,  Belknap  Guards, 
Twelfth  Regiment,  New  Hampshire  Volunteers, 
and  was  elected  and  conmiissioned  Captain. 
He  engaged  in  the  battles  of  Fredericksburg 
and  Chancellorsville,  V'a.,  and  was  wounded 
in  the  latter  conflict. 

Soon  after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  he  re- 
turned to  duty  and  was  placed  in  command  of 
the  regiment.  Colonel  Barker  was  in  the  battle 
of  Cold  Harbor,  in  the  series  of  engagements 
in  front  of  Petersburg,  where  for  twenty-two 
successive  days  he  was  under  fire,  and  he  was 
also  present  at  the  capture  and  occupation  of 
Richmond.  He  was  commissioned  Lieutenant 
Colonel  in  October,  1864,  ami  Colonel  in  April, 
1865.  At  the  conclusion  of  hostilities  he  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  United  States  forces 
at  Danville,  \ii.,  and,  after  a  few  weeks'  ser- 
vice there  as  military  governor,  was  ordered 
with  the  regiment  to  Concord,  N.H.,  where  it 
was  mustered  out  of  service. 

For  some  years  he  was  in  the  employ  of  a 
wholesale  giocery  firm  in  Boston.  In  1872  he 
was  admitted  into  partnership  with  Wadleigh, 
Spurr  &  Co.  1880-88  he  was  a  member  of 
the  firm  of  Andrews,  Barker  &  Bunton,  and  on 
June  1,  1889,  he  became  one  of  the  fiim  of 
Barker  &  Harris,  brokers  and  commission  mer- 
chants. 

Colonel  Barker  was  a  resident  of  Maiden 
twenty-two  years,  and  was  prominent  in  many 
social    organizations.     He    was    a    member    of 


114 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Mount  Vernon  Lodge  of  Masons;  the  Royal 
Arch  Chapter;  the  Middlesex  Club;  the  Loyal 
Legion  of  Massachusetts;  the  Kernwood  Club, 
of  Maiden;  and  of  Major-general  H.  G.  Berry 
Post,  No.  40,  G.  A.  R.,  of  that  city.  He  served 
as  Assistant  Quartermaster-general  of  the  De- 
partment of  Massachusetts,  G.  A.  R.,  and  often 
attended  as  a  delegate  the  National  Encamp- 
ments. For  many  years  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  for  three 
terms  was  president  of  the  Boston  Wholesale 
Grocers'  Association. 

For  two  years  he  represented  Maiden  in  the 
lower  branch  of  the  State  Legislature.  His 
last  political  service  was  as  a  delegate  in  the 
Republican  Congressional  Convention  at  Lynn 
in  October,  LS96. 

Colonel  Barker  was  a  leatling  member  of  the 
Universalist  Church  in  Maiden,  and  was  for 
many  years  superintendent  of  its  Sunday- 
school.  To  the  interests  of  the  Soldiers'  Home 
he  was  sincerely  devoted,  and  was  treasurer  of 
its  Board  of  Trustees  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
December  17,  1896. 

The  Woman's  Relief  Corps  lost  one  of  its 
earliest  and  most  earnest  friends  by  the  death 
of  Colonel  Barker.  It  was  he  who  framed  the 
first  resolution  ever  presented  in  a  department 
encampment  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic, endorsing  a  State  Relief  Corps. 

The  death  of  Mrs.  Barker  occurred  less  than 
a  year  after  her  husband's  passing.  Memorial 
services  were  held  by  corps  throughout  the 
country,  posts  of  the  Grand  Army  joining  in 
these  tributes  to  her  memory.  Her  portrait 
has  been  placed  in  department  headquarters  in 
Boston. 

The  home  in  Maiden  of  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
Barker  welcomed  prominent  guests  from  many 
vStates.  One  room  was  devoted  to  relics,  among 
them  a  jewelled  swortl,  presented  to  the  Colonel 
by  the  officers  of  his  regiment;  his  commission 
as  military  governor  of  Danville,  Va.;  a  bolt 
fiom  Libby  Prison,  in  which  he  was  confined 
several  months;  and  hanging  on  the  walls  of 
the  room  was  the  engrossed  testimonial,  above 
named,  which  she  cherished  as  a  valuable  sou- 
venir. 

Colonel  and  Mrs.  Barker  are  survived  by  two 
daughters    and    one    son — namely,    Florence, 


Blanche,  and  William  E.    The  last  named  is  in 
business  in  Boston,  and  resides  at  Maiden. 

The  daughters  are  married,  and  their  home  is 
in  Kentucky. 


LAVINA  ALLEN  HATCH.  — On  June  19, 
1819,  occurred  the  marriage  of  Isaac 
__J  Hatch,  Jr.,  and  Lavina  Allen.  During 
the  ceremony  a  heavy  thunder-storm 
prevailed,  but  later  the  moon  came  out.  In  its 
pleasant  light  the  young  couple  rode  the  four 
miles  from  the  home  of  the  bride  to  a  large 
house  on  a  pleasant  site  in  the  east  part  of 
the  town  of  Pembroke,  where  they  were  to 
begin  their  life  work  together.  Opposite  the 
house  was  the  pond  that  furnished  power  for 
the  woollen-mill  where  the  young  man,  five 
years  before,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  had  com- 
menced his  business  career  as  a  manufacturer 
of  kerseymere. 

Mr.  Hatch,  known  as  Isaac,  Jr.,  was  the  fourth 
of  his  name  in  direct  line,  and  was  of  the  seventh 
generation  of  his  family  in  New  England. 
William'  Hatch,  his  earliest  known  ancestor, 
a  native  of  Sandwich,  England,  came  to  this 
country  in  ,1633  or  a  little  earlier,  and  in  March, 
1635,  settled  in  Scituate,  with  his  wife  Jane 
and  five  children.  His  son  Walter^  was  the 
father  of  Samuel,'  born  in  1653,  whose  son 
Isaac*  was  born  in  Scituate  in  1687.  Lsaac^ 
settled  in  Pembroke,  Mass.  His  son  Isaac,'' 
born  in  1717,  was  the  father  of  Lsaac,'^  born  in 
1764.  Isaac'  (Isaac,  Jr.),  son  of  Isaac,"  was 
born  in  1796. 

His  wife  Lavina  came  from  the  Allen  family 
of  Dover,  Mass.,  but  was  born  in  Bowdoinham, 
Me.,  her  father,  Hezekiah  Allen,  having  moved 
there  and  engaged  in  ship-building.  Lavina 
Allen  was  sent  to  Roxbury,  Mass.,  at  the  age 
of  twelve,  to  continue  her  studies,  and  after 
leaving  school  she  made  her  home  in  the  family 
of  an  uncle,  the  Rev.  Morrill  Allen,  settled  over 
the  First  Parish  (now  Unitarian)  of  Pembroke. 
A  few  years  of  school-'teaching  with  the  low 
wages  of  that  period  followed,  and  then,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two,  she  became,  as  narrated 
above,  the  wife  of  a  woollen  manufacturer. 
Industry  and  economy  were  the  rule  of  the 
household.     The    record   shows    the   births   of 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


115 


seven  children,  four  of  whom  grew  to  adult 
age.  The  two  now  living  are  Isaac,  fifth,  and 
Martin. 

Lavina  A.,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  born 
May  20,  1836,  and  named  for  her  mother,  was 
the  youngest  child.  It  was  a  very  small  bit 
of  humanity,  weighing  less  than  six  pounds, 
whose  eyes  then  opened  to  earth  life.  The 
baby  seemed  healthy,  but  endowed  with  a  frail- 
ness of  organization  that  caused  frequent  ill 
turns.  The  family  doctor  was  an  uncle,  much 
loved  by  the  little  niece,  who  always  remem- 
bered his  look  of  surpri.'^e,  when,  with  his  finger 
on  the  little  wrist,  he  said,  "Child,  will  you 
never  have  any  pulse?"  At  the  age  of  thirteen 
she  was  sent  to  Wheaton  Female  Seminary,  to 
be  fitted  for  teaching.  Her  eyes  soon  gave  out, 
and,  in  place  of  pursuing  the  course  of  study 
anticipated,  she  began  to  teach  a  school  two 
miles  from  home  in  order  "  to  have  an  object 
that  would  make  long  walks  each  day  a  neces- 
sity." 

In  this  way  years  passed,  the  winters  spent 
at  Partridge  Academy  in  Duxbury  and  Hano- 
ver Academy,  and  other  months  spent  in 
teaching.  Pembroke,  Scituate,  Hanover,  East 
Bridgewater,  and  Abington  were  the  towns 
where  she  is  still  remembered  as  a  teacher  who 
not  only  disapproved  of  corporal  punishment, 
but  succeeded  in  controlling  even  the  most  un- 
ruly members  of  what  were  known  as  "  hard 
schools,"  doing  this  by  the  use  of  moral  suasion 
joined  to  a  personal  magnetism  that  made 
friends  of  those  who  came  to  make  mischief, 
but  remained  to  become  helpful  scholars.  It 
was  the  habit  of  this  teacher  to  join  in  the 
games  and  sports  of  the  pupils.  Many  will 
never  forget  one  summer  da}',  when,  the  rain 
having  poured  for  hours,  and  the  sun  just 
struggled  out,  the  door  of  the  school-room  was 
softly  opened,  and  the  three  committee-men 
stood  amazed  to  find  the  teacher  with  eyes 
blinded  and  a  brisk  game  of  blind  man's  buff 
in  active  progress.  A  sudden  hush,  and  "  ( ) 
teacher,  the  conmiittee  are  here,"  Ijrought  the 
game  to  a  close  and  the  blinder  from  her  eyes. 
She  simply  said,  "Now  rece.ss  is  over,  let  the 
committee  see  that  we  can  work  as  well  as 
play."  In  later  years  this  same  physician, 
the  late  Asa  Millett,  M.D.,  recalled  an  incident 


that  showed  her  to  be  resourceful  under  diffi- 
culties, as  when  being  "examined"  to  take  a 
school.  She  had  gone  through  the  ordeal  on 
one  occasion  with  doubtful  success,  and  felt  in 
despair  of  the  result,  when  physiology  was 
introduced,  and  Dr.  Millett  said:  "I  think  we 
need  not  ask  many  more  questions.  Miss 
Hatch,  suppose  one  of  your  boys  at  play  should 
sever  the  jugular  vein,  what  would  you  do  first?" 
"Send  for  the  doctor"  came  like  a  flash  from 
her  lips,  as  her  eyes  met  his;  and  both  indulged 
in  a  laugh  that  was  a  contrast  to  the  look  of 
dignified  displeasure  of  the  two  ministers  who 
had  hardly  approved  the  sudden  close  of  the 
examination.  "So  true  it  is,"  she  used  to  say, 
"when  wisdom  leaves  me,  wit  saves." 

At  the  close  of  three  years  of  what  she  called 
her  model  school,  in  Abington,  she  gave  up 
teaching  to  take  charge  of  a  brother's  home 
and  care  for  a  motherless  niece  and  nephew. 
Later  she  adopted  the  children,  and  was  a 
mother  to  them.  In  the  early  sixties  we  find 
her  in  the  old  country  home,  teaching  a  private 
school,  helping  an  invalid  mother,  doing  a 
share  of  the  cooking  and  the  other  housework, 
caring  for  the  little  ones,  and  performing  the 
duties  of  the  postmistress  of  East  Pembroke, 
all  in  the  same  day.  In  these  years  she  wrote 
much  for  the  Student  and  Srhoolmate,  a  monthly 
magazine,  which  ended  its  existence  when  the 
Boston  fire  in  1872  swept  out  the  building 
where  it  was  published.  Stories,  poems,  dia- 
logues, puzzles,  prepared  by  her  in  odd  minutes, 
appeared  over  the  name  of  "Eben." 

When  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  Preven- 
tion of  Cruelty  to  Animals  was  formed.  Miss 
Hatch  was  the  first  agent  who  answered  its 
call  for  help.  Taking  Plymouth  County  as 
her  field  of  labor,  she  spent  much  time  in  ob- 
taining subscribers  to  the  paper.  Our  Dumb 
Aninialif,  and  members  for  the  society,  her 
mother  becoming  the  first  life  member  on  her 
list.  A  few  years  later  Mrs.  Hatch  made  her 
daughter  a  life  member  also.  Joining  a  lodge 
of  the  Sons  of  Temperance,  Miss  Hatch  was  an 
active  member,  in  the  frequent  absences  of  the 
regular  chaplain  taking  his  place,  conducting 
the  initiatory  exercises  as  well  as  the  usual 
opening  services.  While  the  Civil  War  was 
in  progress,  a  local  society  was  formed  to  co- 


116 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


operate  with  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com- 
mission, and,  persuaiUng  a  neighbor  to  accept 
the  office  of  president.  Miss  Hatch  assumed 
that  of  secretary.  All  the  women  around  be- 
coming interested,  they  provided  a  compara- 
tively large  amount  of  soldiers'  clothing. 
When  no  more  money  could  be  raised  there, 
she  went  to  Boston  and  conferred  with  Abby 
W.  May,  president  of  the  State  Association, 
and  after  that  until  the  close  of  the  Rebellion 
material  for  sewing  and  knitting  was  sent  from 
Boston  to  the  willing  workers  of  East  Pem- 
broke. At  the  close  of  the  school,  each  after- 
noon, a  horse  and  wagon  stood  ready,  and  this 
patriotic  teacher  drove  around  the  neighbor- 
hood for  fruit  with  which  to  make  pickles. 
This  work  she  always  did  herself,  and  the  barrels 
of  pickles  often  brought  a  letter  of  response 
from  the  "boys"  who  had  been  so  fortunate 
as  to  get  them.  One  special  barrel  of  pickled 
peaches  will  always  be  remembered  by  maker 
and    consumers. 

After  a  severe  attack  of  spinal  meningitis 
in  the  winter  of  1875-76,  the  summer  finds  her 
at  the  Centennial  Fair  in  Philadelphia.  She 
lived  four  and  a  half  months  on  the  grounds 
of  Fairmont  Park  in  the  New  England  Log 
Cabin,  where  was  shown  a  collection  of  antiques, 
and  daily  was  served  an  old-fashioned  New 
England  dinner.  Each  of  the  workers  had 
an  old-fashioned  name,  and  wore  an  ancient 
style  of  dress.  The  name  of  Dorcas,  assumed 
by  Miss  Hatch,  clung  to  her  ever  after.  At 
this  time  she  was  also  known  to  a  few  as  the 
writer  of  centennial  notes  over  the  signature 
of   "John   Lake." 

For  the  next  two  years  she  lived  in  Charles- 
town,  in  order  to  be  near  Boston  and  under 
the  treatment  of  Dr.  J.  T.  G.  Pike. 

In  1878  the  invalid  mother  passed  on  and 
left  the  daughter  more  free  to  take  up  various 
kinds  of  work.  The  niece  had  become  a  suc- 
cessful music  teacher,  the  nephew  a  promising 
young  machinist;  so  the  aunt  established  a  home 
for  all  at  50  Boylston  Street,  Boston,  spending 
the  summers  at  the  old  home  in  the  country. 

She  soon  became  an  active  worker  on  suffrage 
lines,  being  the  secretary  of  Ward  Twelve  Club 
and  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion of  Massachusetts.     The   latter  office  she 


held  seventeen  years,  and  did  not  once  omit 
a  monthly  meeting,  except  when  sick  or  absent 
from  the  State,  attending  one  of  the  Associa- 
tion's annual  conventions  in  Washington. 
Here,  too,  she  was  a  working  member,  always 
on  one  or  more  committees  that  left  little  time 
for  recreation.  In  the  fourteen  seasons  in 
which,  she  was  present,  not  one  hour  was  spent 
outside  while  the  convention  was  in  session. 
Of  the  Boston  Political  Class,  also,  which  was 
formed  by  the  Association  in  1884,  and  which 
continued  in  existence  for  several  years.  Miss 
Hatch   served  as  secretary. 

Soon  after  the  formation  of  the  Boston  Suf- 
frage League  she  took  active  part  as  recording 
secretary,  and  later  succeedetl  to  the  office  of 
corresponding  secretary.  The  work  attend- 
ing the  initiatory  steps  in  forming  leagues  in 
and  arountl  Boston  was  largely  done  by  the 
secretary.  It  was  she  who  went  to  the  outlying 
districts,  called  on  the  people,  worked  up  the 
interest,  hired  halls,  engaged  speakers,  sent 
out  notices  of  meetings,  and  was  present  to 
help  make  each  one  a  success. 

In  1886  Miss  Hatch  removed  to  60  Bowdoin 
Street.  Ward  Ten  now  had  one  more  voter, 
with  the  same  enthusiasm  for  public  school 
work  that  had  helped  develop  the  cause  in 
Ward  Twelve;  and  the  ward  committee,  with 
Dr.  Salome  Merritt  as  leader,  maile  a  persist- 
ent study  of  the  situation,  giving  valuable 
aid  to  the  Massachusetts  School  Suffnige  Asso- 
ciation in  the  search  for  the  best  women  and 
men  to  elect  for  the  school  board.  It  was  at 
this  time  that  the  New  England  Helping  Hand 
Society  began  its  work,  the  object  being  to 
give  a  home  to  small  girls  whose  wages  were 
insufficient  to  provide  even  the  necessaries  of 
life.  For  several  years,  as  secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Management  of  the  Working  Girls' 
Home,  as  well  as  a  member  of  committees, 
Miss  Hatch  did  her  full  share  in  directing  its 
affairs,  though  often  disapproving  the  action 
of  the  majority;  but  finally,  with  several  other 
officers  and  members,  she  withdrew  from  the 
organization. 

Having  been  one  of  the  workers  at  the  fair  in 
aid  of  the  Intemiierate  Woman's  Home,  she 
joined  with  others  in  the  formation  of  the 
Woman's  Charity  Club  Hospital.    Just  as  the 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


117 


institution  was  to  be  opened  with  appropriate 
ceremonies,  Miss  Hatch  was  very  ill  with 
la  grippe.  A  year  later  she  fell  and  broke  her 
right  wrist,  but  she  retained  her  office  as  sec- 
retary of  the  Hosi)ital  I^oard,  and  accomplished 
the  usual  committee  work. 

The  year  1888  proved  unfortunate.  Hav- 
ing passed  three  years  at  60  Bowdoin  Street, 
she  spent  time  and  money  in  the  expectation 
of  staying  there  years  more.  But,  the  place 
suddenly  changing  owners,  she  moved  out, 
and  stored  her  furniture. 

As  chairman  of  the  nominating  committee 
of  women  voters.  Miss  Hatch  labored  to  secure 
a  suitable  list  of  men  and  women  to  report  for 
the  fall  campaign.  The  A.  P.  A.  element 
came  to  the  front,  and  in  some  cases  men  as 
well  as  women  joined  it,  but  many  soon  left  on 
learning  its  narrow  and  deceptive  platform. 
Miss  Hatch  went  to  Washington  in  December, 
remaining  there  for  several  months.  She  there 
conceived  the  idea  that  the  thing  needed  in 
Boston  was  concerted  action  by  the  women 
and  men  of  a  liberal  turn  of  mind,  to  educate 
the  people  against  the  wave  of  narrowne.ss 
sweeping  the  State  in  the  shape  of  lectures 
and  literature.  In  letters  to  the  old  workers 
she  explained  this  plan.  The  Rev.  Samuel  J. 
Barrows  being  in  Washington  the  same  .season, 
she  conferred  with  him,  and  was  greatly  en- 
couraged by  his  approval  and  promise  of  aid. 
Mi.ss  Hatch  reached  Boston  in  July  in  time  to 
attend  the  meeting  called  to  discuss  this  new 
plan.  It  proved  a  disappointment,  as  some 
of  tho.se  present  advised  that  it  be  an  organiza- 
tion of  women.  But  wi.ser  ways  prevailed, 
and  .soon  the  Citizens'  Public  School  Union, 
composed  of  men  antl  women,  was  in  working 
order,  with  Dr.  Salome  Merritt  as  president 
and  Mrs-.  Frances  E.  Billings  (wife  of  the  artist 
Billings)  as  the  secretary.  Meetings  were  hekl, 
literature  printed  and  circulated,  and  in  time 
much  of  the  mischief  was  stamped  out.  After 
Mrs.  Billings  removed  from  the  city,  her  place 
was  filletl  by  Miss  Hatch  as  long  as  she  remainetl 
in  Boston.  In  1889,  as  delegate  from  the 
Woman's  Charity  Club,  Miss  Hatch  became 
a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Council  and 
Co-operation;  and  in  the  years  following  she 
held  much  of  the  time  the  office  of  clerk.     When 


Dr.    Merritt    pa.s.sed    on,    in    November,    1900, 
Miss  Hatch  was  unanimously  elected  chairman. 

Having  been  brought  up  in  the  liberal  at- 
mosphere of  Unitarianism,  Miss  Hatch  early 
became  a  member  of  the  church  and  a  teacher 
in  the  Sunday-school.  To  her  early  religious 
belief  she  added  that  of  Spiritualism,  of  which 
she  became  a  consistent  and  persistent  student. 
Unwilling  to  encourage  by  her  presence  any 
sensational  display,  she  was  never  found  where 
any  tloubt  could  exist  of  the  genuinene.ss  of 
the  phenomena  exhibited.  Though  neither 
clairvoyant  nor  clairaudient,  she  seemed  always 
aware  of  the  presence  of  spirit  guides  and 
friends,  and  talked  with  them  in  familiar  style 
as  if  they  were  in  the  body.  She  has  been 
heard  to  say,  "  My  life  woukl  not  have  been  worth 
living  the  last  twenty-five  years  but  for  the  con- 
stant help  and  conijianionship  of  my  spirit 
friends." 

Removing  from  Boston  in  1897,  Miss  Hatch 
spent  the  closing  years  of  her  life  at  East  Pem- 
broke, with  summers  at  Onset.  Invited  by- 
Susan  B.  Anthony  to  ])repare  the  chapter  giving 
the  work  of  the  Ma.ssachusetts  National  Asso- 
ciation for  the  fourth  volume  of  the  History 
of  Woman  Suffrage  from  1884  to  1900,  that 
writing  was  crowded  into  her  busy  life.  Many 
hours  each  week  she  passed  out  of  doors,  often 
for  whole  days  riding  with  an  invalid  brother, 
camping  out  in  suitable  weather  and  as  late 
as  was  comff)rtable.  Work  in  the  home  garden 
was  not  neglected,  how<^ver  numerous  might 
be  other  cares,  and  at  all  hours  of  the  day 
she  was  out  of  doors,  taking  a  rest  from  her  pen 
in  pulling  off  dry  leaves  or  picking  bouquets 
for  the  numerous  chiklren  who  frecjuented 
the  place.  She  reporteil  herself  but  a  few 
months  ago  as  feeling  each  year  younger  than 
the  last. 

Though  nearing  the  old  age  of  which  many 
speak  as  a  dreary  season,  she  had  no  such 
thoughts,  but  contemplated  many  busy  years, 
possibly  the  happiest  of  her  life,  before  the 
coming  of  the  change  which  is  "  but  crossing, 
with  bated  breath  and  with  .set  face,  a  little 
strip  of  .sea,  to  find  the  loved  ones  waiting  on 
the  shore,  more  beautiful,  more  precious,  than 
before." 

This  change  came  March  20,  1903. 


118 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


JUDITH  AV.  ANDREWS,  philanthropist, 
was  born  in  Fryeburg,  Me.,  April  26, 
1826.  Her  maiclen  name  was  Walker. 
.Her  father,  Peter  Walker,  born  at  Con- 
cord, N.H.,  in  1781,  died  in  that  city  in  1857. 
Her  mother,  Abigail  Swan  Walker,  born  at 
Bethel,  Me.,  in  1787,  died  in  Boston  in  1861. 
At  Fryeliurg  .\cadeniy,  where  she  was  educated, 
Judith  A\'alker  carried  her  studies  so  far  as  to 
qualify  her  to  enter  the  Junior  Class  of  Dart- 
mouth College.  After  her  graduation  from  the 
academy  she  taught  for  several  years,  both  in 
the  academy  and  in  young  ladies'  schools  at 
York  and  Kittery.  Subsecjuently  her  brother, 
Dr.  Clement  Adams  Walker,  one  of  the  new 
school  of  jihysicians  for  the  insane,  having  been 
appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  Boston  lAmatic 
Hospital,  established  in  1839  as  the  Boston 
Insane  Hospital,  she  joined  him  at  that  insti- 
tution, and,  although  never  officially  connected 
therewith,  she  interested  herself  in  the  details 
of  its  administration,  and  by  her  personal  at- 
tention to  the  patients  endeared  herself  to 
them.  No  better  school  of  training  could  have 
been  found  for  the  activities  to  which  she  has 
given  nuich  of  her  life.  P^or  more  than  thirtj' 
j'ears  Dr.  Walker,  who  was  the  third  superin- 
tendent, succeeding  Dr.  Charles  Stedman 
and  his  predecessor,  Dr.  John  S.  Butlei-,  sus- 
tained and  increased  the  reputation  of  the 
hospital  for  intelligent  and  humane  treatment 
of  the  insane.  He  was  much  beloved  by  his 
patients. 

On  January  15,  1857,  Miss  Walker  was  mar- 
ried to  General  Joseph  Andrews,  of  Salem,  a 
man  of  generous  public  spirit,  who  gave  much 
time  and  labor  to  the  improvement  of  the 
militia  system  of  the  Commonwealth  both  be- 
fore and  during  the  Civil  War.  In  1863  he 
removed  with  his  family  to  Boston,  where  he 
died  in  1869,  leaving  Mrs.  Andrews  with  three 
little  boys  to  care  for  and  educate.  The  eldest 
son,  Clement  Walker  Andrews,  A.M.,  is  now 
librarian  of  the  John  Crerar  Library  (scientific), 
of  Chicago,  III.;  the  second,  Horace  Davis  An- 
drews, is  an  expert  in  mining  matters  in  the 
West;  the  youngest,  Joseph  Andrews,  holds  a 
position  of  trust  in  the  Bank  of  New  York,  in 
New  York  City. 

When  the  family  removed  to  Boston,  Mrs. 


Andrews'  became  a  memlwM-  of  the  South  Con- 
gregational Church  (Unitarian).  Elected  presi- 
dent of  its  ladies'  organization,  the  "South 
Friendly  Society,"  in  1876,  she  held  that  posi- 
tion until  January,  1903,  when  she  declined  a 
re-election.  Her  service  of  twenty-seven  years 
is  the  longest  in  the  history  of  a  society  in 
which  only  five  terms  have  covered  its  whole 
existence  of  seventy  years.  In  1883  she  heljied 
to  organize  the  South  End  Industrial  School, 
an  institution  founded  to  give  elementary 
manual  training  to  the  children  of  Roxbury 
and  the  South  End  of  Boston.  It  was  sup- 
ported by  Unitarian  churches  and  individvials, 
the  South  Congregational  Church  and  many 
of  its  members  being  prominent  helpers.  Mrs. 
Andrews  was  elected  its  first  jiresident,  and  re- 
mained in  office  until  1899,  when  she  retired, 
after  sixteen  years  of  faitliful  service. 

For  some  years  she  was  a  member  of  the 
New  England  Women's  Cluli.  She  is  still  a 
mendier  of  the  Woman's  Educational  Associa- 
tion, and  remains  an  interested  but  not  an 
active  member  of  the  Women's  Educational 
and  Industrial  Union.  She  was  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  District  Nursing  Association 
and  of  the  Young  Travellers'  Aid  Society,  of 
both  of  which  for  a  time  she  was  an  active 
mendier  and  officer.  She  is  also  a  member  of 
the  Women's  Anti-suffrage  Society,  of  the 
Massachusetts  Ci^'il  Service  Reform  Associa- 
tion, and  of  other  smaller  organizations. 

The  South  ('ongregational  Church,  under  the 
influence  of  its  pastor.  Dr.  Edward  Everett 
Hale,  has  had  witle  relations,  both  inside  and 
outside  denominational  lines;  and  these  rela- 
tions have  brought  to  Mrs.  Andrews  opportu- 
nities for  religious  and  philanthroj^ic  work,  to 
which  she  has  always  been  ready  to  respond. 
While  most  of  these,  though  requiring  much 
time,  work,  and  thought,  are  of  a  local  charac- 
ter, two  lines  of  her  work  have  made  her  name 
familiar  to  a  large  circle  throughout  the  coun- 
try. Elected  in  1886  president  of  the  AVomen's 
Auxiliary  Conference,  she  was  active  in  the 
movement  to  enlarge  its  scope  and  usefulness; 
and  in  1889,  when  the  National  Alliance  of 
Unitarian  and  Other  Lilieral  Christian  Women 
was  organized,  she  became  its  tirst  jiresident, 
declining   a   re-election    in    1891.     For  several 


fllAHLO'lTK   .1.  THOMAS 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENCxLAND 


119 


years  she  was  a  member  of  the  Council  of 
the  National  Unitarian  Conference.  She  is 
a  life  member  of  the  American  Unitarian  Asso- 
ciation. 

In  1887,  through  the  eloquent  appeals,  and 
later  the  personal  frientlship,  of  Pundita  Ra- 
mabai  Mrs.  Andrews  became  deeply  interested 
in  the  condition  of  the  high-caste  child  widows 
of  India.  In  1888  she  was  largely  instrumental 
in  the  formation  of  the  Ramabai  Association, 
pledged  for  ten  years  to  support  Ramabai  in 
her  work  for  the  redemption  of  her  sisters  and 
the  uplifting  of  her  jjeople.  To  the  Executive 
Committee,  of  which  Mrs.  Andrews  was  made 
chairman,  was  entrusted  the  official  corre- 
spondence concerning  the  management  of  the 
Shiirada  Sadan  (Home  of  Wisdom)  at  Poona, 
also  the  settlement  of  many  delicate  questions 
arising  from  a  work  so  opposed  to  the  customs 
of  India.  In  1894,  as  an  officer  of  the  as.so- 
ciation,  Mrs.  Andrews  visited  India,  and  passed 
nearly  eight  months  at  the  Sharada  Sadan,  in 
daily  intercourse  with  Ramabai  and  her  pupils, 
becoming  acquaintetl  with  the  details  of  the 
home  and  school,  learning  the  sad  histories  of 
the  child  widows,  antl  studying  their  charac- 
teristics and  capabilities.  She  visited  some  of 
the  most  important  cities  of  India  with  Ra- 
mabai as  "guide,  philo,so|)her,  and  friend,"  thus 
gaining  an  insight  into  the  social  customs  and 
evils  of  the  country  such  as  she  could  have 
obtained  in  no  other  way.  All  of  this  experi- 
ence enabled  her  to  return  to  America  with  ac- 
curate knowledge  and  increased  power  to  plead 
Ramabai's  cause  and  to  emphasize  the  purpose, 
the  needs,  and  the  wontlerful  success  of  the 
work.  In  1898  the  term  of  the  original  Ra-. 
mabai  Association  expired;  and  the  American 
Ramabai  ^Association  was  then  formed,  to  con- 
tinue the  work  on  nearly  the  same  lines,  which 
lines  were  strictly  undenominational.  At  this 
organization  Ramabai  was  present.  Mrs.  An- 
drews was  again  made  chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee,  and  still  holds  the  position. 

During  the  fifteen  years'  existence  of  the 
Ramabai  Association  it  has  had  but  three  presi- 
dents, the  Rev.  Dr.  Edward  E.  Hale,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  the  Rev.  Dr.  E.  Winchester 
Donald.  Among  its  officers  have  been  some 
of  the  most  prominent  professional  and  business 


men  and  philanthropic  and  generous  women 
of  Boston.  The  reputation  of  this  work  and 
the  interest  in  it  are  world-wide. 


CHARLOTTE  J.  THOMAS  may  here 
be  introduced  as  one  who  showed  at 
an  early  age  that  she  dared  stand 
alone.  From  the  time  she  became 
mistress  of  speech  she  has  talked  with  decision 
and  originality,  neither  quoting  nor  leaning 
upon  the  opinions  of  others.  She  has  framed 
thought  and  utterance  for  herself  with  ex- 
traordinary spirit  and  vigor. 

Miss  Thomas's  mother  was  a  woman  pos- 
sessing much  force  of  character  and  a  disposi- 
tion of  great  sweetness.  She  impressed  upon 
her  children's  minds,  while  th^y  were  very 
young,  that  this  "earth's  unfortunates  had  a 
human  claim  upon  them."  She  was  connected 
with  "  the  underground  railway  of  the  old 
slavery  days,"  and  many  a  fugitive  from  the 
South  has  had  reason  to  bless  her  name.  The 
daughter  early  became  her  mother's  assistant 
and  confidante,  antl  all  her  life  has  aided  the 
sick  and  suffering,  the  ambitious  and  the  poor. 
Though  her  name  has  been  associated  with 
various  organizations,  the  greater  amount  of 
her  charitable  work  has  been  individual  and 
unmentioned.  The  home  of  Miss  Thomas  is 
a  noted  one  in  Portland.  "The  Social  Corner," 
as  one  of  the  family  friends  named  it  with  so 
much  truth,  has  become  a  familiar  woril,  and 
stands  for  hospitality,  music,  originality,  and 
good  cheer.  Guests  of  all  classes  are  made 
welcome  in  this  home  with  the  fine  courtesy 
which  brings  instant  comfort.  Entertainment 
is  never  offered  in  stereotyped  form,  but  free- 
dom of  speech,  quaint  stories,  and  suddenly 
suggested  plans  give  all  the  happy  hours  a  tinge 
of  surprise  and  novelty.  It  has  been  said  of 
the  historic  Thomas  mansion:  "Notable  people 
go  there,  but  many  others  are  invited.  Not 
rank,  but  true  manhood,  true  womanhood,  the 
trying  to  do  good  in  the  spirit  of  brotherhootl, 
is  the  passport  to  that  house."  In  Old  Home 
W^eek  during  the  summer  of  1900  Miss  Thomas 
had  her  house  decorated  with  flags  and  pict- 
ures, and  inscribed  with  the  word  "Welcome" 
and  the  year  in  which  it  was  built,  1800.     Late 


120 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  the  afternoon  an  elderly  man  presented  him- 
self at  the  door,  saying  he  had  seen  the  legend 
"Welcome,"  and,  as  he  was  a  builder  himself, 
he  would  like  to  examine  a  house  constructed 
at  the  date  indicated,  whereupon  Miss  Thomas 
assured  him  that  the  word  was  no  hollow  mock- 
ery, and  cordially  invited  him  to  join  her  fam- 
ily at  the  supper  table. 

The  Beecher  Club,  the  first  evolution  club 
in  Maine,  was  founded  at  the  "Social  Corner." 
Miss  A.  M.  Beecher,  cousin  of  the  noted  preacher, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  on  one  of  her  visits  to 
Miss  Thomas  gave  a  course  of  familiar  talks 
on  science  and  philanthroj^y.  At  the  close 
of  the  visit,  through  Miss  Thomas's  influence 
the  club  was  ff)rme(l,  and  named  in  honor  of 
Miss  Beecher.  The  spirit  of  the  home — strength 
and  incUviduality — has  remained  with  the  club, 
and  proved  a  power  for  good.  The  originator 
tells  an  anuising  story  concerning  her  efforts 
in  making  up  the  membership.  Approaching 
a  lady  on  the  subject  and  explaining  the  char- 
acter of  the  study  to  be  undertaken,  the  lis- 
tener lifted  her  hands  in  dismay  and  said  re- 
proachfully, "Why,  Miss  Thomas,  I  thought 
you  believed  in  God!" 

Genial  and  whole-hearted,  Miss  Thomas  has 
a  fine  disregard  for  conventionalities,  and  de- 
spises affectation  and  sham.  With  a  strong 
sense  of  justice,  she  unflinchingly  urges  the 
rights  of  her  .sex,  and  by  her  influence  has  helped 
bring  aliout  a  number  of  good 'reforms  both  in 
customs  anil  State  laws. 

Among  her  personal  friends  may  be  named 
Mary  A.  Livermore,  Susan  B.  Anthony  (often 
her  guest).  Miss  A.  M.  Beecher,  Sarah  J.  Farmer, 
of  Greenacre,  and  such  departed  worthies  as 
Charlotte  Cushman,  Lucy  Stone,  Parker  Pills- 
bury,  John  Hutchinson,  antl  Dr.  Elliott  Coues. 

Mrs.  Elliott  Coues  has  spoken  thus  of  Mi.ss 
Thomas:  "If  I  had  nothing  ei.se  to  be  thankful 
for  in  this  life,  having  had  her  for  my  friend 
would  be  reason  enough  for  my  giving  thanks. 
All  who  know  her  will  say  'Yes'  with  a  rising 
vote  and  a  Chautauciua  cheer  for  one  of  the 
grandest  women  ever  born  on  this  planet.  Did 
any  one  ever  go  there  with  a  tale  of  woe  that 
she  did  not  try  to  assist  anil  strengthen  with 
good,  kind  words  and  deeds  of  corresponding 
worth?" 


Another  close  friend  adds:  "If  I  were  asked 
where  under  '  Representative  Women '  Char- 
lotte J.  Thomas  stood,  I  shouUl  class  her  with 
tho.se  whose  watchword  is  emancipation — free- 
dom of  thouglit,  speech,  and  action,  wherever 
such  freedom  woukl  lead  to  the  betterment  of 
mankind.  To  have  original  and  persistent 
ideas  and  to  develop  them  honestly  and  inde- 
pendently has  been  her  unswerving  aim.  These 
characteristics  have  shown  themselves  first  and 
always  in  the  home,  where  nmsic,  society,  and 
hospitality  have  been  of  an  unusual  scoj^e  and 
of  choice  quality.  To  high  antl  low  her  atti- 
tude has  been  and  is,  'You  have  innate  noble- 
ness: give  the  best  in  you  a  chance  to  show  it- 
self and  to  increase  and  benefit  your  fellow- 
beings.'  Such  a  trend  on  the  individual  side 
has  naturally  on  public  (piestions  meant  'anti- 
slavery,  woman  suffrage,  education  without 
stint,  and  \miversal  brotherhood.'  Here  is  a 
democratic  instinct  that  does  not  content  itself 
with  word  of  mouth,  but  daily  puts  into  prac- 
tice the  precepts  it  holds  flear.  The  group  of 
personal  friends  mentioned  above  are  but  a  few 
of  her  companions  in  the  good  fight.  There's 
liberty  for  every  happy  and  uplifting  influ- 
ence to  work  its  wholesome  and  beneficent 
way  in  the  minds  of  men,  women,  and  children 
in  this  home  which  we  hold  in  fee  simple 
as  a  prejmration  for  further  development  and 
])rogress." 


GEORGIA  TYLER  KENT  was  born 
in  La  Grange,  Ga.,  eldest  daughter 
of  Nelson  Franklin  Tyler,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Henrietta  Snowden,  his 
wife,  of  Maryland.  She  married  July  2,  LS78, 
Daniel  Kent,  a  graduate  of  Amherst  College, 
law  student  of  Boston  University,  and  later 
admitted  to  the  Indiana  bar,  son  of  Daniel 
Waldo  and  Harriet  Newell  (Grosvenor)  Kent, 
of  Leicester,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Kent  in  her  school-ilays  was  thought  by 
her  teachers  and  others  to  have  unusual  talent 
as  a  writer.  Her  education  was  especially 
directed  toward  developing  any  latent  ability 
of  this  kinil,  with  the  hope  that  she  would 
make  literature  her  life  work.  This,  at  the 
time,  did  not  appeal  to  her,  and  in  the  autumn 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


121 


of  1875  she  entered  upon  her  chosen  career 
as  a  member  of  the  Boston  Museum  Company. 
It  was  with  a  heavy  heart,  on  account  of  the 
bitter  opposition  of  her  family.  Her  rapid 
rise  from  unimportant  to  leading  nMes  proved 
she  had  not  mistaken  her  vocation.  During 
her  second  season  she  made  a  vivid  impression 
in  the  short  part  of  Servia,  to  the  Virginius 
of  John  McCullough  and  the  \'irginia  of  Mary 
Gary.  The  critics  united  in  her  praise,  saying 
she  "showed  powers  which  will  with  care  de- 
velop into  something  suited  for  the  best  roles 
in  tragedy."  Mr.  McCullough  was  so  impressed 
with  her  work  he  personally  requested  she 
might  be  cast  for  the  leading  Indian  role  of 
Nameokee  to  his  Metamora.  Her  success  in 
this  led  Mr.  McCullough  to  invite  her  to  become 
a  member  of  his  own  company  the  following 
season,  but  the  Museum  management  iiuluced 
her  to  remain.  Immediately  following  Mr. 
McCullough,  Harry  J.  Mt)ntague,  leading  man 
at  Wallack's  Theatre,  filled  an  engagement 
as  star  at  the  Museum.  Mrs.  Kent's  acting 
in  various  roles  won  his  attention  to  such 
an  extent  that,  with  the  consent  of  the  manage- 
ment, she  accepted  his  offer  to  make  a  tour 
of  New  England,  supporting  him  in  many  of 
the  leading  nMes  of  his  repertoire. 

Upon  her  return  to  the  Museum  she  appeared 
in  a  large  number  of  important  parts,  and  as 
Valentine  de  Monias,  in  "A  Celebrated  Case," 
made  a  pronounced  hit.  The  Museum  of 
those  days  was  a  busy  place,  and  its  superb 
company  found  the  hours  available  for  prepa- 
ration barely  sufficient.  Freciuently,  for  weeks 
at  a  time,  there  would  be  a  run  of  the  glorious 
Shakespearean  tragedies  and  the  standard 
comedies,  with  almost  nightly  changes  in  the 
bill.  There  were  but  few  of  these  in  which  Mrs. 
Kent  did  not  appear,  first  in  small  roles  and, 
as  her  standing  in  the  coni|)any  advanced, 
in  higher  ones.  She  had  a  remarkable  capac- 
ity for  "quick  study."  Harry  Murdoch  was 
said  to  be  her  only  equal  in  this  exiiausting 
but  often  necessary  effort.  Many  times,  with 
but  two  or  three  hours'  notice,  she  came  to 
the  aid  of  the  management  and  played,  letter- 
perfect,  long  and  sometimes  leacHng  parts. 
In  her  third  season  the  management  recog- 
nized her  ability  by  engaging  her  for  the  lead- 


ing heavy — that  is,  the  leading  tragic — roles, 
but  in  addition  she  was  frecjuently  called  upon 
to  appear  in  juvenile,  ingenue,  and  even  sou- 
brette  characters.  When  Madame  Modjeska 
came  to  the  Museum,  in  1S78,  Mrs.  Kent  was 
cast  for  the  Princess  de  Bouillon,  a  part  hardly 
second  to  that  of  Adrienne  Lecouvreur  itself. 
At  the  end  of  the  great  scene  between  the  two 
women,  Madame  Modjeska,  at  the  final  fall  of 
the  curtain,  taking  both  ber  hands,  thanked 
her  for  "such  splendid  work."  "Perhaps 
nothing,"  says  Mrs.  Kent,  "gave  me  more 
happiness  than  when  Mr.  Longfellow  asked 
to  meet  me,  and  comjjlimented  me  in  his  gra- 
cious and  beautiful  way."  Madame  Motljeska, 
her  husbantl.  Count  Bozenta,  and  their  son 
had  but  just  bade  the  company  farewell,  when 
Mr.  Lawrence  Barrett  began  a  four  weeks' 
engagement,  Mrs.  Kent  appearing  in  the  cast 
of  nearly  every  play.  In  1S79  he  again  filled 
a  fortnight's  engagement,  and  Mrs.  Kent, 
whose  work  the  year  before  had  attracted  his 
attention,  was  again  found  in  his  support.  As 
Emilia  to  his  lago  (Mr.  Barron  as  Othello  and 
Miss  Clarke  as  Desdemona),  Mrs.  Kent  made 
the  most  brilliant  success  of  her  career  thus 
far.  Mr.  Barrett  had  himself  coached  her. 
He  showered  congratulations  upon  her,  and, 
with  the  consent  of  the  management,  secured 
her  as  leading  lady  for  his  New  England  tour. 
She  had,  therefore,  at  this  early  stage  in  her 
career,  the  privilege  and  distinction  of  appear- 
ing in  most  of  the  leading  female  roles  of  iiis 
extensive  repertoire.  I'pon  returning  from 
this  tour  she  supportetl  Mr.  Warren  as  Clara 
Weigel  in  "My  Son"  and  in  many  other  pla\'s. 
When  the  Union  Square  Theatre's  great  success, 
"The  Danicheffs,"  was  produced  at  the  Mu- 
seum, to  Mrs.  Kent  was  apportioned  the  part 
of  the  sixty-year.s-old  Countess  Danicheff, 
created  in  New  York  by  Miss  Fanny  Morant. 
It  seemed  almost  cruel  to  ask  so  young  a  girl 
to  impersonate  this  magnificent  and  imperious 
elderly  woman,  but  the  critics  accorded  her 
high  praise,  saying  her  "signally  powerful 
and  effective  work  augurs  for  her  a  brilliant 
future." 

During  her  long  engagement  at  the  Museum 
Mrs.  Kent  studied  elocution  at  the  Boston 
School  of  Oratory.     For  five  years  she  contin- 


122 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ued  a  member  of  the  Museum  company,  and 
then  Mr.  Bartley  Campbell,  who,  unknown 
to  her,  had  for  a  week  been  watching  her  work 
on  the  Museum  stage,  offered  her  the  position 
of  leading  lady  in  his  "Galley  Slave"  company, 
to  succeed  Miss  Lillie  Glover  as  Cicely  Blaine. 
It  was  a  company  of  great  strength,  including 
Joseph  Wheelock,  Marie  Prescott,  Junius  Bru- 
tus Booth,  Frank  E.  Aiken,  Owen  Fawcett, 
and  other  talented  people.  At  the  end  of 
this  season  Mrs.  Kent  was  especially  engaged 
by  Mrs.  John  Drew  for  the  leading  part  of 
Jeanne  Guerin  to  Joseph  Wheelock's  Jagon. 
While  at  Mrs.  Drew's  theatre  she  accepted  an 
offer  from  John  Sleeper  Clarke,  Edwin  Booth's 
brother-in-law,  and  became  leading  lady  of  his 
company.  With  him,  as  leading  man,  were 
W.  H.  V^ernon,  the  distinguished  English  actor, 
and  Mrs.  Farren.  When  John  T.  Raymond 
produced  "Colonel  Sellers"  in  London,  he 
engaged  Mrs.  Kent  for  Laura  Hawkins,  but 
her  husband  and  father  objected  to  her  going, 
and  she  was  obliged  to  relinquish  also  an  offer 
from  Mr.  Clarke  for  a  London  appearance. 
They  were  opportunities  which  would  have 
meant  much  to  a  young  actress.  The  follow- 
ing season  she  became  leading  woman  with 
Thomas  W.  Keene,  being  featured  in  the  bills, 
and  for  two  years  continued  in  this  arduous 
position,  constantly  travelling,  and  appear- 
ing in  all  the  principal  cities  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada  in  a  round  of  impersona- 
tions, largely  Shakespearean,  among  them  being 
Ophelia  in  "Hamlet,"  Portia  in  "The  Merchant 
of  Venice,"  Desdemona  in  "Othello,"  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  "Richard  IIL";  Julie  de  Mor- 
timer in  "Richelieu,"  Fiordelisa  in  "The  Fool's 
Revenge."  During  this  engagement  she  also 
prepared  for  appearing  as  Mariana  in  "The 
Wife"  and  Juliet  in  "Romeo  and  Juliet." 
When  Mr.  John  Stetson's  New  York  Fifth 
Avenue  Theatre  Company  produced  "Divorce," 
Mrs.  Kent  was  selected  for  Fanny  Davenport's 
old  part  of  IjOu  Ten  Kyck.  Tlie  i)lay  had  a 
great  cast,  with  Sarah  Jewett  as  Fanny  Ten 
Eyck  (formerly  Clara  Morris's  role),  Annie 
Russell,  Herbert  Kelcey,  and  other  New  York 
favorites  equally  distinguished.  This  was  suc- 
ceeded by  "Confusion,"  simultaneously  pro- 
duced   by    two    of    Mr.    Stetson's    companies. 


Mrs.  Kent  and  Mr.  Kelcey  heading  one.  Mrs. 
Kent  starred  for  a  season,  appearing  as  Pauline 
in  "The  Lady  of  Lyons,"  Nancy  Sikes  in 
"Oliver  Twist,"  and  in  other  standard  plays. 
Among  the  hundreds  of  characters  portrayed 
by  her  have  been  Camille,  Lady  Macbeth,  Mari- 
ana in  "The  Wife,"  Galatea  in  "Pygmalion 
and  Galatea,"  Lady  Lsabel  in  "East  Lynne," 
Armande  in  "  Led  Astray,"  the  title  roles  in 
"Leah  the  Forsaken,"  "Lucretia  Borgia," 
"Medea,"  "Evadne,"  and  "Satan  in  Paris." 
She  was  also  leading  lady  and  stock  star  of  sev- 
eral companies  producing  Paris,  London,  and 
New  York  successes  Although  exceedingly 
versatile,  her  temperament  especially  fitted  her 
for  tragic  and  emotional  roles,  and  it  was  in  these 
she  won  her  greatest  successes.  Mr.  Henry  Aus- 
tin Clapp,  in  passing  judgment  upon  her  work, 
frequently  spoke  of  her  "personal  distinction 
and  nobility  of  manner";  her  "rare  tempera- 
ment, distinguished  beauty,  and  the  depth, 
range,  and  expressiveness  of  her  voice."  An- 
other eminent  critic  said  of  her  work:  "Entirely 
unaffected  and  natural,  it  is  of  commanding 
character.  This  young  woman  possesses  mag 
netism,  tremendous  underlying  power,  rare 
intelligence,  and  great  personal  beauty.  Few 
will  forget  that  mobile  and  sensitive  face  or 
that  picture  of  passion,  tenderness,  and  de- 
spair." 

After  twelve  years  of  successful  and  often 
brilliant  work  her  health  failed,  just  as  she  had 
signed  a  three  years'  contract  to  appear  as  a 
star.  She  was  obliged  to  retire,  and  for  some 
years  was  an  invalid.  On  account  of  Mr. 
Kent's  objections  she  has  since  then  refused 
all  offers  to  reappear.  She  is  interested  in 
literary  work,  writing  under  an  assumed  name. 
She  is  active  in  patriotic  work.  A  charter 
member  of  the  Colonel  Timothy  Bigelow  Chap- 
ter, Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution, 
of  Worcester,  she  has  labored  for  its  success 
since  its  inception.  Having  refused  to  serve 
longer  as  its  Regent,  she  was  this  year  elected 
Honorary  Regent  for  life.  She  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  AVorcester  Woman's  Club  and  of 
the  Club  lIou.se  Corporation,  president  of 
the  Worcester  Revolutionary  Memorial  A.ssocia- 
tion,  vice-presitlent  of  the  Worcester  Society 
of     Antiquity,    and     a    devoted    member    of 


(:yUzyr-7*'t'e-C^^i' .  ^.y^yUyn^- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


123 


the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Animals. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kent  give  their  leisure  hours 
to  ethnological  and  genealogical  research,  in 
which  they  have  a  coinuion  interest  and  pleas- 
ure. Some  of  her  ancestral  lines  on  the  pa- 
ternal side  she  has  traced,  beyond  a  doubt,  to 
the  "Mayflower,"  and  evidence  at  hand  seems 
to  show  that  she  is  descended  from  nine  mem- 
bers of  the  Pilgrim  band  that  landed  on  Plym- 
outh Rock  in  December,  1620,  namely. 
Elder  Brewster  and  his.  wife  Mary,  William 
Mullines  (or  Molines)  and  his  wife,  John  and 
Priscilla  (xMuUines)  Alden,  William  White 
and  his  wife  Susanna,  and  their  son  Resolved 
White. 

More  than  sixty  of  her  New  England  ances- 
tors in  the  colonial  period  served  as  military 
officers,  magistrates,  Representatives,  Depu- 
ties, and  founders  of  towns.  Among  them 
(to  note  but  a  few)  may  here  be  mentioned 
Major  (also  Colonel  and  Chief  Justice)  Francis 
Fulham,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Emerson,  Lieutenant 
John  Sharpe,  Lieutenant  Stephen  Hall,  Lieu- 
tenant Criffin  Craft,  Lieutenant  Moses  Crafts, 
the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkcley,  the  Rev.  P^dward 
Bulkk^y,  Captain  Christopher  Hussey,  Robert 
Vose,  Lieutenant  James  Trowbridge,  Robert 
Taft,  and  Tliomas  Cregson,  Assistant  of  the 
Colony,  first  Treasurer,  and  first  Connnissioner 
for  the  LTnion  with  other  New  England  Colonies. 
Three  were  in  the  Revolution,  Captain  .lo.seph 
Hall  serving  throughout  *  the  war.  Captain 
Christoi)h('r  Hus.sey,  above  mentioned,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  King  (Charles  IL),  September 
IS,  1671),  a  memlx'r  of  the  King's  Council  antl 
Court  of  Judicature  of  New  Hampshiri",  and  so 
served  until  the  appointment  of  Cranhekl  as 
Lieutenant-governor  in  1682. 

Her  mother's  ancestry  also  includes  many 
distinguished  families. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kent  reside  in  Worcester,  where 
he  is  Register  of  Deeds  for  Worcester  District. 
His  recently  published  book,  "Land  Records; 
A  System  of  Lulexing,"  is  tlie  first  book  ever 
written  \x\)0\\  this  intricate  subject.  Mr.  Kent 
is  a  member  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  the 
Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  Worcester  Club, 
Tatnuck  Country  Club,  Economic  Club,  and 
Society  of  Antiquity. 


HARRIET  NEWELL  FLINT.— Mrs. 
Harriet  N.  Flint  came  of  the  good 
okl  Puritan  stock  that  peopletl  the 
shores  of  Massachusetts  in  the  early 
days  of  the  seventeenth  century.  She  was  the 
sixth  child  and  third  daughter  of  Thomas  and 
Phebe  (Cummings)  Evans,  and  was  born  in 
South  Reading,  now  Wakefield,  Mass.,  August 
29,  1815.  She  died  in  Wakefield,  Decemlier 
31,  1896,  the  last  survivor  of  her  father's  family 
of  nine  children. 

The  house  of  her  h)irth  was  a  modest  and 
ancient-looking  domicile  on  the  northerly  side 
of  Salem  Street,  which  was  many  years  ago 
removed  to  give  place  to  the  residence  erected 
by  her  brother,  Lucius  B.  Evans,  and  nf)W 
owned  and  occupied  by  his  son,  Harvey  B. 
Evans. 

Mrs.  Flint  on  her  father's  side  was  descended 
from  Nathaniel  Evans,  who  with  his  father, 
Henry  Evans,  came  from  Wales  about  two  and 
a  half  centuries  ago,  and  .settleil  in  that  part 
of  Maiden  afterward  annexed  to  the  town  of 
Reading  and  now  known  as  the  village  of 
Greenwood.  On  her  mother's  side  Mrs.  Flint 
was  connected  with  some  of  the  leading  fami- 
lies of  Woburn.  The  early  life  of  Mrs.  Flint 
was  surrounded  with  good  influences,  and  she 
was  taught  to  cherish  high  ideals  and  to  do 
good  to  others.  Receivetl  into  the  Baptist 
church  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  she  remained 
steadfast  in  her  faith  during  her  long  and  ac- 
tive life.  Her  education  was  obtained  in  th(! 
public  schools  of  her  native  town.  Her  eager 
mind  and  studious  habits  enabled  her  to  accu- 
mulate a  valuable  store  of  information,  which, 
united  with  her  native  connnon  .sense  and  good 
judgment,  carried  her  successfully  through  the 
varied  experiences  and  responsibilities  she  was 
in  later  years  called  upon  tf)  meet. 

In  1840  the  subject  of  this  sketch  left  her 
home  to  become  the  wife  of  Charles  Frederick 
Flint,  of  North  Reading,  whose  accjuaintance 
she  had  made  while  teaching  school  in  that 
village.  Mr.  Flint  was  a  worthy  representa- 
tive of  an  old  and  honoraljle  famih  ,  being  a  (k'- 
scendant  in  the  sixth  generation  of  Thomas 
Flint,  an  early  settler  at  Salem  Village,  and  a 
nephew  of  the  Rev.  Timothy  Flint,  of  Lunen- 
burg, a  pioneer  in  American  letters.     He  was 


124 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


brought  up  on  the  extensive  farm  of  his  father, 
gaining  only  a  conunon-school  eckication,  and 
himself  became  an  excellent  farmer.  A  man 
of  nmch  force  of  character,  with  practical  sa- 
gacity heightened  by  judicious  reading  and  dili- 
gent improvement  of  the  means  within  his 
reach,  he  gained  influence  and  respect  among 
his  fellow-citizens.  Ho  added  lands  and  money 
to  his  patrimony,  and,  when  the  Salem  and 
Lowell  Ra'.lroad  was  laid  out  through  North 
Reading,  his  public  spirit  and  private  interest 
induced  him  to  become  a  large  subscriber  to 
its  capital  stock.  When  the  fate  of  the  enter- 
prise trembled  in  the  Imlance,  he  put  his  shoul- 
der to  the  wheel,  and  by  his  energy  and  means 
was  largely  instrumental  in  its  successful 
launching  and  development.  He  became  a 
director  and  the  president  of  the  corporation, 
while  the  enhancement  in  value  of  its  stock 
added  much  to  his  fortune.  Dying  in  the  ma- 
turity of  his  powers,  at  the  age  of  sixty  years, 
from  the  results  of  an  accidental  fall,  he  be- 
queathed the  bulk  of  his  wealth  to  his  wife, 
they  having  had  no  children.  She  was  made 
executrix  of  the  will. 

Mrs.  Flint  in  her  bereavement  and  sorrow 
found  herself  thus  unexpectedly  confronted 
with  important  and  pressing  responsibilities, 
which  she  met  with  courage  and  resolution,  as 
duties  to  be  performed.  Her  well-trained  fac- 
ulties and  resources  of  mind  and  character  en- 
abled her  to  assume  and  successfully  fulfil  all 
the  requirements  of  her  position.  Her  keen 
insight,  her  tact  and  energy,  her  thoughtful 
judgment,  and  great  business  capacity  were 
wonderfully  manifest  in  all  the  affairs  that 
from  this  time  entered  into  her  life-work. 
These  ciualities  enabled  her  not  only  to  hold 
undiminished  the  extensive  estate  left  to  her 
charge,  but  to  more  than  double  the  original 
value  of  the  property. 

Not  long  after  her  husband's  death  Mrs. 
Flint  returned  to  her  native  town,  and  made 
her  home  on  an  estate  Mr.  Flint  had  owned  on 
Main  Street.  Here  in  a  house  beautifully  lo- 
cated, overlooking  Crystal  J^ake  and  the  cen- 
tral portions  of  Wakefield,  she  continued  to  re- 
side during  the  remaining  years  of  her  life.  On 
this  homestead  farm  she  laid  out  a  street,  nam- 
ing it  Charles  Street,   in  remembrance  of  her 


husband.  The  estate  consisted  of  twenty-four 
acres,  including  the  sightly  elevation  known  as 
"Hart's  Hill,"  which  with  its  picturesque  sur- 
roundings has  since  the  death  of  Mrs.  Flint 
been  acquired  by  the  town  by  purchase  as  a 
public  park,  and  will  in  time  become  a  charming 
resort. 

Though  removed  from  North  Reading,  Mrs. 
Flint  cherished  a  loving  remembrance  of  the 
town  as  having  been  the  birthplace  and  lifelong 
home  of  her  husband,  and  because  of  her  own 
personal  and  pleasant  a.ssociations  with  the 
kindly  and  intelligent  people  of  the  old  "  North 
Precinct,"  as  it  was  known  in  the  early  days, 
when  Wakefield,  Reading,  and  North  Reading 
were  united  in  one  municipality. 

On  this  town  of  her  love  Mrs.  Flint  bestowed 
her  tangible  blessings  in  a  golden  shower,  not 
in  any  unconsidered  and  impulsive  way,  but 
only  after  calm  forethought  and  deliberation, 
seeking  to  ascertain  what  gifts  would  be  of 
greatest  and  most  lasting  value.  The  first  re- 
sults of  her  kindly  thouglitfulness  were  mani- 
fest in  laying  the  foundation  for  a  public  library. 
By  the  provisions  of  her  husband's  will  the  sum 
of  one  thousand  dollars  was  to  be  offered  to 
the  town  of  North  Reading,  the  income  thereof 
to  be  used  in  the  purchase  of  medals  for  excel- 
lence in  the  public  schools.  The  execution  of 
this  laudable  jnu'pose  having  l)een  found  im- 
practicable, Mrs.  Flint,  with  the  willing  co- 
operation of  the  town,  turned  this  becjuest  into 
a  gift  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  public  liljrary. 
To  this  gift  she  soon  after  added  two  thousanil 
dollars  and  later  one  thousaml  dollars  more, 
to  be  a  permanent  fund,  the  income  of  which 
should  be  amuially  devoted  "for  the  benefit 
of  said  library." 

In  accepting  the  gift,  the  town  adopted  the 
following  resolutions:  "Resolved,  That  we,  as 
a  town,  herel)y  express  to  Mrs.  Harriet  N. 
Flint  our  grateful  appreciation  of  the  warm 
interest  she  has  taken  in  the  prosperity  of  our 
town,  the  culture  of  its  citizens,  and  the  edu- 
cation of  our  youth. 

"Resolved,  That  we  also  gratefully  recog- 
nize her  interest  in  our  welfare,  as  shown  in 
her  original  gift  of  one  thousand  dollars  to 
establish  a  library,  and  in  adding  to  that  gift 
two  thousand  dollars  as  a  perpetual  fund,  to 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


125 


tje  known  as  iho  Flint  Memorial  Fvuul,  the  in- 
terest of  which  is  to  be  yearly  expended  in 
ailding  to  the  Flint  Library." 

The  year  1S75  was  signalized  by  the  crown- 
ing act  of  Mrs.  Flint's  consistent  generosity 
in  the  gift  to  her  adopted  town  of  the  commo- 
dious and  comely  structure  since  known  as 
the  Flint  Memorial  Hall.  The  edifice  is  pleas- 
antly situated  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  and 
admirably  adapted  to  the  uses  for  which  it  is 
designed.  The  first  story  contains  the  Flint 
Library  and  the  nmnicipal  offices;  the  second 
story  has  a  spacious,  well-lighted  hall,  with  a 
gallery  and  ante-rooms;  and  the  ui)per  floor, 
a  large  banquet  room  and  other  conveniences. 
At  its  dedication  the  Hon.  George  B.  Loring, 
of  Salem,  tlelivered  the  principal  address,  fol- 
lowed by  the  Hon.  Charles  L.  Flint  and  the 
Rev.  Granville  8.  Abbott. 

The  nmnificent  and  oi)portune  gifts  already 
mentioned  were  not  by  any  means  the  measure 
of  Mrs.  Flint's  generosity  to  this  favored  town. 
It  was  her  helping  hand  that  lightened  the 
burden  of  the  war  debt  upon  the  tax-payers, 
that  assisted  struggling  cluu'ches  over  hard 
places,  and  contributed  to  keep  the  roadways 
of  the  town  in  a  sui)erior  condition.  The  high 
school,  which  the  town  was  not  l)y  law  retpiired 
to  maintain,  would  have  long  since  ceased  to  be, 
had  not  Mrs.  Flint  again  anil  again  come  to  its 
support.  By  her  will  she  gave  to  the  town 
three  thousand  dollars,  the  income  of  which 
shoukl  be  applied  in  caring  for  and  improving 
the  Memorial  Hall,  and  she  also  made  liijcral 
bequests  to  the  different  churches. 

The  generous  thoughts  and  sympathies  of 
Mrs.  Flint  were  not  confined  within  narrow 
limits,  nor  her  benefactions  restricted  to  the 
'  domain  and  residents  of  North  Reading.  In 
Wakefield,  the  town  of  her  earlier  and  later 
life,  she  was  constantly  active  in  plans  and 
deeds  for  others'  benefit.  Every  humane, 
philanthropic,  or  educational  enterijrise  in  the 
conuuunity  enlisted  her  interest  and  concern, 
and,  if  her  judgment  approveil,  secured  from 
her  a  substantial  ilonation.  She  gave  to  the 
town  for  the  support  of  the  Beebe  Town  Li- 
brary the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  which 
the  trustees  set  apart  as  the  Flint  Memorial 
Fund,  the  income  only  being  used  for  the  pur- 


chase of  books.  She  manifested  her  friendship 
for  the  public  schools,  the  fire  department,  and 
disabled  soldiers  and  their  families  in  .substan- 
tial ways,  contritnited  to  the  improvement  of 
highwa3's  and  establi.shment  of  drinkirtg  foun- 
tains, and  helped  the  local  religious  societies 
in  times  of  need.  She  was  open  to  every  call 
of  charity  and  voice  of  tlistress,  but  her  deepest 
.sympathies,  in  her  later  years,  were  called  forth 
and  centred  in  the  organization  and  operation 
of  that  noble  charity,  the  A^'akefield  Home  for 
Aged  Women,  incorporated  in  1895.  Her 
heart  and  mind  and  ))urse  were  in  this  benefi- 
cent movement  from  its  beginning.  Each  year 
she  delighted  to  give  it  an  added  impulse,  and, 
dying,  she  bestowed  upon  it  in  her  will  an  earn- 
est, practical  benediction  in  the  sum  of  five 
thousand  dollars,  she  having  previously  assisted 
its  funds  in  an  ecpial  amount.  She  was  made 
honorary  president  of  the  corporation.  Many 
other  ladies  and  gentlemen  have,  by  their  labors, 
coun.sel,  gifts,  -anti  sacrifices,  aided  to  make  the 
Wakefield  Home  a  blessed  and  highly  prized 
institution  of  the  town. 

The  last  will  and  testament  of  Mrs.  Flint 
clearly  indicated  that  the  benevolence,  religious 
devotion,  and  public  spirit  that  had  actuated 
all  the  years  of  her  widowhood  burned  brightly 
to  the  end  of  her  days,  as  she  bequeathctl  over 
one  hundred  thousand  ilollars  to  various  re- 
ligious and  benevolent  organizations.  It  is 
worthy  of  especial  mention,  as  illustrating  her 
fervent  patriotism,  that  in  her  will  she  gave  to 
the  town  of  Wakefield  in  trust,  with  provisions 
for  its  ultimate  application  towaril  the  erection 
of  a  soldiers'  monument,  the  sum  of  ten  thou- 
sand dollars,  ".such  monument  to  be  grand  in 
itself,  symmetrical  in  architecture,  beautiful  in 
design  and  finish,  attended  with  solid  ami 
thorough  workmanship,  worthy  of  the  brave 
men  to  whom  we  dedicate  it." 

Mrs.  Flint  had  expressetl  a  desire  and  \nir- 
pose  to  give  to  the  Massachusetts  State  Board 
of  Metropolitan  Park  Commissioners  the  home- 
steatl  antl  farm  on  which  she  lived,  including 
"Hart's  Hill,"  for  u.ses  of  a  public  park,  but 
the  sudden  prostration  of  her  last  illness  pre- 
vented the  carrying  out  of  her  gracious  int(>nt. 
The  innumerable  acts  of  personal  and  uno.s- 
tentatious  benevolence  that  characterized  her 


126 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


daily  life  iiuist  be  dismissed  from  this  sk(>tc'li 
with  but  a  passing  allusion.  They  are  in  a 
manner  sacred  from  even  a  friendly  pen.  !She 
souglit  not  tlie  praise  of  men. 

Mrs.  Flint  was  essentially  a  rejiresentative 
jiroduet  of  our  New  England  civilization.  Lib- 
eral, ungrudging,  and  wisely  discriminating  in 
her  charities,  her  domestic  life  was  distingiushed 
by  a  simi>licity,  thrift,  and  independence,  ac- 
companied with  a  cordial  hospitalit)',  affording 
a  true  index  to  her  character,  and  demonstrat- 
ing her  Puritan  descent  and  training. 

Such  a  woman  as  Mrs.  Flint  is  a  blessing  to 
any  comnuinity  and  an  honor  to  humanity. 
Her  memory  will  be  cherished  with  grateful 
affection  and  genuine  respect  in  the  towns 
where  her  influence  and  good  deeds  have  been 
best  known  and  her  personal  ([ualities  appre- 
ciated, while  in  the  wider  circle  of  those  who 
have  been  told  of  her  gracious  character  and 
no])le  philanthropy  will  her  name  be  treasured 
with  reverence  and  admiration. 

In  the  little  cemetery  at  North  Reading,  not 
many  rods  from  the  home  once  so  dear  to  her, 
lies  the  body  of  Harriet  N.  Flint  beside  that 
of  her  husband. 

C.  W.  E.\Tox. 


JULIA  K.  DYER,  widely  known  and  be- 
loved as  Mrs.  Micah  Dyer,  lias  been  asso- 
ciated for  over  foi'ty  years  with  nearly 
every  large  philanthropic  work  started 
in  Boston,  serving  in  every  office  she  has  been 
appointed  to  with  noble  un.selfishness.  Her 
maiden  name  was  Julia  Knowlton.  She  was 
born  August  25,  ]S2'J,  in  Deei-field,  N.H., 
near  the  birthphice  of  General  Benjamin  l'\ 
Butler.  Her  parents  were  Joseph  and  Susan 
(Dearborn)  Knowlton.  The  iunnigrant  progen- 
itor of  the  Knowlton  family  of  New  lOngland 
was  Captain  William  Ivnowlton,  who  died  on 
the  voyage  from  London  to  Nova  Scotia,  and 
whose  sons  a  few  years  later  settled  at  Ipswich, 
Mass.,  the  earliest  to  arrive  there,  it  is  said, 
being  John  in  Ifi.SO. 

Through  her  maternal  grandfather,  Nathan- 
iel Dearborn,  who  married  Comfort  Palmer, 
of  Haverhill,  Mrs.  Dyer  is  descended  from 
Godfrey    Dearborn,    who   came    from    l^igland 


and  was  one  of  the  earliest  .settlers  of  E.xeter, 
N.H.,  in  IG'.ii),  and  later  removed  to  Hampton, 
N.H. 

Her  great-grandfather,  I^dward  Dearborn, 
fought  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  as  did 
her  paternal  grandfather,  Thomas  Knowl- 
ton. In  the  Revolutionary  Rolls  of  New 
Ham])shire,  Ivlward  Dearl)orn  is  named  as 
a  pri\'ate  in  Caj)tain  Benjamin  Titcomb's 
company  in  1775;  as  a  .soldier  from  Dover  in 
the  Continental  army  in  A])ril,  1776:  in  Cap- 
tain Drew's  company,  February,  1777;  on  the 
pay-roll  of  Captain  Nathan  Sanborn's  com- 
pany. Colonel  Evans's  regiment,  which  marched 
September,  1777,  from  New  Hampshire  to 
re-enforce  the  Northern  Continental  army  at 
Saratoga;  also  sometime  member  of  the  Fifth 
Company,  Second  New  Hampshire  Continental 
Regiment,  which  was  commanded  by  Colonel 
George  Reid,   1777-79. 

Edward  Dearborn  married  Susanna  Brown, 
whom  he  left,  when  he  entered  the  arn^y,  to 
care  for  the  farm  and  three  small  children, 
the  nearest  neighbor  being  ten  miles  away. 
Su.sanna  Brown  was  the  daughter  of  Nehemiah 
and  Amy  (Longfellow)  Brown,  of  Kensington, 
N.H.,  and  grand-daughter  of  Nathan  Long- 
fellow. The  last  named  was  probably  the 
Nathan  born  in  1690,  .son  of  William  and  Anne 
(Sewall)  Longfellow,  of  Newbury,  Mass.,  and 
brother  of  Stephen,  born  in  1681,  from  whom 
the  poet  Henry  A\'.  Longfellow  was  descended. 

Jo.seph  Knowlton,  Mrs.  Dyer's  father,  was 
a  soldier  in  the  A\'ar  of  1S12,  and  her  brother, 
Jo.sejjh  H.  Knowlton,  in  the  Civil  War.  The 
patriotism  of  Mrs.  Dyer  is  thus  shown  to  be 
inh(-rited. 

During  her  infancy  hei'  parents  removed  to 
Concord,  N.H.,  and  in  lS:i9  they  took  up  their 
residence  in  Manchestei',  N.H.,  where  for  twenty 
years  her  father  was  connected  with  the  Land 
and  Water  Company,  besides  tilling  important 
positions  of  trust.  Up  to  the  ag(>  of  fourteen 
h(>r  education  was  gained  in  private  schools. 
She  then  went  to  a  boarding-school  ii\  Concord, 
N.H.,  where  she  remaineil  one  year,  after  which 
she  entered  the  New  Ham])t()n  Institute, 
known  at  that  time  as  one  of  the  best  schools 
for  girls  in  the  country,  from  which  she  was  grad- 
uated with  honors  before  the  age  of  eighteen. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


]27 


Returning  to  Manchester,  she  taught  in  the 
high  school  for  one  year  French,  EngHsh, 
Latin,  and  the  higher  mathematics.  Asso- 
ciated with  her  at  this  school  was  Miss  Caroline 
C.  Johnson,  who  afterward  came  to  Boston 
and  established  a  school  for  girls  on  Bowdoin 
Street,  which  she  kept  for  twenty  years.  Miss 
Johnson  was  a  cousin  of  John  G.  Whittier. 
It  was  with  her  and  her  sisters  that  the  jjoet 
in  his  later  years  made  his  home  at  Oak  Knoll, 
Danvers. 

At  this  period  Miss  Knowlton  met  Mr.  Micah 
Dyer,  Jr.,  then  a  rising  young  lawyer  of  Boston. 
After  a  short  engagement  they  were  married. 
May  1,  1851,  and  took  up  their  residence  in 
Boston.  Ten  years  later  they  ])urchased  the 
fine  estate  which  for  a  generation  had  belonged 
to  the  Clapp  family,  at  Upham's  Corner,  Dor- 
chester. The  house  is  situated  on  an  elevation, 
and  is  surrounded  by  carefully  kej)t  lawns, 
with  shade  trees,  many  of  which  are  more  than 
one  hundred  years  old.  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  that  the  first  tulip  bulbs  brought  U)  America 
were  planted  in  this  garden. 

Family  duties  occupied  all  of  Mrs.  Dyer's 
time  during  the  first  ten  years  of  her  married 
life;  but  as  the  children  grew  up — and  she  was 
blessed  with  three,  two  sons  and  one  daughtei- 
— she  found  time  for  the  demands  of  charitable 
work.  During  the  Civil  War  she,  with  scores 
of  other  brave  women,  did  what  she  could 
to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  soldiers.  An 
amusing  incident  recently  appeared  in  the 
Boston  papers,  in  which  Mrs.  Dyer  figures  as 
having  fired  a  shot  in  the  war — not  a  bullet 
shot,  however,  and,  so  far  from  doing  any 
deadly  injury,  it  saved  a  man's  life.  \\'hil(> 
riding  in  a  slow  Southern  train,  she  passed 
in  the  early  morning  through  a  strip  of  terri- 
tory picketed  by  I'nion  men.  It  was  a  dan- 
gerous section,  and  the  train  was  barely  creep- 
ing along.  Mrs.  Dyer,  all  alert,  was  gazing 
out  of  the  window  on  the  lookout  for  danger, 
when  she  e.spied  a  soldier  asleep  at  his  post, 
an  offence  punishable  by  death  if  discovered. 
He  had  evidently  been  overcome  by  fatigue. 
Could  nothhig  be  done  to  save  him''  She  was 
on  her  way  to  one  of  the  hospitals  with  deli- 
cacies for  the  soldiers  there.  Among  the.se 
were  oranges.    She  seized  one,  and,  with  an 


accuracy  of  aim  gained  from  a  youthful  fond- 
ness for  archery,  hit  him  scjuarcly  in  the  chest, 
arousing  him  instantly.  After  a  bewildered 
moment  he  sjirang  to  his  feet,  then,  catching 
sight  of  his  deliverer,  who  was  waving  to  him 
from  the  dei)arting  train,  he  bowed  his  heart- 
felt thanks,  orange  in  hand. 

The  first  |)ublic  work  of  Mrs.  Dyer  was  on 
the  Board  of  Management  of  the  Dedham 
Home  for  Discharged  Female  Prisoners,  to 
which  she  was  appointed  in  1864.  For  twenty- 
eight  years  she  never  failed,  except  during 
serious  illness,  to  pay  her  monthly  visit,  ^\'llen 
the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  was  formed  to  aid  the 
Soldiers'  Home,  Mrs.  Dyer  was  made  its  sec- 
retary, and  the  next  year,  1882,  its  pre.'^ident, 
a  position  that  she  held  for  ten  years.  The 
military  strain  in  Mrs.  Dyer's  blooil  fitteil  her 
peculiarly  for  this  office.  Under  her  gui<lance 
the  numbers  rapidly  increaseil,  and  thousands 
of  dollars  were  raised  to  give  comforts  to  the 
home.  The  society  has  furnished  rooms,  pro- 
vided a  library  and  all  sorts  of  smaller  luxuries. 
A  fine  portrait  of  the  "right  bowei'  of  the  Sol- 
diers' Home"  (as  the  trustees  call  Mrs.  Dyer) 
hangs  in  the  chapel  of  the  home,  and  one  of 
the  rooms  is  set  apart  and  named  for  her. 

Her  rare  executive  ability  combined  with 
an  even  temperament  makes  her  a  natural 
leader  of  large  bodies.  During  her  presidency 
of  the  Ladies'  Aitl  she  comlucted  several  fairs, 
which  netted  handsome  sums.  The  Ladies' 
Aid  table  at  tlie  Soldiers'  Carnival  under  her 
direction  cleareil  nearly  six  thoasaml  dollars. 
Later  a  kettledrum  for  the  .same  benefit  netted 
four  thousand  dollars,  anil  another  fair  for  the 
Soldiers'  Home  netted  ten  thousand  dollars. 
For  this  fair  some  one  facetiously  offered, 
when  told  they  could  give  anything  tliey  chose, 
a  live  pig.  Mrs.  Dyer,  readily  .seeing  a  novel 
feature  for  her  fair,  accepted  the  offer.  Piggy 
was  comfortably  ensconced  in  an  improvi.sed 
]X'n,  presiding  over  a  box  inscribed  with  bright 
ver.ses  from  this  lady's  fertile  brain,  inviting 
contributions  for  his  maintenance.  Tliirty 
tlollars  was  realized  from  this  exhibit.  Then 
the  pig  was  .sent  to  tiie  Soitfifrs'  Home,  where 
in  the  cour.se  of  time  he  was  served. 

The  Boston  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union  in  1885  asked  Mrs.  Dyer  to  take  charge 


128 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  an  entertainment  for  its  benefit,  and  she 
arranged  a  Dickens  Carnival,  which  brought 
in  seven  thousand  tlollars.  In  1S8S  Mrs.  Dyer 
was  at  the  heati  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of 
the  great  fair  held  in  Music  Hall  by  which  the 
sum  of  thirteen  thousand  dollars  was  raised  in 
a  single  week  for  the  benefit  of  The  Home  for 
Intemperate  Women. 

The  Charity  Club  of  Boston,  which  ha"s 
become  so  well  known,  was  the  outgrowth 
of  this  fair.  The  committee  of  fifty  women 
who  had  worked  so  successfully  and  harmoni- 
ously under  Mrs.  Dyer's  guidance  banded 
themselyes  together  to  raise  money  for  any 
good  object.  Mrs.  Dyer  conceived  the  idea 
of  starting  a  free  hospital  for  respectable  women 
witliout  means  in  need  of  important  surgical 
operations.  A  house  at  3<S  Chester  Park  was 
bought,  and  a  hospital  started  when  the  Club 
had  not  a  cent  in  its  treasury.  How  the 
owner  was  induced  to  take  a  mortgage  for  a 
sum  less  than  he  had  asked  for  the  projjerty, 
leaving  the  Club  an  equity  for  nothing,  how 
man}'  ingenious  devices  were  resorted  to  to 
furnish,  to  pay  interest,  taxes,  and  running 
expenses,  only  the  Club  members  know;  but 
the  good  work  went  on  and  prosperetl.  The 
president,  whose  faith  was  so  great,  buoyed 
up  the  others. 

In  1892  a  new  hospital  was  completed  at 
Parker  Hill,  between  Brookline  and  Boston. 
The  Legislature  subsequently  granted  fifteen 
thousand  dollars,  which  cleared  off  its  in- 
debtedness. The  Club  now  numbers  nearly 
seven  hundretl  members,  and  this  hospital 
stands  a  proutl  monument  of  their  good  work. 
Mrs.  Dyer  has  been  the  president  from  the  first. 
The  badge  of  the  Club  is  a  circular  pin  sur- 
mounted with  the  head  of  the  presitleiit  in 
bronze. 

Mrs.  Dyer  is  the  organizer  antl  president 
of  the  Wintergreen  Club,  to  which  only  women 
of  fifty  are  eligible.  It  is  named  for  the  real 
wintergreen,  which  is  green  and  glossy  under 
the  snow,  retaining  its  youthful  freshness,  as 
good  women  do.  Among  its  members  are 
Mrs.  Howe,  Mrs.  Livermore,  Mrs.  Maria  H. 
Bray,  Mrs.  Kate  Tannatt  Woods,  and  Mrs. 
Louis    Prang. 

Another  little  society  which  Mrs.  Dyer  ini- 


tiated a  few  years  ago  is  the  "Take  Heed," 
from  the  text,  "Take  heed  that  ye  speak  not 
evil  of  one  another."  She  is  also  president  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of 
Lipham's  Corner,  an  office  she  has  filled  for 
seven  years,  being  its  second  president,  re- 
signing at  one  time,  and  accepting  the  office 
again  in  1899.  She  is  a  valued  member  and 
one  of  the  boaril  of  directors  of  the  Castilian 
Club,  and  a  life  member  of  tlie  Bostonian 
Society.  Among  other  societies  and  clubs 
with  which  she  has  been  actively  connected 
may  be  named  the  Moral  Education  Society, 
the  National  Prison  Association,  the  Benefit 
Society  for  the  University  Education  of  Women, 
the  Helping  Hand  Society,  the  Dorchester 
\\'omaii's  Clul),  and  the  Book  Review  C'lub 
of  Dorchester,  the  last-named  two  being  strictly 
literary  clubs.  It  has  been  estinnited  that  some- 
thing like  a  ([uarter  of  a  million  has  been  raised 
for  charities  through  her  inspiring  lead  rship. 

Early  inclined  to  literary  work,  foi  which 
the  duties  that  came  to  lier  left  little  time,  Mrs. 
Dyer  has  written,  mainly  for  her  clubs,  in  her 
■scant  leisure,  many  acce|)table  essays  and 
poems.  Her  one  great  grief  has  been  the 
loss  of  her  husband,  whose  hearty  support  she 
had  in  all  of  her  undertakings.  Since  his  death, 
November  24,  1898,  she  has  made  her  home 
with  her  son  and  his  wife,  on  Columliia  Road, 
Dorchester,  having  her  own  suite  of  rooms, 
where  she  still  continues  to  tlispen.se  her  bomi- 
tiful   hospitality. 

Mrs.  Livermore,  in  her  cliaracteristic,  im- 
pulsive way,  summing  up  Mrs.  Dyer's  amiable 
qualities,  says,  "  I  always  think  of  her  as  al- 
ways cheery,  always  charming,  always  harmo- 
nious, and  altogethei'  the  most  delightful  woman 
of  my  acquaintance." 


AUGUSTA  WALKER  STANLE\^  of 
/\  Newton,  Mass.,  now  (March,  1904) 
X.  jL  serving  her  third  term  as  Regent  of 
the  Sarah  Hall  Chajjter,  Daughters  of 
the  Revolution,  was  born  in  New  Portland,  Me., 
August  20,  1848.  Daughter  of  William  and 
Mary  (Wit ham)  Walker,  she  is  a  descendant  in 
the  sixth  generation  of  Chaplain  Solomon  Walker, 
of  Berwick  and  Woolwich,  Me.,  an  officer  in 


AUGU8TA   M.  STANLEY 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


129 


the  Revolutionary  War.  From  Captain  Solo- 
mon and  his  wife  Miriam  the  line  oontinueil 
through  their  son  Andrew  and  his  wife,  Damaris 
Cross;  Solomon  and  wife,  Tabitha  Card;  John 
and  wife,  Martha  Jones;  to  their  son  William, 
named  above  as  the  father  of  Mrs.  Stanley. 

Captain  Solomon  Walker  died  in  Woolwich 
(formerly  Pownalborough)  Me.,  July  21,  1789, 
aged  sixty-nine  years.  As  stated  on  his  tomb- 
stone, he  was  born  in  Berwick,  Me.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  son  of  John  Walker, 
who  commanded  the  blockhouse  in  Berwick  at 
the  time  of  the  Indian  hostilities. 

In  the  State  archives  of  Massachusetts  (in 
the  Revolutionary  Rolls)  Solomon  Walker  ap- 
pears in  a  list  of  ofhcers  of  the  Massachu- 
setts militia  as  Cajjtain  in  the  Eleventh  Com- 
pany of  the  First  Lincoln  County  Regiment, 
commissioned  July  1,  1776  (book,  "Militia, 
Officers,  etc.,"  vol.  xxviii.). 

Chosen  by  company  and  accejited  by  coimcil, 
September  16,  1776.  Comjjany  made  up  from 
Woolwich  and  Pownalborough  companies  (Mas- 
sachu.setts  Muster  and  Pay  Rolls,  vol.  xliii.). 

In  service  (as  Caj)tain)  at  taking  of  mast 
ship  in  Sheepscott  River,  September  10-12, 
1777  ("Sea-coast  Defence,"  Muster  Rolls,  vol. 
xxxvii.).  Also  Captain  of  a  company  in  Colonel 
Joseph  Prime's  regiment,  under  Brigadier- 
general  Watlsworth.  luilisted  April  2S,  1780; 
discharged  December  6,  1780;  service,  seven 
months  nine  days  ("Service  at  Eastern  Ports," 
"Various  Service,"  vol.  xxiv.). 

Solomon  Walker  also  appears  in  a  regimental 
return  dated  Georgetown,  November  19,  1779, 
made  by  Lieutenant  Colonel  Dununer  Sewall, 
of  Colonel  Sanuie!  McCobli's  (Lincoln  County) 
regiment,  as  Captain  Eleventh  Company,  com- 
missioned September  17,  1776.  Residence, 
Woolwich. 

Mrs.  Stanley's  mother,  Mary  D.  Witham  be- 
fore marriage,  was  a  daughter  of  William 
Witham  and  his  wife,  Abigail  Woodman,  and 
on  the  maternal  side,  grand-daughter  of  John 
Woodman,  Jr.,  whose  father,  John  Woodman, 
was  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  New  Glouces- 
ter, Me.,  going  there  from  Kingston,  N.H., 
early  in  the  sixth  decade  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  elder  John  Woodman,  John,* 
was   a   descendant   in   the   fifth   generation   of 


Edward'  Woodman,  wlu;  settled  at  Newbury, 
Mass.,  in  1685,  and  who  served  as  Deputy  to 
the  General  Court  in  1686  and  three  later 
years.  The  line  continued  through  Edward^; 
Deacon  Archelaus'';  Joshua,*  born  in  1708,  who 
married  Eunice  Sawyer,  of  Newbury,  and  re- 
moved to  Kingston,  N.I  I.,  about  the  year 
1736;  to  their  son  John,^  born  in  1740,  who 
married  Sarah  Page,  of  Salislniry,  Mass.,  and 
removed,  as  above  noted,  to  New  Gloucester, 
Me.  John  Woodman,  Jr.,  or  John,"  son  of 
John^  and  his  wife  Sarah,  was  born  in  New 
Gloucester  in  17()7.  He  was  married  three 
times,  and  had  eighteen  children.  His  daughter 
Abigail,  born  in  1801,  was  married  to  William 
Witham  in  September,  1819. 

Augusta  M.  ^\'alkeI•  (Mrs.  Stanley)  received 
her  education  in  the  public  school,  being  grad- 
uated from  the  high  .school  of  her  native  town 
and  later  attending  the  State  Normal  School 
at  Farmington.  For  several  years  following 
she  was  a  successful  teacher.  On  New  Year's 
Day,  1870,  she  wa,s  marrieil  to  Francis  Edgar 
Stanley,  and  went  to  Auburn,  Me.,  to  reside. 
Mr.  Stanley,  wlio  is  an  inventor,  has  been  for 
the  greater  part  of  his  business  life  associated 
with  his  twin  brother,  Freelan  Oscar  Stanley. 
The  Stanley  lirothers'  dry  [elates  in  photography 
and  the  Stanley  automobiles  have  a  world-wide 
reijutation,  and  the  men  behind  these  are  not 
only  powers  because  of  their  wealth,  but  by 
rea.son  of  their  long  years  of  business  integrity. 
After  .seventeen  years'  residence  in  AuburUj 
Me.,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanley  removed  to  Newton, 
Mass.,  where  they  still  live.  They  have  two 
slaughters,  Blanche  May  and  Emily  Frances, 
and  one  son,  Raymond  Walker,  a  promising 
lad  yet  in  school. 

Blanche  May  Stanley  was  married  October 
15,  1908,  to  Edwanl  Meiihew  Hallett.  They 
reside  in  Newton. 

Emily  Frances  Stanley  was  married  Ajjril  8, 
1896,  to  Prescott  Warren,  of  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Warren  resitle  in  Newton.  Tliey 
have  two  daughters:  Margery,  boi-n  in  1S97; 
and  Frances  Augusta,  born  in  1900. 

Mrs.  Stanley  has  travelled  extensively,  both 
in  her  own  country  and  abroad.  She  takes  an 
active  interest  in  tlie  educational,  patriotic, 
and  philanthropic  movements  of  the  day.     The 


130 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Sarah  Hull  Chapter,  D.  R.,  of  which  she  was 
elected  Regent,  March,  1!)()2,  ami  again  in  March 
1904,  is  the  largest  cha])ter  in  the  (icneral  So- 
ciety of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution. 
Mrs.  Stanley  is  also  one  of  the  Board  of  Mana- 
gers of  the  (ieneral  Society.  She  is  a  vice- 
presiflent  of  the  Social  Science  Club  of  Newton, 
and  was  one  of  the  founders  and  for  a  time 
vice-jiresident  of  the  Katahdin  Club,  conqiosed 
of  residents  of  Newton  who  were  born  in  Maine. 
Mrs.  Stanley  for  some  years  was  president  of 
the  Newton  District  Nursing  Association.  On 
account  of  severe  illness  not  long  ago  she  de- 
clinctl  re-election.  This  u.seful  .society  com- 
prises four  huntlred  members.  Both  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Stanley  are  regular  attendants  of  the  Uni- 
tarian church  in  Newton,  in  which  she  is  an 
active  worker. 


HARRIET  PRESCOTT  SPOFFORD, 
successful  author  in  prose  and  verse, 
was  born  in  Calais,  Me.,  April  3,  1835, 
the  eldest  child  of  .Tose|)h  N.  and 
Sarah  (Bridges)  Prescott.  Her  father,  Jo.seph 
N.  Prescott,  was  a  son  of  A\'illiam  Pei)perell 
Prescott  and  his  wife,  Harriet  de  Les  Dernier, 
whose  father,  Peter  F.  C.  de  Les  Dernier,  was 
born  in  Halifax,  N.S.,  of  Swiss  parents. 

Henry  Prescott,  father  of  \\'illiam  P.  Pres- 
cott, was  a  lineal  descendant,  in  the  fourth  gen- 
eration, of  John  Prescott,  an  early  .settler  of 
Jjancaster,  Ma.ss.  Mary  Newmarch  Prescott, 
wife  of  Henry,  was  a  daughter  of  Joseph  and 
Dorothy  (Pepperell)  Newmarch,  a  granrl-daugh- 
ter  of  William'  Pepperell,  of  Kittery,  and 
niece  of  Sir  Willianr'  Pepperell,  the  victor  of 
Louisburg. 

The  .second  Prescott  ancestor,  Captain  Jon- 
athan,^ father  of  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Prescott 
and  grandfather  of  his  son  Henry,  named  above, 
married  Elizabeth  Hoar,  sister  of  Daniel  Hoar, 
remote  ancestor  of  Senator  George  F.  Hoar. 

Mrs.  Spofford's  mother  was  a  daughter  of 
John  Bridges,  of  Calais,  Me. 

Mrs.  Rose  Terry  Cof)ke,  in  bygone  years  a 
fellow-worker  with  the  pen,  thus  wrote  of 
Harriet  Prescott  in  her  girlhood  in  Maine:  A 
"lithe,  active  child,  full  of  (juaint  wit  and  keen 
questioning,  she  ran   wild   through  her  earlier 


years  in  the  pure  air  and  fragrant  breath  of 
pine  forests  and  sea  breezes,  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  her  exce]itional  health  and  strength." 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  Harriet  Prescott  went 
to  Newburyport  to  live  with  an  aunt  and  attend 
the  Putnam  Free  School,  "a  remarkably  good 
school,"  as  it  has  been  desciibed,  "kept  by 
William  G.  Wells,  a  celebrated  teacher."  Her 
native  talent  soon  manifested  itself:  she  re- 
ceived the  first  prize,  in  a  series  instituted  by 
Thomas  AVentworth  Higginson  and  Professor 
Aljiheus  Crosby,  "for  a  very  daring  anil  orig- 
inal e,s.say  on  Handet,  written  at  sixteen."  She 
further  attaineil  an  enviable  distinction  and 
popularity  among  her  classmates  by  writing 
several  dramas,  which  were  enacted  in  the  school 
exhibitions.  After  her  graduation  from  the 
Putnam  School  she  continued  her  studies  for 
a  time  at  Pinkerton  Academy  in  Derry,  N.H., 
where  her  widowed  mother  and  the  younger 
children  were  then  living.  Before  long  the 
family  returned  to  Newburyport. 

Not  admiring  friends  and  schoolmates  alone, 
but  judicious  counsellors,  among  them  Colonel 
Higginson,  encouraged  her  literary  aspirations. 
Sketches,  stories,  and  verses  from  her  pen  found 
their  way  into  print,  and  probably  brought 
money  into  her  purse. 

Her  first  contribution  to  the  Atlantic  Montldy, 
"In  a  Cellar,"  appearing  in  February,  1859,  is 
remembei'ed  l)y  one  who.se  opinion  is  of  value 
as  "an  ingenious  and  amusing  story,  well  told." 
Tlie  .same  early  reader  and  critic  adds:  "Her 
tale  of  'The  Amber  Gods,'  published  soon  after- 
ward in  the  same  magazine,  was  of  a  higher 
and  larger  scope,  full  of  power  and  passion. 
Scarcely  less  powerful  was  a  sketch  named  '  Cir- 
cumstance.' These  stories  at  once  gained  for 
the  author  a  high  place  among  writers  of  fic- 
tion." 

She  continued  to  use  her  pen.  To  quote 
again  from  Mrs.  Cooke:  "  Under  her  quiet  aspect, 
wistful  regard,  and  shy  manner,  lay  a  soul  full 
of  imagination  and  pa.ssion  and  a  nature  that 
revelled  in  the  use  of  words  to  express  this  fire 
and  force.  In  her  hands  the  English  language 
became  sonorous,  gorgeous,  burning." 

In  1865  Harriet  Prescott  was  married  to 
Richard  S.  Spofford,  of  Newburyport.  Joy  in 
the  birth  of  a  child  in  the  ensuing  year  was 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


131 


followed  a  few  months  later  l)y  sorrow  for  its 
loss.  With  the  exception  of  some  time  spent 
in  Washington,  D.C.,  the  home  of  Mrs.  vSpof- 
ford  has  been  on  Deer  Island,  between  New- 
biiryport  and  Amesbury.  Here  Mr.  Spofford 
died  in  August,  LSSS.  Several  winter  seasons 
of  recent  years  Mrs.  Spofford  has  passed  in 
Boston.  In  the  sunmier.of  1908  she  went  to 
Europe  with  her  sister,  her  niece,  and  her  ward, 
sailing  on  the  same  steamer  witii  her  friend, 
Mrs.  Louise  Chandler  Moulton,  in  her  annual 
visit  to  England.  The  present  winter  (1903- 
190-1)  she  is  in  Paris. 

Mrs.  S])offord  as  a  writer  is  exceptionally 
happy  in  her  estimates  and  appreciations  of 
other  women  authors  and  their  work:  witness, 
for  example,  the  biographical  sketch  appearing 
over  her  signature  in  another  part  of  this 
book,  her  criticism  of  the  poems  of  Anne  AVhit- 
ney  in  the  NortJi  Ameiican  Re<ie>v  for  1860,  and 
her  article  on  "The  Author  of  Charles  Auches- 
ter,"  in  the  Atlnntic  Monthlij,  June,  1S62. 

Among  her  books  may  here  be  mentioned, 
not  to  give  an  exhaustive  list:  "Sir  Rohan's 
Ghost,"  "Azarian,"  "New  I'jigland  Legends," 
"Art  Decoration,"  "The  Servant  Question," 
"Hester  Stanley  at  Saint  Mark's,"  "Poems," 
"In  Titian's  Garden,"  "Ballads  about  Au- 
thors," "The  Children  of  the  Valley"  (1901), 
"The  Great  Procession"  (1902). 

Her  most  recent  work  in  the  Athmtic  (Novem- 
ber and  December,  1903),  "The  Story  of  the 
Queen,"  a  short  novel  in  two  chapters,  is  one 
that  could  hardly  have  been  written  before  the 
dawn  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  would 
never  have  been  written,  just  so  felicitously  and 
out  of  the  heart,  by  any  other  pen  than  that 
of  Mrs.  Spofford,  idealist. 

"I  read  it  with  delight,"  says  Mrs.  Moulton, 
referring  to  this  story,  and  adding  these  words 
to  emphasize  her  admiration  for  Mrs.  Spofford 
as  a  poet  as  well  as  a  story  writer:  "There  is 
a  far-reaching  grandeur  of  thought  and  imag- 
ination in  her  poetic  work.  To  lyric  grace  and 
charm  she  adds  breadth  of  view  and  nobility 
of  conception.  She  is  neighbor  to  the  stars. 
The  blind  poet,  Philip  Bourke  Marston,  was  a 
great  admirer  of  her  work,  as  are  many  other 
English  I'eaders  of  high  degree,  among  them  the 
professor  of   poetry  at    the   University  of   (Jx- 


fonl.     She  is   a  poet   of  deep  emotion,  of  far- 
reaching  vision,  of  sjjlendid  power." 

But  beyond  all  the  literary  graces  and  achieve- 
ments of  Mrs.  Spofford — and  it  is  a  pleasant 
note  to  close  with — this  same  gifted  contem- 
porary and  intimate  friend  appreciates  "  her 
noble  womanhood,  her  unselfish  devotion  to  her 
family  and  her  friends,  her  loyalty  to  all  high 
and  noble  ideals." 

M.   H.   G. 


EAMMA  ELIZABITH  BROWN,  artist 
I  and  writer,  was  born  in  Concord,  N.H., 
J  October  18,  1847,  daughter  of  John 
Frost  and  Elizabeth  (Evans)  Brown. 
Her  father  had  no  sons,  his  brother  Hemy 
(also  deceased)  never  married,  and,  her  gran<l- 
father  Brown  having  been  an  only  son,  Miss 
Brown  is  the  last  of  her  line  to  bear  the  family 
name.  As  stated  by  the  late  Henry  Brown, 
who  was  a  genealogist,  this  family  of  Brown 
in  New  England  is  of  German  origin  and  the 
early  spelling  of  the  name  was  Braun. 

Through  her  [laternal  grandmother,  Mrs. 
Susannah  Frost  Brown,  Miss  Brown  traces 
her  descent  from  Eihuund  Frost,  Ruling  Elder 
of  the  church  in  Cambridge,  Mass.  Elder 
Frost,  said  to  have  lieen  son  of  John  Frost, 
of  Ipswich,  England,  came  over  in  the  ship 
"Great  Hope"  in  1635,  and  was  made  freeman 
at  Cambridge,  March  3,  1636.  He  died  in 
July,  1672.  In  his  will,  which  was  probated 
in  October  following,  he  left  bequests  to  his 
widow  Reana  (his  .second  wife),  each  of  his 
eight  children,  something  to  the  new  college 
(Harvard)  then  buililiiig  at  Cambridge,  and 
to  George  Alcock,  a  student.  Much  time  was 
spent  by  Mr.  Henry  Brown  in  England,  look- 
ing up  the  records  of  the  Frost  family. 

Mi.ss  Brown's  father,  John  Frost  Brown,  for 
many  years  a  leading  bookseller  in  Concord, 
N.H.,  was  an  ardent  lover  of  beauty,  whether 
in  nature  or  art.  During  her  girlhood,  as  she 
took  long  outdoor  tiamps  with  him,  he  taught 
her  to  note  the  changing  i)eauties  of  sky  and 
land  and  sea,  which  in  later  years  she  has  been 
.so  skilful  in  reproducing  on  canvas.  During 
his  bu.sy  life  he  collected  a  large  library  of  val- 
uable books.     He  was  a  givat  reader  himself. 


132 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


and  he  directecl  her  reading,  which  dwelt  mostly 
on  outdoor  themes  and  stories  of  goklen  deeds 
in  ancient  and  modern  history.  This  reading 
has  borne  fruit  in  the  many  interesting  volumes 
to  which  Miss  Brown's  name  is  attached. 

Her  mother,  Elizabeth  Evans,  was  also  of 
English  descent,  but  her  family  record  shows 
more  practical  business  men  than  scholars. 
She  herself  hatl  great  executive  ability  and  an 
energetic  temperament.  Her  parents  were  Ar- 
temas  and  Margaret  (Sargent) .  Evans.  The 
latter,  Miss  Brown's  grandmother,  lived  to  be 
more  than  a  hundred  years  old,  and  when  she 
was  ninety-two  had  four  sisters  living  who 
were  over  ninety.  Only  two  of  the  five,  how- 
ever, reached  the  century  mark,  and  none  of 
the  later  generation  showed  any  striking  lon- 
gevity. 

Miss  Brown  has  made  a  name  for  herself 
with  botli  pen  and  brush.  Well-trained  in 
the  Concord  schools,  she  was  always  a  student 
at  home  and  a  keen  observer  as  she  travelled. 
She  is  a  versatile  woman,  and  one  turns  with 
delight  from  her  jiaintings  to  her  histories, 
her  poems,  her  clever  illustrating. 

Her  magazine  stories — many  under  the  pseu- 
donym "  B.  E.  E." — have  a  grace  ami  tender- 
ness which  are  apt  to  send  one  back  for  sec- 
ond reading.  Her  biographies  of  Washington, 
Grant,  Ciarfield,  and  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
are  in  steady  demand.  "Huldah,"  her  book 
of  patriotic  verse,  dedicated  to  a  member  of 
the  I).  A.  R.,  is  read  with  appreciation  by 
lovers  of  graceful  poetry.  To  change  slightly 
the  author's  own  lines  about  another,  it  may 
well  be  said  that  Miss  Brown,  "among  New 
Ham])shire's  daughters,  stanch  and  strong, 
has  made  her  name  well  known,  both  for  her 
story  and  her  song." 

As  described  by  a  friend,  Miss  Brown's  i)er- 
sonality  is  graceful  and  charming.  The  eyes 
are  remarkable — deep  as  the  violets  she  so 
beautifully  paints,  with  long  dark  lashes.  Her 
presence  diffuses  swfH'tness  and  strength,  and 
to  have  met  her  once  is  to  always  long  to  know 
her  more  intimately. 

Not  over  robust,  Mi.ss  Brown  is  unable  to 
keep  as  busy  as  her  ambition  would  direct. 
The  demand  for  her  charming  water-colors 
exceeds  the  supply.     At  her  exhibition  a  year 


ago  the  favorite  pictures  were  scenes  at  the 
Azores,  where  Mi.ss  Brown  has  passed  much 
vacation  time.  This  year  (1903)  she  has  busily 
sketched  along  the  Massachusetts  coast.  Few, 
indeed,  are  they  who  can  depict  life  in  two  ways, 
on  glowing  canvas  and  printed  page;  but  Miss 
Brown  holds  the  secret  of  both  arts. 


SARAH  CORDELIA  FISHER  WELL- 
INGTON, a  Massachu.setts  woman,  bet- 
ter known  as  Mrs.  Austin  C.  Wellington, 
extensively  engaged  in  works  of  phi- 
lanthropy and  patriotism,  is  a  native  resident 
of  Cambridge,  Mass.  Her  father,  George  Fisher, 
who  died  September  12,  ISDN,  was  for  many 
years  one  of  the  leading  citizens  in  the  I'ni- 
versity  City.  He  was  a  son  of  Jabez"  Fi-sher 
and  a  lineal  descendant  in  the  seventh  genera- 
tion of  Anthony'  Fisher,  wjio  came  to  New 
England  in  1637  and  settled  at  Dedham.  Some 
of  the  early  Fishers  at  Dedham,  among  them 
Joshua,'  brother  of  Anthony,'  used  a  seal  bear- 
ing a  coat  of  arms  described  as  "azure,  a  dol- 
phin embowed  naiant  or"  (Fisher  Genealogy). 

George  Fisher  was  a  deep  thinker,  strong  in 
his  anti-slaver}-  and  temperance  convictions, 
and  was  an  enthusiast  in  music.  Buying  the 
Cambridge  Chronicle  in  1859,  he  continued  its 
editor  and  proprietor  till  1873,  when  he  sold 
it.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Harvard  Law 
School  Association.  In  1885  he  represented 
his  tlistrict  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature. 
He  married  in  1840  Haimah  Cordelia,  daughter 
of  Samuel  P.  and  E^unice  (Swan)  Teele,  of 
Charlestown,  and  a  descendant  of  old  Middle- 
sex County  families.  Mrs.  Fisher  also  was  en- 
dowed with  musical  talents.  She  was  well 
known  and  loved  for  her  kindly  nature,  her 
large  philanthropic  work  dining  the  Civil  War, 
and  her  helpfulness  among  the  poor  up  to  tlie 
time  of  her  death,  July  3,  1894.  She  was  a 
member  of  the  Austin  Street  I'nitarian  C'hurch. 

Mrs.  \\'ellington's  education  was  received  in 
the  public  schools  of  Candiridge,  including  the 
high  school,  where  she  was  graduated,  and  in 
Profes.sor  Louis  Aga.ssiz's  School  lor  Young 
Ladies,  of  which  Mrs.  Agassiz  was  director. 
She  subsecjuently  contimied  her  studies  of 
nmsic  at  home  and  abroad,  in  London  being 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


133 


the  pupil  of  Signor  Randeggei-  and  Madame 
Rudersdorf.  She  was  connected  with  cjuar- 
tette  choirs  in  Park  Street,  Old  South,  and 
Trinity  and  Emmanuel  Churches,  Boston. 
She  was  also  soprano  soloist  in  the  Handel 
and  Haydn  Society  and  in  the  Cecilia  Club. 

She  has  travelled  extensively  in  Europe,  in 
her  own  country,  and  in  Canada,  and  is  a  great 
lover  of  nature  in  its  wildest  grandeur.  She 
recalls  with  enthusiasm  her  experience  at 
Oberammergau,  witnessing  the  Passion  Play 
in  1900,  al.so  the  first  performance  of  Wagner's 
Nibelungenlied  at  Bayreuth,  comlucted  by 
the  composer  himself,  in  1876. 

The  Wotnan't'  Chronicle  (issued  as  a  supple- 
ment to  the  Cambridge  Chronicle)  in  its  issue 
of  December  3,  1S9.S,  thus  referred  to  Mrs. 
Wellington's  musical  talents:  "Music,  an  in- 
heritance from  her  parents,  has  been  one  of 
the  chief  inspirations  of  her  life  and  a  .solace 
to  her  sorrows.  She  was  brought  up  antl  nurt- 
ured in  a  musical  atmosphere.  Her  mother's 
voice  was  remarkably  sweet,  and  her  father 
played  several  instruments,  jiaying  .special  at- 
tention to  the  organ  and  piano.  She  cannot 
remember  the  time  wlien  she  could  not  play 
the  piano.  Before  she  was  tall  enough  to  reach 
the  keys,  she  stood  on  tiptoe  to  finger  the  melo- 
dies she  had  heard.  Besides  her  fondness  for 
classical  music,  from  childhood  martial  music 
always  appealed  to  her,  as  she  was  of  a  patri- 
otic nature."       " 

Since  1873  she  has  been  actively  interested 
as  director  in  the  Cambridge  Conservatory  of 
Music,  on  Lee  Street,  of  which  her  father  was 
the  founder  and  proprietor.  She  had  the  honor 
of  singing  in  one  of  the  Montreal  cathedrals, 
and  has  appeared  as  accompanist  with  Camilla 
Urso,  the  celebrated  violinist.  Many  will  re- 
member her  in  operettas  and  concerts  for  chari- 
table objects. 

Mrs.  Wellington  considers  it  a  pleasure  and 
a  duty  to  engage  in  the  work  of  philanthropy, 
the  objects  of  which  are  constantly  knocking 
at  our  doors  and  our  hearts  with  their  confi- 
dential claims  anil  needs.  No  word  of  com- 
plaint or  of  unkindness  is  ever  heard  from  her 
lips.  In  distributing  for  the  flower  mission 
and  visiting  the  sick  and  in  other  forms  of 
charitable  work  she  is  an  enthusiast,  as  well  as 


in  her  musical  career.  Probably  no  woman  in 
Cambridge  is  more  generally  known  and  loved 
than  she.  For  several  years  she  was  on  the 
music  faculty  at  ^\'ellesley  College  and  the 
New  F^.iiglan(l  Conservatory  of  Music. 

Mrs.  Wellington  from  her  early  youth  has 
been  interested  in  and  connected  with  clubs, 
being  recognized  as  a  born  organizer  bj'  her 
schoolmates,  as  later  by  her  maturer  friends. 
She  has  been  entrusted  with  many  responsible 
positions,  notably  the  presidency  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  Massachusetts,  the  Ladies'  Aid  Associ- 
ation of  the  Soldiers'  Home,  the  South  Middle- 
sex Unitarian  Alliance  Branches,  the  Wednes- 
day Club,  and  New  England  Conservatory 
Alunnii  Association;  the  vice-presidency  of  the 
Charity  Club,  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Aid 
Association,  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  and  Cantabrigia  Club;  has  been  secre- 
tary and  treasurer  of  the  Roundabout  Club; 
director  in  the  Cambridge  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association,  the  Woman's  Club-house 
Corporation,  National  Unitarian  Women's  Alli- 
ance Board,  East  End  Christian  Union:  and 
one  of  the  Parish  Committee  of  the  Austin 
Street  Unitarian  Church  in  Cambridge.  She 
is  a  'life  member  of  other  prominent  organiza- 
tions, including  the  New  England  Woman's 
Club,  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial 
I^nion,  and  American  Unitarian  Association. 
She  enjoys  her  membership  in  the  Browning 
Society,  Emer.son  Society,  Shakespeare  Club, 
Boston  Political  Club,  Suffrage  League,  Civil 
Service  Reform  Association,  and  Political  Eciual- 
ity  Club,  and  pays  assessments  in  other  clubs 
to  attest  her  interest  in  tlieir  work  even  if  ]3re- 
ventetl  from  fre([uent  attendance. 

Widely  esteemed  in  social  as  in  puljlic  life, 
she  is  a  woman  of  great  executive  ability,  a 
dignified  and  gracious  ])resi(hng  officer,  a  ready 
speaker,  and  one  who.se  plans  anil  suggestions 
always  command  respect.  In  patriotic  work, 
with  which  she  is  in  deep  sympathy,  she  was 
associated  with  her  husband,  the  late  Colonel 
Austin  Clark  Wellington,  to  whom  she  was 
married  November  29,  1887.  A  native  of 
Lexington,  Mass.,  son  of  Jonas  Clark  and  Har- 
riet E.  {Bosworth)  Wellington,  he  had  been 
a  resident  of  Cambridge  and  later  of  Boston, 
having  large  coal  business  interests  in  both  of 


134 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


these  cities.  Colonel  ^^'ellingt()n  was  popular 
in  social  and  military  circles  throughout  the 
vState.  He  was  Past  Commander  of  E.  W. 
Kinsley  Post,  No.  113,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Boston. 
Returning  from  the  Civil  War  as  Adjutant  of 
the  Thirty-eighth  Massachusetts  Regiment, 
with  which  he  had  taken  part  in  seven  battles, 
he  was  subsequently  active  in  the  State  militia. 
The  First  Regiment,  of  which  he  was  conmiis- 
sioned  Colonel  in  Feliruary,  1882 — a  position 
that  he  held  till  his  decease,  September  IS, 
1888 — he  brought  to  a  high  standard  of  ex- 
cellence, as  recognized  throughout  the  country. 
He  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Soldiers' 
Home  in  Chelsea.  For  two  years  in  the  seven- 
ties he  served  as  Representative  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature,  and  was  on  the  Commit- 
tee on  Military  Affairs.  In  1871  he  joined  the 
Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company. 
He  was  a  member  of  various  societies  and 
clubs,  literary  and  musical. 

Mrs.  Wellington  has  furnished  a  room  in 
Colonel  W\'llington's  honor  at  the  Soldiers' 
Home,  Chelsea,  known  as  the  Austin  C.  Welling- 
ton Memorial  Room;  also  one  in  her  own  home 
in  Cambridge,  containing  numerous  badges, 
flags,  pictures,  _  books,  and  other  relics  and 
souvenirs,  many  of  them  intrinsically  valuable, 
all  interesting  and  highly  prized  for  their  asso- 
ciations. 


ARMENIA  S.  WHITE,  first  president, 
/  \  now  honorary  president,  of  the  New 
X  jL  Hampshire  Woman's  Suffrage  Associ- 
ation, is  well  known  for  her  many  years 
of  efficient  co-operation  with  her  husband,  the 
late  Nathaniel  White,  of  Concord,  N.H.,  in 
works  of  philanthropy  and  reform.  She  was 
born  in  Mendon,  Mass.,  November  1,  1817, 
daughter  of  ,fohn  and  Harriet  (Smith)  Aldrich. 
Her  direct  paternal  line  of  ancestry  in  America 
begins  with  George'  Aldrich,  wlio,  with  his 
wife  Catherine,  came  from  Derbyshire,  England, 
in  1631,  and  in  1603  was  among  the  early  settlers 
of  Mendon,  Mass.,  removing  thither  from  Brain- 
tree.  Jacob^  Aldrich,  son  of  George,'  marrietl 
Huldah,  daughter  of  Ferdinando  Thayer,  and 
was  the  father  of  Moses,^  born  in  1690. 

Moses'  Aldrich  was  a  celebrated  preacher  of 


the  Society  of  Friends  (or  Quakers,  as  they 
were  often  called)  in  Rhode  Island.  He  trav- 
elled as  an  approved  minister,  not  only  in  the 
colonies  later  forming  the  original  States  of 
the  American  Union,  but  in  the  West  Indies 
and  in  England.  He  married  in  1711  Hannah 
White. 

Judge  Caleb^  Aldrich,  son  of  Moses,'  is  men- 
tioned in  the  History  of  Woonsocket,  R.I.,  as 
father  of  Naaman'^  and  grandfather  of  John" 
Aldrich,  all  of  Smithfield,  R.I.  Naaman  was 
the  father  of  John  Aldrich,  who  was  the  father 
of  Mrs.  White. 

As  shown  by  the  following  record,  Mrs. 
White's  maternal  ancestry  includes  three  "  May- 
flower" Pilgrims,  Edwanl  Doty,  Francis  Cooke, 
and  Stephen  Hopkins,  also  Mr.  Hopkins's  sec- 
ond wife,  Elizabeth,  and  their  daughter  Dam- 
aris,  who  both  came  with  him  to  Plymouth. 
Mrs.  White's  mother,  Harriet  Smith  Aldrich, 
was  born,  as  recorded  in  Smithfield,  R.I.,  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1795.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Samuel 
Smith  and  his  wife,  Hope  Doten.  Her  parents 
were  married  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  May  31, 
1791,  antl  moved  to  Smithfield,  R.I.  Samuel 
was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  born  in  Smith- 
field,  R.I.,  enlisting  in  the  American  army  at 
the  age  of  sixteen  years.  The  Doty-Doten 
Genealogy  shows  that  Hope  Doten,  born  in 
Plymouth,  Mass.,  in  1765,  was  daughter  of 
James  and  Elizabeth  (Kempton)  Doten,  and 
was  descended  from  Edwartt  Doty  and  his 
wife.  Faith  Clark,  through  John'  and  Elizabeth 
(Cooke)  Doty,  Isaac'  and  Martha  (Faunce) 
Doten,  and  Isaac'  and  Mary  (Lanman)  Doten, 
Isaac'  being  father  of  James^  and  grandfather 
of  Hope  Doten,  Mrs.  White's  maternal  grand- 
mother. Elizabeth,  wife  of  John^  Doty  (or 
Doten),  was  the  daughter  of  Jacob'  Cooke  (son 
of  Francis')  and  his  wife  Damaris,  daughter  of 
Stephen  Hopkins  and  his  wife  Elizabeth. 

After  the  marriage  of  John  Aldrich  and  Har- 
riet Smith  they  moved  from  Smithfield,  R.I., 
to  Mendon,  Mass.  In  1830  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John 
Aldrich  removed  from  Mendon,  Mass.,  to  Bos- 
cawen,  N.H.  Their  daughter  Armenia  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools.  On  November 
1,  1836,  the  nineteenth  anniversary  of  her  birth, 
she  was  marrieil  to  Nathaniel  White,  then  a 
rising  young  business  man  of  Concord,   N.H. 


ARMENIA   S.  WHITE 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


135 


Mr.  White  was  born  at  Lancaster,  N.H.,  Feb- 
ruary 7,  1811,  being  a  son  of  Samuel  and  Sarah 
(Freeman)  White  and  descendant  of  WilHam 
White,  an  early  settler  of  Essex  County,  Massa- 
chusetts. For  a  number  of  years  in  his  youth 
he  was  employed  in  the  Columbian  Hotel, 
Concord,  N.H.  He  started  in  business  for 
himself  in  1832,  becoming  a  part  owner 
in  the  stage  route  between  Concord  and 
Hanover,  later  buying  the  line  between  Concord 
and  Lowell.  He  was  a  young  man  of  more 
than  ordinary  ability,  upright  and  honorable, 
and  using  neither  intoxicants  nor  tobacco  in 
any  form.  In  1837,  in  partnership  with  Cap- 
tain William  Walker,  he  established  himself  in 
the  express  business,  making  tri-weekly  trips 
to  Boston.  Upon  the  opening  of  the  Concord 
Railroad  in  1842  he  became  one  of  the  original 
members  of  the  express  company  then  organ- 
ized to  deliver  goods  throughout  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Canada.  He  died  at  his  home  in 
Concord,  October  2,  1880.  In  his  forty-eight 
years  of  business  life  he  had  acquired  something 
more  than  a  competency,  having  become  the 
possessor  of  valuable  realty  in  Chicago,  hotel 
property  in  New  Hampshire,  and  stock  in  vari- 
ous railroad  corporations,  banks,  manufac- 
tories, and  other  companies,  in  addition  to  his 
interests  in  the  express  company  and  in  Con- 
cord real  estate. 

Mr.  W^hite  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  New  Hampshire  A.sylum  for 
the  Insane,  the  State  Reform  School,  the  Or- 
phans' Home  at  Franklin,  to  which  he  gave  a 
generous  endowment,  and  of  the  Home  for  the 
Aged  at  Concord.  Always  a  friend  of  the  op- 
pressed, he  was  an  active  member  of  the  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  a  stanch  helper  also  of  the 
cause  of  temperance  and  other  unpopular 
reform  movements,  among  them  that  of  woman 
suffrage,  his  wife  earnestly  sympathizing  and 
working  with  him.  He  was,  with  his  wife,  one 
of  the  original  members  of  the  Universal  ist 
Society  in  Concord  and  a  constant  attendant 
and  liberal  supporter  of  that  society. 

An  earnest  supporter  from  the  early  days  of 
the  movement  in  New  England  for  the  enfran- 
chisement of  women,  Mrs.  White  has  been  active 
in  organizing  suffrage  meetings  and  very  hos- 
pitable in  entertaining  speakers,  Lucy  Stone, 


Mrs.  Livermore,  Mrs.  Howe,  and  many  others, 
having  been  her  guests  from  time  to  time. 
She  had  in  charge  the  New  Hampshire  tables 
at  the  .several  suffrage  bazaars  held  in  Boston, 
and  in  various  ways  contributed  to  their  suc- 
cess. A  writer  in  the  book  entitled  "  New 
Hampshire  Women"  gives  this  summary  of 
Mrs.  White's  helpful  activities: — 

"The  charitable  and  benevolent  associations 
of  the  State  have  ever  been  the  object  of  her 
fostering  care.  She  was  the  first  president  of 
the  New  Hampshire  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  has  been 
president  of  the  New  Hampshire  Woman's 
Suffrage  Association  since  its  organization. 
Largely  through  her  efforts,  coupled  with  her 
husband's,  was  secured  the  legislation  enabling 
the  New  Hampshire  women  to  vote  and  hold 
office  in  connection  with  school  affairs.  Mrs. 
White  is  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of 
the  New  Hampshire  Centennial  Home  for  the 
Aged,  of  the  Orphans'  Home  in  Franklin,  and 
the  Mercy  Home  in  Manchester.  She  was  ac- 
tive in  their  establishment,  and  has  been  a 
liberal  supjwrter  of  each.  The  Universalist 
church  in  Concord  and  at  large,  and  manifold 
charities,  local  and  general,  have  ever  com- 
manded her  earnest  sympathy  and  generous  aid." 

Seven  chiklren  wei'e  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
White — namely,  John  A.,  Armenia  E.,  Lizzie 
H.,  Annie  Frances  (who  died  in  1865  at  the  age 
of  thirteen  years),  Nathaniel,  Seldon  F.  (who 
died  in  infancy),  and  Benjamin  C.  Harriet  S., 
an  adopted  daughter,  married  Dr.  D.  P.  Dear- 
born, and  is  now  a  widow,  living  in  Brattle- 
boro,  Vt. 

Colonel  John  A.  White,  the  eldest  son,  died 
November  26,  1899.  His  first  wife,  Elizabeth 
Mary  Corning,  died  in  1873,  leaving  no  children. 
His  .second  wife  was  her  cousin,  Ella  H.  Corning. 
Of  this  union  there  was  one  child,  Arnold,  born 
in  Concord,  October  20,  1883. 

Armenia  E.  White  married  Horatio  Hobbs, 
of  Boston,  Mass.  He  dieil  in  1889,  leaving  two 
children:  Nathaniel  White  Hobbs,  born  No- 
vember 1,  1873;  and  Annie  White  Hobbs,  born 
July  28,  1875.  Mrs.  Hobbs  and  her  son  and 
daughter  live  with  her  mother,  Mrs.  White,  in 
Concord.  Lizzie  H.  White  married  C.  H. 
Newhall,  of  Lynn,  Mass.  She  died  December 
12,  1887. 


136 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Nathaniel  White,  Jr.,  of  Concord,  is  general 
manager  of  the  farm  and  other  properties  left 
by  his  father.  He  married  Helen  Eastman, 
and  has  two  children,  Nathaniel  Aldrich  and 
Charlotte.  • 

Benjamin  Chenej'  White  is  now  a  prominent 
business  man  of  Concord.  He  married  Mabel 
N.  Chase,  of  Concord,  and  has  had  two  children: 
James  Chase,  who  died  at  the  age  of  five  years; 
and  Rose  Aldrich,  born  in  Concord,  June  5, 
1895. 


EUNICE  HALE  WAITE  COBB.— Eunice 
Hale  Waite  Cobb  was  born  in  Kenne- 
bunk,  Me.,  January  27,  1803,  the  second 
chiKl  of  Captain  Hale  Waite  and  his 
wife,  Elizabeth  Stanwood.  Her  father  had  re- 
moved to  Kennebunk  from  old  Ipswich,  Mass., 
a  .short  time  before  she  was  born,  and  he  re- 
turned thither  .soon  after  her  birth,  so  that  Ips- 
wich is  ever  associated  with  her  earliest  child- 
hood. Captain  Waite  died  when  Eunice  was 
in  her  fifth  year,  leaving  a  widowed  mother  and 
four  children,  two  of  whom  died  at  a  very  early 
age. 

After  her  father's  death  Eunice  was  cared  for 
by  her  maternal  grand-parents  until  she  was 
ten  years  old,  when  her  mother  took  for  her 
second  husband  Samuel  Locke,  of  Hallowell, 
Me.,  a  man  of  liberal  education,  a  school  pre- 
ceptor by  profession.  He  had  a  strong,  clear 
mind,  antl  exerted  an  influence  on  the  youthful 
mind  of  his  stepdaughter  for  which  she  was  ever 
grateful. 

Thoroughly  imbued  with  the  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine by  her  grandparents,  .she  became  at  an 
early  age  a  prominent  member  of  the  Baptist 
church  of  Hallowell,  her  fervid  and  effective 
speech  making  her  a  religious  power  unusual 
for  one  so  young.  Her  conversion  to  L^niver- 
salism  was  remarkable.  Her  stepfather  was  a 
profound  student  of  the  Bible,  and  he  could  see 
naught  else  in  its  pages,  as  he  declared,  but  evi- 
dences of  the  supreme  and  unchangeable  love 
of  God,  whose  divine  fatherhood  was  one  with 
his  eternal  being.  F^unice  was  deeply  ilis- 
tre.«.sed  by  this  condition  of  her  stepfather's 
mind,  and  finally  prevailed  upon  her  })astor, 
Mr.  Moses,  to  visit  him  and  bring  him  to  the 


orthodox  faith.  Having  brought  them  to- 
gether, she  sat  back  and  listened  with  inten.se 
interest  and  anxiety.  Her  account  of  this  in- 
terview, with  the  results  that  followed,  given 
in  her  diary,  presents  an  epitome  of  religious 
experience  of  the  past  century  in  a  most  inter- 
esting manner. 

The  discussion  that  followed  left  Eunice  in 
dismay.  After  Mr.  Locke  had  disposed  of  the 
final  attack  in  the  consideration  of  the  parable 
of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  which  her  minister 
had  brought  forward  with  great  confidence, 
"he,"  we  quote  from  Eunice's  diary,  "was 
going  to  explain  further,  when  the  minister's 
watch  came  out  again,  and  he  said  he  must  go. 
I  asked  him  to  wait  a  moment  and  I  would 
accompany  him.  I  could  not  bear  to  be  left 
alone,  just  then,  with  my  father.  On  our  way 
to  the  meeting-hou.se  we  were  mostly  silent. 
Not  a  word  was  spoken  in  allusion  to  the  late 
discu.ssion.  Arriving  at  the  vestry,  I  took  my 
seat  with  my  sisters,  and  then  gave  myself  up 
to  thought.  At  this  meeting,  called  for  medi- 
tation and  prayer,  I  was  to  relate  my  experience 
for  the  last  time  previous  to  my  bajitism  and 
admission  into  the  church.  When  I  was  called 
upon  to  speak  I  arose,  and  tremblingly  (for  my 
heart  was  painfully  wrought  upon)  asked  that 
my  baptism  might  be  suspended  (that  was  the 
word  used);  and  I  further  said  that  I  made  the 
request  after  serious  deliberation.  An  old  lady, 
sitting  a  few  pews  from'  me,  spoke  up  quickly 
and  excitedly,  'Aha!  I  guess  you  have  been 
taught  in  Master  Locke's  school  since  you  were 
with  us  last.'  This  remark,  so  impudently 
uttered,  gave  me  strength.  'No,'  said  I,  firmly 
and  steadily,  'I  have  been  taught  in  Christ's 
school,  and  I  will  seek  further  instruction  from 
the  same  divine  and  blessefl  source.' 

"The  minister  said  not  a  word:  he  only 
bowed  actiuiescence.  He  knew  what  I  meant. 
I  will  only  add  that  I  went  home  and  sought  the 
instruction  of  which  I  had  spoken.  I  .sought 
it  earnestly,  humbly,  and  honestly;  and,  thank 
God!  very  .soon  my  soul  was  basking  in  the 
full  glory  of  my  heavenly  Father's  boundless 
and  answering  love.  I  had  become  a  Universa- 
li.st." 

She  now  declared  she  would  marry  a  Uni- 
versalist  clergyman,  and  bring  up  twelve  chil- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


137 


dren  in  the  fold  of  Israel.  On  May  8,  1821, 
she  enters  in  her  diary:  "Have  been  indulged 
this  evenmg  with  a  privilege  never  before  by 
me  enjoyed:  have  heard  the  universal  love 
of  God  publicly  contended  for  by  the  Rev. 
Sylvanus  Cobb,  a  preacher  of  the  Universalist 
order.  Indeed,  my  soul  has  been  abundantly 
feasted.  How  animating,  how  soul-cheering, 
the  subject  of  God's  universal  and  impartial 
benevolence !  To  me  it  seems  the  most  glorious 
theme  men  or  angels  can  dwell  upon;  and, 
though  I  have  never  before  heartl  the  doctrine 
publicly  proclaimed  from  the  pulpit,  yet  I  have 
long  enjoyed  a  firm  belief  therein,  and  have 
enjoyed  great  satisfaction  therefrom.  It  is 
about  a  year  and  a  half  since  I  burst  the  har- 
rowing bonds  of  the  narrow  creed  of  partialism 
— man-made — and  found  light  and  joy  in  the 
glorious  field  of  God's  universal  and  impartial 
love,  and  I  find  I  can  gather  daily  of  its  whole- 
some and  delicious  fruits  a  fresh  supply;  and, 
should  I  be  spareil  to  the  common  age  of  men, 
and  be  permitted  to  range  the  same  broad  field 
of  glowing  grace  and  partake  of  the  heavenly 
bounties,  I  surely  shall  find  a  spiritual  food 
sufficient  for  all  my  wants.  In  the  good  Father 
I  fear  not  to  trust." 

Eunice's  heart  beat  in  sympathy  with  her 
soul.  Sixteen  months  later  she  was  united  in 
marriage  to  the  preacher  who  had  so  inspired 
that  soul,  the  ceremony  taking  place  at  her 
stepfather's  house  in  Hallowell,  Me.,  on  Sep- 
tember 10,  1822. 

She  became  the  mother  of  nine  children,  and 
a  more  affectionate  and  faithful  mother  has  not 
lived.  Their  names  and  the  dates  of  their  birth 
are  as  follows:  Sylvanus,  Jr.,  June  5,  1823; 
Samuel  Tucker,  June  11,  1825;  Eunice  Hale, 
April  15,  1827;  Eben,  January  17,  1829;  George 
Winslow,  March  31,  1831:  Sarah  Waite,  Decem- 
ber 1,  1832;  Cyrus  and  Darius  (twins),  August 
6,  1834 ;  James  Arthur,  December  22,  1842. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  James  Arthur, 
at  nine  years  of  age,  Mrs.  Cobb,  with  a  mother's 
fondness,  wrote  his  memoir,  poi-traying  traits 
of  character,  remarkable  for  one  so  young, 
which  she  desired  to  be  known  as  an  example 
to  others.  Especially  did  she  desire  to  publish 
to  the  world  an  account  of  a  remarkable  vision 
that  he  had,  in  which  there  appeared  hovering 


about  him  many  angels,  whose  apf)earance  and 
words  he  described  with  heavenly  serenity.  He 
repeated  words  spoken  to  him  by  the  angels, 
and  presently  he  exclaimed,  "Oh,  this  is  Sally'" 
His  mother  says,  "  My  feelings  here  were  inde- 
scribable, for  this  was  a  dear  sister  of  mine, 
who  died  before  I  was  married,  and  whom  he 
knew  nothing  about." 

From  this  time  to  the  day  of  his  death,  some 
two  months  afterwartl,  he  longed  to  be  with 
the  angels  with  whom  he  had  so  happily  con- 
versed. His  life  seemed  transported.  The 
faith  his  mother  had  implanteil  in  his  mind  had 
found  its  fruition  in  heavenly  reality. 

Mrs.  Cobb's  life  was  spent  in  work  for  the 
public  welfare.  She  was  a  frequent  contribu- 
tor to  the  religious  press,  and  was  a  great  fa- 
vorite with  the  Sunday-schools,  which  she  ad- 
dressed with  a  heart  filled  with  love  for  children 
and  a  mind  stored  with  all  that  interests  them. 

She  was  also  equally  interesting  to  the  adult 
listener.  Every  word  told.  Her  utterance  was 
very  distinct,  her  voice  full,  meloilious,  and  far- 
reaching,  not  only  into  space,  but  into  the 
hearts  and  souls  of  her  audience.  She  loved 
humanity,  and  her  eloquence  was  as  the  elo- 
quence of  a  mother  talking  to  a  fondly  listen- 
ing family  of  children;  in  sliort,  it  was  of  the 
kind  with  which  Abraham  Lincoln  moved  and 
controlled  his  autlience.  Without  any  mani- 
festation of  con.sciousness  that  she  knew  more 
than  her  auditors,  she  kept  them  on  a  level 
with  her  best,  her  highest,  and  her  deepest 
thought.  She  riveted  attention  the  instant 
her  voice  was  heard.  All  felt  as  if  they  were 
individually  addressed,  and  each  gave  ear  to 
her  words  accordingly. 

Mrs.  Cobb,  in  her  motherly  way,  once  wrote 
a  letter  to  Queen  Victoria,  congratiilating  her 
on  the  birth  of  her  third  child,  a  letter  so  hap- 
pily worded,  .so  sympathetic  and  sincere,  that 
it  touched  the  royal  heart,  and  was  cordiaiiy 
acknowledged. 

Mrs.  Eunice  Hale  Cobb's  name  as  a  writer 
appears  in  the  work  devoted  to  the  poets  of 
Maine,  published  a  few  years  ago.  As  with  all 
else  she  did,  her  poetry  was  devoted  to  the  good 
of  humanity. 

She  was  a  champion  for  the  rights  of  woman 
in  the  broadest  sense.     While  she  was  not  iden- 


138 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


tified  with  the  public  advocates  of  woman's 
rights,  she  counted  among  her  warmest  and 
most  devoted  friends  eminent  leaders  of  this 
exalted  reform,  and  ever  sympathetically  in- 
terchanged views  on  this  topic.  She  attended, 
by  invitation,  the  first  Woman's  Rights  Con- 
vention held  in  this  State — at  Worcester.  She 
was  greatly  amused  by  the  climax  of  an  elo- 
quent appeal  of  a  somewhat  aged  colored 
woman,  who,  in  the  midst  of  a  fervid  harangue, 
cried  out  as  only  one  of  her  race  could,  "  Why, 
sisters,  if  I  am  what  I  am  without  an  ctlicashun, 
what  on  arth  would  I  be  with  one?" 

Mrs.  Cobb  was  widely  known  as  a  comforter 
of  the  sick,  the  dying,  and  the  bereaved.  She 
ever  lived  consciously  with  God,  and  those  she 
visited  in  the  hour  of  trial  and  sorrow  ever  felt 
through  her  liis  i)resence.  Her  obituary  poems 
were  the  source  of  much  solace:  many  were  the 
aching  hearts  that  were  soothed  by  her  heaven- 
inspired  lines.  There  were  those  without  num- 
ber who  might  well  ask,  after  a  consoling  visit 
from  her  or  a  word  from  her  pen,  "0  death, 
where  is  thy  sting?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory?" She  walked  with  Jesus,  and  it  would 
seem  at  times  as  if  she  must  have  felt  his  hand 
in  hers. 

Mrs.  Cobb  and  her  husband  joined  with 
Professor  C.  P.  Bronson  in  founding  the  Ladies' 
Physiological  Listitute  of  Boston,  the  leader 
of  all  similar  institutions  in  this  country,  Mr. 
Cobb  obtaining  the  charter  for  it.  Professor 
Bronson  acted  as  president,  by  courtesy,  the 
first  year.  Mrs.  Cobb  then  became  the  first 
elected  president,  and  served  this  her  beloved 
family,  as  she  was  wont  to  call  it,  until  old  age 
compelled  her  to  resign  the  learlership,  still 
by  their  earnest  desire  continuing  her  official 
connection  with  them  by  acting  as  correspond- 
ing secretary  until  a  .short  time  before  her 
death. 

Probably  no  past  president  is  more  fondly 
enshrined  in  memory  than  is  Mrs.  Cobb  in  the 
memory  of  the  surviving  older  members  of  the 
Ladies'  Physiological  Institute.  The  national 
eminence  of  this  pioneer  institute  reflects  very 
high  honor  upon  the  woman  whose  devoted 
life  was  largely  influential  in  imparting  to  it 
so  enduring  a  vitality. 

The  Masonic  order  hold  her  in  honored  mem- 


ory. In  1834,  while  the  excitement  was  raging 
on  account  of  the  mysterious  disappearance  of 
Morgan,  who,  having  exposed  the  secrets  of 
Masonry,  was  suspected  to  have  been  made 
away  with  by  the  Masons,  an  attempt  was 
made  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  to  sup- 
press Free  Masonry  in  this  Commonwealth. 
Mr.  Cobb,  who  had  consented  to  an  election  as 
Representative,  to  .secure  the  pa.ssage  of  a  bill 
for  the  bridge  between  Charlestown  and  Maiden, 
in  which  he  met  with  his  usual  success,  opposed 
the  attack  on  Free  Ma.sonry  with  a  power  that 
ensured  its  defeat,  he  himself  being  a  Free 
Mason. 

The  committee  of  the  Maiden  church  of  which 
Mr.  Cobb  was  pastor  waited  upon  Mrs.  Cobb, 
and  urgently  requested  her  to  use  her  influence, 
which  they  knew  to  be  strong  with  her  husband, 
to  draw  him  from  his  position  in  his  defence 
of  Free  Masonry.  "Gentlemen,"  she  replied, 
"  I  glory  in  my  husband's  defence  of  Free  Ma- 
sonry, and  not  one  word  will  I  utter  to  with- 
draw him  from  it."  "But,  Mrs.  Cobb,"  re- 
.sponded  one  of  the  committee,  "yours  and 
your  children's  bread  and  butter  may  depend 
upon  it."  "Gentlemen,"  was  the  answer, 
"when  it  comes  to  that,  I  will  go  with  my 
children  into  the  woods  and  feed  on  nuts  and 
acorns  before  I  s{)eak  to  him  as  you  desire." 

An  old  Mason  informed  Mrs.  Cobb  several 
years  afterward  that  her  name  was  inscribed 
on  the  Ma.sonic  record  in  such  a  manner  as 
virtually  to  make  her  an  honorary  member  of 
the  order. 

Mrs.  Cobb  was  a  prominent  and  active  mem- 
ber of  the  order  of  Rechabites,  a  temperance 
association  organized  b}'  women.  In  fact, 
wherever  the  opportunity  was  offered  her  to 
aid  mankind  through  her  woman's  influence, 
there  she  was  found  performing  her  duty. 

Fjve  of  her  family  served  in  the  Civil  War — 
four  sons,  Sylvanus,  Jr.,  George  Winslow,  and 
Cyrus  and  Darius,  and  Lafayette  Culver,  hus- 
band of  her  daughter,  Eunice  Hale.  Sylvanus, 
Jr.,  conunanded  at  Fort  Kittery,  Me.,  and  the 
others  served  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina, 
George's  name  now  standing  on  record  at 
Washington  for  signal  bravery  in  leading  the 
charge  as  First  Sergeant  from  "Fort  Hell"  to 
"Fort  Damnation,"  as  the  Confederates  named 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


139 


them.  Of  the  sons,  Cyrus  and  Darius  first  en- 
listed; and  the  mother  displayed  her  Spartan 
spirit  from  this  time  throughout  the  war.  She 
was  present  as  a  leader  in  the  meetings  of 
mothers  and  sisters  anil  others,  held  so  often 
in  Boston  for  prayer  for  the  loved  volunteers 
fighting  at  the  front.  Her  disinterested  patri- 
otism was  the  more  marked  inasmuch  as  the 
twins  were  the  only  sons  left  her  at  home,  the 
others  being  married.  She  was  a  welcome  vis- 
itor to  Readville  Camp,  always  responding  to 
the  request  of  the  twins'  comrades  to  address 
them,  in  which  the  father  joined  when  he  visited 
the  camp  with  her.  On  account  of  her  fervor 
at  the  prayer  meetings  it  was  anticipated  that 
there  would  be  a  somewhat  dramatic  scene 
when  the  Forty-fourth  Regiment  should  be 
received  by  their  friends  on  Boston  Common 
on  their  return,  but  the  anticipatetl  scene  was 
not  enacted.  Mother  and  sons  met  with  marked 
calmness.  The  same  calmness  that  had  at- 
tended the  departure  for  possible  death  in 
battle  received  the  safe  return. 

Fortitude  was  a  prime  virtue.  It  attended 
her  through  life,  and  appeared  with  a  kind  of 
solemn  grandeur  on  the  approach  of  death. 
Having  had  two  strokes  of  paralysis,  she 
awaited  the  third  stroke  with  tran([uillity.  She 
calmly  arranged  with  her  twin  sons  for  her 
funeral,  going  into  all  details  with  them  as  if 
it  were  an  ordinary,  every-day  matter.  She 
recjuested  them  to  sing  at  her  grave,  which  they 
promised  to  do  if  they  were  able.  They  then 
knelt  at  her  feet,  and  she  placed  her  hands 
upon  their  heads  and  blessed  them.  They  feel 
those  hands  upon  their  bowed  heails  to  this 
day,  and  listen  to  the  dying  mother's  blessing 
uttered  in  that  same  firm,  fervid  tone  which 
had  so  often  been  an  inspiration  and  a  comfort. 

Her  last  hours  were  spent  in  a  pleasant 
chamber,  that  overlooked  Mystic  River  and 
Bunker  Hill  Monument.  On  a  beautiful  morn- 
ing. May  2,  1880,  while  the  Sabbath  bells  were 
ringing,  she  realized  that  the  last  summons  had 
come.  She  asked  her  grandson,  Albert  Wins- 
low,  who  was  alone  with  her,  to  help  her  to  a 
large  arm-chair  awaiting  her  in  the  chamber. 
Her  mother  and  grandmother  had  died  in  this 
chair,  and  she  had  always  desired  to  die  in  it. 

When  she  was  in  the  chair,  she  made  a  sign 


for  her  grandson  to  take  her  hand.  "Help  qie 
over,  don't  hold  me  back,"  she  said  with  tran- 
quil happiness.  Her  son  George  Winslow  and 
his  wife  and  daughter  appeared,  having  been 
warned  by  Albert.  Heaving  struggles  for 
breath  ensued.  "Excuse  me  for  making  this 
noise,"  she  gasped.  "I  cannot  help  it."  Thus 
did  she  show  to  the  last  that  tender  regard  for 
the  feelings  of  others  which  had  ever  charac- 
terized her — an  ever-attendant  virtue. 

The  funeral  services  were  held  in  the  l^niver- 
salist  church  at  East  Boston,  and  were  attended 
by  the  Ladies'  Physiological  Institute  in  a 
body.  According  to  her  dying  request,  the 
funeral  sermon  was  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
A.  St.  John  Chambrc,  whom  she  loved  as  a 
son. 

A  very  touching,  memorable  incident  now 
occurred.  A  lovely  little  babe,  seven  months 
oki,  the  infant  daughter  of  Darius  and  Laura, 
died  the  same  day  her  grandmother  died,  so 
that  those  who  parted  with  her  could  but  be- 
hold her,  in  their  faith's  vision,  received  into 
the  grandmother's  arms  in  greeting,  she  never 
having  seen  the  child  in  this  life.  Her  little 
casket  was  placed  beside  the  casket  of  the 
grandmother,  antl  as  the  members  of  the  In- 
stitute passed  by,  to  look  for  the  last  time  upon 
the  features  of  their  tenderljj:  remembered  presi- 
dent, their  eyes  were  unexpectedly  greeted  by 
the  sight  of  this  little  babe,  sweetly  sleeping  its 
last  sleep  by  the  side  of  its  grandmother.  Many 
were  the  responsive  tears  from  those  who  wit- 
nessed this  scene.  It  seemed  as  if  enacted  by 
Heaven  itself,  to  impress  upon  our  hearts  the 
memory  of  that  blessed  mother  in  Israel,  who 
so  loved  the  little  children  and  ever  made  them 
so  happy. 

When  the  little  child  was  drawing  her  last 
breath,  her  eyes  were  fixed  upward  with  a  mar- 
vellously heaven-inspired  gaze,  ere  their  earthly 
lids  were  forever  closed,  ^^'hat  she  there  saw 
only  Heaven  knows.  In  their  souls'  vision  the 
parents  have  always  seen  that  sainted  grand- 
mother, whom  the  Sabbath  morning  bells  had 
ushered  into  heaven,  awaiting,  while  the  even- 
ing bells  of  the  same  holy  Sabbath  were  usher- 
ing in  her  dear  grandchild. 

At  the  grave  the  avin  sons,  Cyrus  and  Darius, 
kept  their  promise.     Sylvanus,  Samuel  Tucker, 


140 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


aiyi  Eben  expressed  to  the  assembled  friends 
their  love  and  reverence  for  their  mother, 
whose  mortal  remains  were  about  to  be  con- 
signed to  the  earth,  when  Cyrus  and  Darius 
began  to  sing,  as  they  never  had  before, 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee."  Those  assembled 
united  with  them,  and  the  very  hills  and  forest 
seemed  to  join  in  that  sublime  hymn.  Fitting 
music  to  accompanj'  the  droj)])ing  of  the  cur- 
tain on  the  final  act,  directed  by  the  radiant 
angel  of  death  and  immortality. 

Cyrus  Cobb  (1834-1903). 

This  article  was  the  last  work  from  my  twin 
brother's  pen  for  publication  before  he  died,  January, 
1903.     It  was  tenfold  a  labor  of  love. 

Darius  Cobb. 


ALMEDA    HALL    COBB.- The   life   of 

/\      Almeda   Hall   Cobb  exemplifies    Mary 

X    \.   A.  Livermore's  saying   that  "  fighting 

and  war  have  been   the  main  business 

of  the  world,  in  which  women  take    no    part, 

save  to  endvire  and  suffer." 

Born  August  27,  1S34,  in  the  quaint,  beauti- 
ful town  of  Marshfield,  on  Massachusetts  Bay, 
she  was  the  daughter  of  William  and  Sarah 
(Kent)  Hall.  Her  lineage  was  partly  from 
the  "Mayflower's"  first  company,  Standish, 
White,  and  Brewster  stock  being  among  the 
blend  in  the  ancestry  of  her  mother,  Sarah 
Kent.  Her  father,  William  Hall,  of  a  line  of 
South  Shore  ship-builders,  was  a  man  sterling 
in  character. 

Alnieda's  nature  was,  during  her  girlhood, 
sprightly  and  winsome  to  a  degree  that  matte 
her  presence  a  perpetual  delight.  Brimful  of 
music,  it  was  her  singing  in  the  choir  of  the 
Rev.  vSylvanus  Cobb's  church  that  stirred  his 
son,  George  Winslow  Col)b,  to  woo  and  win 
Almeda  Hall  for  his  wife.  There  was  appro- 
priateness in  the  mating,  for  her  husband's 
line  of  ancestry  was  direct  from  Elder  Henry 
Cobb,  of  Plvmouth  and  Barnstable,  an  immi- 
grant of  1629. 

To  her  wedded  life  Almeda  brouglit  all  the 
innate  Pilgrim  reverence  for  holy  marriage 
and  for  divinity,  developing  more  and  more 
with  the  sacred  cares  of  maternity.  The 
diary  of  her  wifehood,  dating  from  her  wedding 


tlay,  May  1,  1856,  is  like  a  sacred  poem,  a  latter- 
day  song  of  Ruth,  in  its  spirit  and  diction. 
Brought  immediately,  in  the  household  and 
church  of  her  husbantl's  parents,  Sylvanus  and 
Eunice  Cobb,  into  contact  with  noble  men  and 
women  identified  with  the  great  temperance 
and  anti-slavery  reforms,  her  soul  was  quick- 
ened with  desire  to  serve  humankind  as  they 
were  serving  it.  Yet  her  wifely  and  motherly 
devotion  taxed  her  time,  and  only  by  the  pages 
of  her  diary  is  the  inmost  secret  of  her  real 
character  revealed. 

Three  years  after  her  marriage  she  writes: 
"  How  swiftly  the  time  glides  by,  employed  as 
I  am  at  present  with  my  two  little  ones  and 
other  domestic  cares!  for  the  happiest  home 
has  these  cares  if  well  conducted.-  Indeed, 
I  can  no  more  be  happy  if  these  little  duties 
are  neglected.  I  confess  they  sometimes  press 
heavily  upon  me,  and  I  feel  that  I  would  fain 
fly  off  from  them  a  while  and  refresh  my  weary 
spirit  by  communion  Avith  the  gifted  spirits 
whose  works  lie  thick  around  me;  for,  simple 
though  our  home  is  in  its  outward  adornings, 
we  have  plenty  of  good  books  here.  But  I 
look  forward  to  the  time  when  these  little  ones 
will  not  require  quite  so  close  attention  from 
me.  There  is  so  much  I  want  to  do,  for  myself, 
my  family,  and  for  everybody,  all  over  this 
great  and  good  world." 

And  again,  later:  "Thoughts  I  hav.e  that 
thrill  my  soul  and  make  me  better  each  hour 
I  live,  thoughts  born  of  deep  life  experiences 
made  blessed  teachers  by  trust  in  God,  thoughts 
that  might  shed  light  on  the  pathway  of  many 
a  weary,  sin-sick  pilgrim ;  and  yet  nmst  I  keep 
them,  for  my  time,  if  it  cometh  ever,  is  not 
yet  come.  Yet,  if  it  be  best  so,  then  I  know 
the  Father  will  j'et  unseal  tliese  mute  lips  and 
give  f)ower  to  this  dumb  tongue.  And,  if  it 
be  better  so,  let  me  be  yet  as  now.  Only 
teach  me  thy  will,  0  my  Father,  and  I  am 
content.  Let  my  work  be  what  and  where 
it  may:  if  I  may  only  add  to  thy  truth  and 
power  in  the  earth,  I  will  be  happy  in  doing  it, 
and  count  myself,  even  though  my  sphere 
be  limited,  one  of  thy  meek  and  lowly  apostles, 
ever  striving  to  lead  others  in  the  '  pleasant 
paths,'  if  I  can  in  no  other  way,  by  a  pure  and 
spotless  life. 


ALMEDA   HALL   COBB 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


141 


"But  I  humbly,  earnestly  pray  for  a  wider 
sphere  of  usefuhiess.  Darkness  and  error  pre- 
vail on  every  hand.  I  would  fain  have  power 
to  clear  away  some  of  these  clouds.  And  shall 
I  pray  in  \ain?  We  have  the  promise — if  we 
seek,  we  shall  find." 

These  words  are  the  end  of  this  written  rec- 
ord of  a  woman's  love  and  trust;  for  in  this 
"great  and  good  world"  there  were  certain 
men  at  the  South  who  about  that  time  trained 
their  cannon  on  the  starred  and  striped  flag 
of  the  government  which  "  would  not  suffi- 
ciently Jet  them  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  other  men's  faces";  and  so  woman's  love  and 
trust,  and  joy  of  peaceful  ministry  everywhere, 
were  whelmed  in  the  crash  and  mauling  antl 
woe  of  a  mighty  Civil  War — a  war  which  taught 
the  braggart  tyrant  fcjrces  of  the  world  that 
the  most  terrible  foemen  on  earth  are  the 
"woman-hearted"  men  who  love  their  fair, 
free  homes  and  simple  fireside  joys,  but  who 
will  fight  when  fight  they  nuist,  or  see  the 
truth  crushed  down  forever. 

Those  who  know  the  life  histoiy  of  Almeda 
Hall  Cobb  throughout  that  woeful  season,  know 
of  her  ceaseless  ministries,  her  home  toil  for  the 
hospitals  and  for  (he  wounded  brought  back 
from  the  front;  know  of  the  birth  of  another 
daughter,  replacing  the  baby  girl  whom  death 
had  taken;  know  of  her  continuous  thought  and 
labor  for  the  cause  of  Union  and  liberty.  Her 
husband's  brothers  had  volunteeretl  for  the 
front;  but  him  whom  she  loved  so  devotedly 
the  conscription  had  not  touched,  ami  she  was 
loath  to  let  him  go.  Yet  the  time  came  when, 
after  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
Grant,  the  great  chieftain  whom  the  nation 
trusted,  mighty  in  war  yet  with  latent  peace- 
yearnings  in  his  heart,  needed  volunteers  to  re- 
pair the  losses  of  his  terrible  cami>aign  toward 
Richmond.  Then  Almeda  yielded  her  final  sac- 
rifice, as  her  husband,  George  Winslow  Cobb, 
of  the  Sixty-first  Regiment,  Massachusetts  Vol- 
unteers, set  forth  to  join  in  the  death-grapple 
around  Petersburg  and  Richmond.  While  the 
bulletins  brought  news  tlay  by  clay  of  his 
regiment's  engagment  in  the  thick  of  the 
fight,  his  wife,  at  home  with  Albert  and  Mar- 
garet, their  little  boy  and  girl,  encountered 
her    daily    trials,    supporting    her    little    ones, 


shielding  and  guarding  them  with  anxious 
care  against  encompassing,  un'speakable  social 
demoralizations,  which  are  always  part  of  the 
price  of  war.  imd  which  brave  Mary  Liver- 
more  has  published  anil  proclaimed  with  un- 
wavering courage,  as  she  arraigns  the  war- 
policies  of  nations. 

Once  at  home  by  furlough  with  endorsement 
for  bravery  in  battle,  greeting  his  now  invalid 
wife  and  the  children,  then  again  to  the  front, 
Almeda's  husband  took  her  heart  with  him, 
in  yearning  that  wore  her  vital  force  away. 
A  few  months  after  Grant's  magic  words, 
"Let  us'have  peace,"  had  dissolved  and  sent 
home  a  host  of  a  million  men  at  arms,  Almeda 
Hall  Cobb,  representative  of  woman-martyrs 
as  the  sands  of  the  sea  for  nundjer,  yielded 
her  earth-life,  worn  and  finished  by  war,  and 
her  body  of  this  mortality  was  laid  at  rest  in 
Woodlawn,  Septeml)er  20,  1865. 

In  many  young  people  to  whom  "grand- 
mother's" face  and  memory  are  only  a  far- 
away tradition  her  traits  of  righteousness  now 
live  on,  blessed  by  peace.  In  so  far  as  her 
soul's  desire  to  spread  the  light  of  truth  can 
be  fulfilled  in  trust  by  a  son  who  lives  after  her, 
it  shall  be  fulfilled,  and  thus  her  prayers  be 
answered;  while  for  herself  and  her  kind  in 
the  mysterious  life  beyond  tleath,  there  is  a 
Scripture — 

"  \Miat  are  these  which  are  arrayed  in  white 
robes?  and  whence  came  they? 

"And  I  said  unto  him.  Sir,  thou  knowest. 
And  he  said  to  me.  These  are  they  which  have 
come  up  out  of  great  tribulation." 


MARY  CAFFREY  L()W^  CARVER 
was  born  at  Waterville,  Kennebec 
County,  Me.,  March  22,  1850,  being 
the  .second  daughter  of  Ira  Hobbs 
Low  and  Ellen  Mandana  Caffrey  Low.  Her 
paternal  grandparents  were  Ivory  and  Fanny 
(Colcord)  Low,  of  Fairfield,  Me.,  Ivory  being 
the  son  of  Obadiah  Low,  a  native  of  Sanford, 
Me.  Her  mother  was  a  grand-daughter  of  John 
Pullen,  who  came  from  Attleboro,  Mass.,  and 
settled  in  Winthrop,  Me.,  where  he  married 
Amy  Bishop,  daughter  of  Squier  Bishop  and 
his  wife,  Patience  Titus  Bishop.    John  Pullen 


142 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


and  Squier  Bishop,  Jr.,  a  brother  of  Amy  (Mrs. 
Pullen),  enlisted  in  the  Continental  army  and 
served  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Mrs.  Carver,  after  receiving  her  education  in 
the  public  schools  (if  Waterville,  took  a  three 
years'  course  at  Coliurn  (then  Waterville) 
Classical  Institute,  under  the  well-known  edu- 
cator, Dr.  James  H.  Hanson.  She  subsequently 
spent  one  year  there  as  teacher  of  Greek  and 
Latin,  being  special  assistant  to  Dr.  Hanson 
in  his  department,  and  then  entered  Colby  Uni- 
versity for  a  full  collegiate  course.  She  was 
graduated  from  that  institution  with  the  high- 
est honors  in  the  class  of  1875,  being  one  of  the 
first  women  in  a  New  England  college  to  take 
the  full  prescribed  classical,  mathematical,  and 
scientific  course.  After  graduation  she  taught 
in  different  high  schools  and  academies  of  the 
State.  The  marriage  of  Mary  Caffrey  Low  and 
Leonard  Dwight  Carver  took  place  in  1877. 
Two  children  have  been  born  of  their  union, 
namely:  Ruby  Carver,  now  a  student  at  Colby 
College;  and  Dwight  Carver,  who  died  in  1889. 

Since  leaving  college  Mrs.  Carver  has  been 
active  in  religious  and  intellectual  work.  She 
is  a  member  of  Colby  Chapter,  Phi  Beta  Kappa; 
of  Koussinoc  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution;  of  the  Unity  Club  of  Augusta; 
and  a  life  member  of  the  American  L^nitarian 
Association.  She  has  written  much  in  the  form 
of  essays,  lectures,  and  papers  for  special  occa- 
sions, the  most  notable  being  her  lectures  on 
the  "Beauty  of  the  Psalms"  and  on  the  "Liter- 
ature of  the  Old  Testament,"  which  she  has 
read  to  appreciative  audiences  in  several  States. 
Mrs.  Carver  is  now  fully  occupied  in  cata- 
loguing and  in  special  work  in  the  Maine 
State  Library. 


FANNY  CLIFFORD  BROWN,  in  the 
closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
one  of  the  best  known,  most  active, 
and  influential  club  women  and  phi- 
lanthropists of  Portland,  Me.,  died  in  California, 
December  20,  1900.  She  was  born  at  New- 
field,  Me.,  May  11,  1834,  daughter  of  the  Hon. 
Nathan  Clifford  and  his  wife  Hannah,  daughter 
of  James  Ayer. 

Nathan  Clifford  was  born  in  1803  in  Rum- 


ney,  N.H.  Son  of  Deacon  Nathan,  Sr.,  and 
Lydia  (Simpson)  Clifford,  he  was — as  shown 
in  Dow's  History  of  Hampton,  N.H. — a  lineal 
descendant  in  the  sixtli  generation  of  "George 
Clifford,  tlescended  from  tlie  ancient  ami  noble 
family  of  Clifford  in  England"  (dating  back 
seven  hundred  years  and  more),  who  came  from 
Nottinghamshire,  I'^ngland,  to  Boston  in  1644, 
and  later  removed  to  Hampton,  N.H.  Nathan 
Clifforil  as  a  young  lawyer  settled  in  York 
County,  Maine.  He  was  Attorney-General  of 
the  State,  1834-38;  in  Congress,  December, 
1839,  to  March,  1843;  in  ]84fi  he  was  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States  in  the  cabinet  of 
President  Polk;  in  1848  was  sent  as  Envoy 
E.xtraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
to  Mexico;  in  1858  was  appointed  by  President 
Buchanan  Associate  Justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court;  and  in  1877  served  as 
President  of  the  Electoral  Commission.  He 
died    in    1881. 

Fanny  Clifford  married  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen years  the  late  Philip  Henry  Brown,  of 
Portland,  Me.,  a  manufacturer  and  banker 
and  a  man  of  much  culture.  Eight  children 
were  born  of  this  union.  The  father  died 
October  25,  1893.  The  surviving  children  are: 
Philip  Greeley  Brown:  Nathan  Clifford  Brown, 
Mrs.  Linzee  Prescott,  Boston:  Mrs.  F.  D.  True; 
of  Portland;  and  Helen  Clifford   Brown. 

Of  a  strongly  religious  temperament,  Mrs. 
Brown  early  became  a  member  of  the  High 
Street  Congregational  Churcli,  and  was  always 
prominent  in  its  activities.  She  also  felt 
much  interest  in  charitable  work,  and  took 
such  part  in  it  as  her  home  duties  permitted 
throughout  her  early  married  life.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  her  chiklren  had  grown  to 
maturity  that  she  became  the  leader  in  local 
philanthropic  work  which  she  continued  to  be 
to  the  end  of  her  life.  She  was  also  in  her 
later  years  an  enthusiastic  club  woman,  was 
president  of  several  organizations  and  a  mem- 
ber of  many  others.  She  had  a  judicial  mind, 
inherited,  no  doubt,  from  her  father,  and, 
having  made  a  careful  study  of  parliamentary 
law,  was  a  tactful  and  popular  presiding  offi- 
cer. Some  of  the  clubs  and  charities  of  which 
she  was  a  member  are  as  follows:  the  \'olun- 
teer  Aid  Society,  of  which  she  was  president, 


FANNIE  CLIFFORD   BROWN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


143 


the  society  having  been  fornietl  during  the 
Spanish  War;  the  Invalids'  Home;  the  Women's 
Council;  the  Crockett  Club;  the  Women's  Lit- 
erary Tnion;  the  Clifford  Club,  which  was 
named  by  the  other  members  in  honor  of  Mrs. 
Brown's  father^  the  Portland  Fraternity;  the 
Civic  Club;  the  Beecher  Club;  the  Society  for 
the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals;  ami  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association.  She 
was  president  of  several  of  these  clubs,  and 
refused  this  office  for  many  of  the  others. 

She  was  deeply  interested  in  the  Diet  Mis- 
sion. She  was  vice-president  of  an  organiza- 
tion recently  formed  for  establishing  a  mater- 
nity hospital  at  Portland.  But  her  favorite 
charity  was  undoubtedly  the  Temporary  Home 
for  Women  anil  Children,  of  which  she  was 
one  of  the  founders  in  1882  and  always  a  stead- 
fast friend.  She  was  the  ardent  champion  of 
the  home  throughout  a  long  period  during 
which  it  was  frowned  upon  by  the  community 
as  an  ill-advised  institution — a  period  happily 
long  past.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
most  of  the  present  popularity  of  the  home 
is  due  to  her.  She  was  chosen  vice-president 
of  the  home  in  1885,  and  retained  the  office  as 
long  as  she  lived,  being  for  many  years,  on 
account  of  the  invalidism  of  the  titular  presi- 
dent, practically  president. 

Mrs.  Brown's  death  was  a  pathetic  sacrifice 
and  the  direct  result  of  her  maternal  devotion. 
In  December,  1900,  she  learned  by  telegraph 
that  her  son  John  (twenty-seven  years  of  age), 
who  had  served  three  years  with  distinction 
in  the  United  States  army,  had  left  the  Phil- 
ippines and  had  reached  San  Francisco,  where 
he  lay  very  ill,  in  a  military  hospital,  of  disease 
contracted  in  service.  She  at  once  started 
with  a  daughter  for  the  Pacific  coast.  A  cold 
caught  on  the  train  developed  into  pneu- 
monia. Her  nervous  system  having  been  sub- 
jected to  a  severe  strain  throughout  the  jour- 
ney and  her  vitality  being  nmch  loweretl  by 
anxiety,  her  illness  soon  became  alarming, 
and  twelve  days  after  her  arrival  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  after  she  had  seen  and  comforted 
her  son,  himself  doomed  to  a  speedy  death, 
she  died,  December  20,  1900. 

The  announcement  in  Portland  of  her  death 
was  followed  by  a  remarkable  manifestation  of 


sorrow  in  the  newspapers,  and  in  the  clubs  of 
which  she  was  a  member,  as  well  as  in  her  family 
and  among  her  every-flay  friends.  A  wide- 
spread desire  was  expressed  for  a  suitable 
memorial  of  her  beneficent  life;  and,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  club  women  of  Portland, 
action  was  at  once  taken  for  its  fulfilment. 
Nowhere,  it  was  felt,  could  a  more  fitting  place 
be  found  than  at  the  Temporary  Home,  Mrs. 
Brown's  favorite  charity;  accordingly,  within 
a  few  months  a  nursery  was  erected  there,  to 
bear  her  name.  On  one  of  its  walls  is  fixed  a 
tablet  with  the  inscription :  — 

IN    GRATEFUL    MEMORY    OF 
FANNY   CLIFFORD   BROWN. 


S  AGNES  PARKER,  Past  National  Chap- 
lain of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  was 
,  born  in  New  London,  N.H.,  January  12, 
1841,  daughter  of  Martin  and  Anna 
(Adams)  Packard  and  the  eldest  of  five 
children.  Her  father  was  son  of  David" 
and  Susanna  (Perkins)  Packard,  of  North 
Bridgewater,  Mass.,  and  lineally  descended 
from  Samuel'  Packard,  of  West  Bridgewater, 
through  Zaccheus,-  David/  William,*  and 
Lemuel.'* 

Anna  Adams,  wife  of  Martin  Packard  and 
mother  of  S.  Agnes,  was  daughte*-  of  Mo.ses,  Jr., 
and  Betsy  (Stinson)  Adams  and  on  the  paternal 
side  a  dcscentlant  in  the  .seventh  generation 
of  Robert  Adams,  of  Newbury,  Mass.,  and  his 
wife  Eleanor.  The  ancestral  line  was  Robert,' 
Abraham,'  John,^  *  Moses,^  Moses,  Jr."  Abra- 
ham^ Adams,  born  in  Salem  in  1639 — the  year 
before  his  father  removed  to  Newbury — mar- 
ried Mary  Pettengill.  John,^  born  in  New- 
bury in  1684,  married  Sarah  Pearson,  and  re- 
sided in  Rowley,  Ma-ss.  John,*  born  in  1721, 
married  in  1764  for  his  third  wife  a  widow, 
Meribah  Stickney  (born  Tenney),  of  Bradford, 
and  some  years  later  removed  to  New  London, 
N.H.  Moses,^  born  in  1765,  married  in  1790 
Dolly  (or  Dorothy)  Perley,  and  resided  in  New 
London,  N.H.,  where  his  son  Mo.ses,  Jr.,"  above 
nanietl,  was  born  in  1792.  Moses  Adams,  Jr., 
and  Betsy  Stinson  were  married  in  Decem- 
ber, 1819.    They  had  four  daughters.    Anna, 


144 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the   eldest,    married    in    March,    1840,    Martin 
Packard. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Martin  Packard  removed  from 
New  London,  N.H.,  to  North  Bridgewater 
(now  Brockton),  Mass.,  in  1844.  Their  daugh- 
ter Agnes  was  then  three  years  old.  She  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  and  at  Hunt's 
Academy.  On  January  23,  1859,  she  was 
married  to  John  B.  Parker,  of  North  Bridge- 
water,  who  was  later  a  veteran  of  the  Civil 
War. 

Mrs.  Parker  became  identified  with  the  Uni- 
versalist  church  forty-five  years  ago,  and  is  one 
of  its  most  active  members.  The  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  connected  with  the  church  elected  her 
president  several  years  in  succession,  and  she 
has  held  other  important  positions  associated 
with  the  work  of  this  church. 

When  the  Hosjjital  Aid  Society  was  formed 
in  Brockton,  she  was  elected  one  of  the  Direc- 
tors, and  the  next  year  was  chosen  President. 
She  assisted  in  founiling  the  Woman's  Educa- 
tional and  Industrial  L'nion  of  Brockton,  and  has 
served  continuously  in  office,  was  its  President 
six  years,  and  has  been  active  in  raising  funds 
for  its  benefit.  This  union  has  had  a  large 
membership,  and  has  been  supported  by  all 
the  churches  in  the  city. 

Mrs.  Parker  is  naturally  patriotic;  and  when, 
early  in  1873,  a  Grand  Army  Sewing  Society 
was  formed,  to'  assist  Post  No.  13,  of  Brockton, 
she  joined  its  membership  roll  and  was  chosen 
secretary.  Elected  its  first  President  when  the 
society  became  a  branch  of  the  Department 
of  Massachusetts  Woman's  Relief  Corps  in 
October,  1879,  she  was  subsequently  re-elected 
for  three  successive  years. 

The  corps,  which  is  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  efficient  in  the  State,  is  auxiliary  to 
Fletcher  Webster  Post,  No.  13,  G.  A.  R.,  and 
is  No.  7  on  the  roster  of  the  Department  W. 
R.  C.  The  members  appreciate  Mrs.  Parker's 
long-continued  and  faithful  service  in  the 
cause. 

At  the  annual  State  convention  in  Boston 
in  1880  "  the  various  corps  presidents  gave 
good  accounts  of  their  corps,  that  of  Mrs.  S. 
Agnes  Parker,  of  Fletcher  Webster  Corps,  of 
Brockton,  being  specially  interesting." 

Mrs.  Parker  served  on  important  committees 


that  year,  and  at  the  convention  in  1881  was 
elected  Department  Treasurer.  She  was  De- 
partment Inspector  in  1882,  and  also  served 
as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Ritual, 
Rules,  and  Regulations.  The  following  year 
she  was  appointed  chairman  of  this  committee, 
and  was  elected  to  the  office  of  Department 
Junior  ^'ice-President.  In  1884  she  was  chosen 
Department  Senior  \'ice-President,  and  in 
1885  re-elected.  She  presided  over  the  annual 
convention  in  Boston  in  1886,  the  Department 
President,  Mrs.  Goodale,  being  detained  at 
home  by  illne.ss.  This  cf)nvention  elected 
Mrs.  Parker  President  for  the  ensuing  year, 
and  at  its  close  she  presented  a  report,  in  which 
the  following  summary  of  the  work  under  her 
charge  is  given: — 

"  I  have  been  on  duty  at  headejuarters  every 
week  but  two.  I  have  issued  seven  general 
orders.  In  my  first  and  seconil  general  orders  I 
appointed  a  staff  of  aides  to  assist  the  depart- 
ment officers  in  their  work  and  be  of  service  to 
those  corps  in  remote  parts  of  the  State  where 
they  needed  assistance  or  instruction.  .  .  . 

"  My  duties  as  Department  President  have 
occupied  the  greater  part  of  my  time.  I  have 
travelled  in  official  capacity  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  four  thousand  and  seventy-one 
miles,  have  made  forty-one  visits  to  corps, 
and  have  been  cordially  received  by  the  mem- 
bers. I  attended  the  National  Convention  at 
San  Francisco,  receiving  many  courtesies  on 
this  trip  from  Department  Commander  John  D. 
Billings  and  other  officials  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic.  I  have  accepted  many  invi- 
tations to  anniversaries  and  inspections,  have 
instituted  one  corps,  installed  the  officers  of  six 
corps,  and  have  paid  other  official  visits  too 
numerous  to  mention. 

"  We  have  expended  in  relief  the  past  year 
three  thousand  nine  hundred  and  three  dollars 
and  forty-seven  cents.  This  sum  does  not  in- 
clude the  entire  amount  contributed,  as  nnich 
has  been  given  in  the  way  of  clothing  and  other 
articles.  The  Soliliers'  Home  has  received 
six  hundred  and  fifty-.seven  dollars  and  twenty- 
eight  cents." 

Mrs.  Parker  was  unanimously  ro-electeil 
Department  President  at  the  convention  in 
Boston    in    1887.     In    her   annual    address    in 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


145 


1888   she  referred  to  the  grcnvth  tun  I  work  of 
the  order  in  Massachusetts; — 

"January,  1887,  we  had  seventy-seven  corps 
with  a  membership  of  five  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-seven.  To-(hiy  we  number  one 
hunih'ed  corps  with  a  membership  of  over  six 
thousand  seven  hundred.  Amcjunt  expended  in 
rehef  the  past  year,  five  thousand  six  hundred 
and  twenty-four  dohars  and  .orty  cents,  and 
turned  over  to  posts,  three  thousand  two  hmi- 
dred  and  fifty-eight  doHars  ami  thirty-four 
cents.  This  amount  does  not  cover  the  amount 
of  all  clothing  and  food  given,  as  in  many  cases 
the  value  is  not  estimated.  The  amount  re- 
ported as  given  the  Soldiers'  Home  the  past 
year  is  six  thousand  seven  hundred  and  ninety- 
one  dollars  and  eighty  cents,  which  does  not  in- 
ckule  the  total  figures. 

"  My  duties  as  De]iartment  President  have 
occupied  nearly  all  my  time.  I  have  issued 
seven  general  orders  and  two  circular  letters, 
have  visited  headquarters  ninety  times,  have 
travelled  in  official  capacity  in  this  State  five 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-four  miles, 
visiting  thirty-eight  tlifi'erent  corps.  ...  I  have 
had  the  pleasure  of  installing  the  officers  of 
seven  corps,  have  instituted  two  corps,  and  as- 
sisted at  the  institution  of  others.  I  had  the 
honor  of  attending  the  National  Convention 
held  at  St.  Louis.  Number  of  official  visits 
made  during  the  year  is  two  hundred  antl 
seven."  A  reception  was  tendered  Mrs. 
Parker  in  Boston,  upon  her  return  from  St. 
Louis,  by  the  delegates  who  representetl  Mas- 
sachusetts at  the  Fourth  National  Conven- 
tion. Fletcher  Webster  Post  and  Corps,  of 
Brockton,  also  gave  her  a  reception  in  that 
city. 

Mrs.  Parker  gained  the  love  of  her  associates 
and  won  the  regard  of  the  Grand  Ai-my  of  the 
Republic  during  the  two  years  of  her  adminis- 
tration. Upon  retiring  from  the  chair  she 
was  appointed  and  installed  Department  Coun- 
sellor and  reappointed  the  following  year. 

At  the  convention  of  1890  Mrs.  Parker  was 
appointed  a  member  of  the  Committee  on 
Dej)artment  Rooms  at  the  Soldiers'  Home 
and  at  every  subsetiuent  convention  she  has 
been  reappointed.  She  is  also  a  member  oi 
other  important  committees.     At  the  Nationa 


Convention  in  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  September,  1894, 
she  was  unanimously  elected  National  Chaplain. 

Mrs.  Parker's  husband,  Mr.  John  B.  Parker, 
of  Brockton,  was  born  in  Boxford,  Mass.,  a 
son  of  Aaron  L.  and  Priscilla  (Buzzell)  Parker. 
He  served  in  the  Civil  War  in  Company  F, 
Fifty-eighth  Massachusetts  Volunteers,  was 
wounded  at  Cold  Harbor,  and  honorably  dis- 
charged for  disability  soon  after  the  surrender 
of  General  Lee.  He  has  been  Quartermaster 
of  Fletcher  Webster  Post,  of  Brockton,  the  past 
twenty  years. 

Three  of  the  seven  children  born  to  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Parker  dieil  in  infancy.  Of  the  four 
others  the  following  is  a  brief  record :  Katie  Flor- 
ence, born  March  23,  1862,  is  the  wife  of  Robert 
Davis,  of  North  Easton,  and  mother  of  four 
children — Arthur  Horace,  Fred  Carleton,  Helen 
Parker,  and  Agnes  Elena;  Fred  ChantUer,  born 
August  31,  1866,  married  in  February,  1901, 
M.  Elizabeth  Crummitt,  and  died  Januarv 
12,  1904  ;  Annie  Etlith,  born  December  28, 
1875,  married  Harry  L.  Thompson,  and  has 
one  child,  F]rrol  Mitchell;  Frank  Adams  Parker 
was  born  June  30,  1884. 


ALICE    SPENCER    GEDDES.— One   day 

/\  in  the  early  fall  of  1898  a  young 
X  A.  woman,  a  Freshman  in  Radcliffe  Col- 
lege, received  a  letter  asking  her  to 
call  upon  the  editor  of  the  largest  and  most 
influential  paper  in  the  city  in  which  she  lived. 
"I  have  noticed  with  approval,"  said  the  edi- 
tor, "  the  reports  of  the  Cambridge  Art  Circle 
affairs,  which  you  as  clerk  have  sent  in.  Will 
you  take  charge  of  a  woman's  department  in 
my  paper?" 

"What  do  you  want  in  it?  How  shall  I 
start  about  it?  Do  you  think  I  can  do  it?" 
were  some  of  the  questions  asked  by  the  be- 
wilflered  girl. 

"I  am  too  busy  to  answer  questions.  Will 
you  furnish  matter  for  eight  columns  of  the 
Cambridge  Chronicle  a  week  from  to-day?" 

"Yes,  sir,  I  will,"  came  the  prompt  reply. 

Thus  it  was  that  Miss  Geddes  was  jjrecipi- 
tately  plunged  into  the  field  of  journalism. 

She  often  jests  now  about  the  feeling  of  utter 
helplessness  which  overwhelmed  her  as  she  left 


146 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


that  editor's  office,  hut  she  knows  that  it  was 
this  very  throwing  of  herself  on  her  own  re- 
sources that  started  her  on  her  successful  career. 
A  week  from  that  day  the  Woman'n  Chronicle, 
supplement  to  the  Cambridge  Chronicle,  ap- 
peared, containing  an  editorial  by  the  young 
editor,  setting  forth  the  policy  of  the  paper, 
which  was  not  to  be  concerned  with  the  senti- 
mental and  useless  matter  usually  crowding  the 
so-called  woman's  pages  of  our  large  news- 
papers, but  rather  was  to  be  devoted  to  educa- 
tional, philanthropic,  and  social  activities  of 
Cambriclge  women.  This  first  issue  containefl 
a  resume  of  all  of  these  lines  of  work,  illustrated 
with  photographs  of  prominent  women  inter- 
ested in  them. 

From  that  time,  save  during  the  months  of 
July  antl  August  of  each  year,  the  Worn  an' ft 
Chronicle  as  long  as  she  edited  it  kept  to  the 
high  ideals  of  the  first  issue,  largely  increased 
the  circulation  of  the  paper,  and  came  to  be 
recognized  as  the  official  organ  of  women's 
societies  in  Cambridge.  All  this  Miss  Geddes 
accomplished  entirely  unaided.  She  collected 
the  matter,  wrote  the  articles,  and  read  the 
proof  for  each  issue,  and  at  the  same  time 
carried  on  the  regular  course  at  Radcliffe,  and 
held  the  positions  of  clerk  of  th(>  Cambridge 
Art  Circle  and  the  Cantabrigia  Club.  Such 
were  the  beginnings  of  the  career  of  a  young 
woman  who  is  now  widely  known,  not  only 
as  an  active  worker  in  women's  clubs  and  as 
a  journalist,  l)ut  as  a  lecturer  and  class  leader 
in  all  branches  of  English  literature. 

Alice  S})encer  Ceddes  was  born  in  Athol, 
Mass.,  Noveml)er  13,  1876,  and  was  named  for 
her  paternal  grandmother,  with  whom  she 
spent  her  early  years.  In  187S  the  family 
moved  to  Cambridge;  and  in  the  following 
year  her  parents,  William  E.  and  Ella  M. 
Ceddes,  went  to  England  to  establish  business 
there.  As  thej'  intended  to  be  absent  but  a 
.short  time,  the  daughter  was  left  in  her  grand- 
mother's charge.  But,  where  success  is,  there 
is  contentment;  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Geddes  took 
up  their  permanent  residence  in  London.  Ever 
since  her  babyhood,  then,  the  daughter  has 
lived  in  Cambridge  in  the  winter  and  in  Lon- 
don in  the  summer. 

Miss  Geddes  is  a  graduate  of  Chauncy  Hall 


School,  Boston,  which  she  entered  at  the  age 
of  eight,  and  of  Radcliffe  College,  class  of  LS99. 
After  leaving  Radcliffe,  she  studied  at  Newn- 
ham  College.  As  a  result  of  her  special  fond- 
ness for  English  literature  and  of  her  familiarity 
with  the  homes  antl  haunts  of  literary  men  and 
women  abroad,  she  was  led  to  enter  upon  the 
field  of  work  which  has  brought  her  fame. 

In  October,  1901,  a  large  audience  listened 
to  a  "Recital  of  Literary  Romances"  by  Miss 
Geddes.  Clearly  and  distinctly,  without  af- 
fectation, she  read  the  stories  .she  had  written 
of  the  love  episodes  in  the  liA'es  of  Swift  and 
his  Stella,  Elizabeth  Barrett  and  Robert  Brown- 
ing, and  Carlyle  and  Jane  W^elsh.  Her  hearers, 
among  them  being  many  literary  critics,  mar- 
velled at  the  purity  and  beauty  of  these  sketches, 
as  well  as  at  their  keen  insight  and  penetration 
into  character. 

The  next  morning  the  leading  Boston  papers 
announced  the  appearance  of  a  new  star  in  the 
literary  firmament,  and  letters  congratulatory 
were  followed  by  letters  of  inquiry  as  to  terms 
for  lecture  and  class  work.  Thus,  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-five.  Miss  Geddes  became  much 
in  demand  to  give  lectures  and  recitals  and 
lead  classes  in  eighteenth  century  and  Victorian 
literature. 

The  secret  of  her  popularity  lies  in  the  new- 
ness of  her  methods;  for  in  her  analysis  of  a 
great  work  of  literature  she  gives  merely  sta- 
tistics enough  to  identify  the  period,  and  avoids 
repeating  well-known  truisms  and  general  state- 
ments. She  goes  below  the  outer  shell,  and 
unearths  the  inner  meaning  of  the  work,  the 
causes  which  produced  it,  and  the  effect  of  its 
existence.  She  is  now  preparing  a  course  of 
ten  lectures  on  "The  Novel  and  Life,"  which 
will  follow  the  parallel  development  of  civiliza- 
tion and  the  English  novel. 

In  spite  of  the  amount  of  brain  work  which 
so  many  demands  call  from  her,  she  has  not 
lost  her  girlishness,  and  is  much  sought  after 
at  the  gatherings  of  young  people  in  Cam- 
bridge. She  is  much  interested  in  club  work, 
being  a  member  of  the  Cambridge  Art  Circle, 
the  ("antal)rigia"  Club,  the  Woman's  Charity 
Club,  the  Metaphysical  Club,  the  Actors'  Church 
Alliance,  the  New  England  Woman's  Press  As- 
sociation, and  the  Ruskin  Club. 


EFFIE    M.  F.  HARTWELL 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


147 


Her  personality  is  chanuing,  and  her  natural- 
ness of  manner  makes  her  a  pleasing  picture 
on  the  lecture  platform  and  an  ins])iring  leailer 
in  class  work. 

In  March,  1903,  she  took  the  most  ambitious 
step  of  all.  She  purchasetl  a  well-known  Cam- 
bridge newspaper,  The  Cambridge  Prefts,  and 
announced  in  the  first  number  that  it  would  be 
devoted  to  tlie  interests  of  Cambritlge,  and  that 
it  would  be  owned,  edited,  and  conducted  en- 
tirely by  women.  This  innovation  was  a  wel- 
come one,  and  the  excellent  sheet  is  a  source  of 
[jride  to  the  whole  city.  There  is  not  a  weak 
point  about  it.  Miss  Geddes  is  a  born  journa- 
list, and  her  editorials  are  fine  samples  of  lit- 
erarv  style  and  fearless  utterance. 


EFFIE  MARION  FRANCES  NEED- 
HAM  HARTWELL.— In  every  city 
and  town  of  New  England,  safe  to  .say, 
at  the  present  time  women  are  to  be 
found  (juietly  and  earnestly  striving  to  estab- 
lish better  social  conditions,  conforming  to 
higher  ideals.  Fitchburg,  Ma.ss.,  is  no  ex- 
ception to  this,  and  a  leader  among  its  women 
workers  is  Mrs.  Hartwell,  whose  name  in  full 
appears  at  the  head  of  this  article. 

Her  father,  Colonel  Daniel  Needham,  was 
born  in  Salem,  Ma.ss.,  of  good  Quaker  stock, 
an  energetic,  active  nature,  ]>ositive  in  opinion, 
and  always  taking  his  full  share  of  the  business 
of  the  State  and  local  affairs.  He  married  Miss 
Caroline  Augusta  Hall,  of  Boston,  a  woman  of 
charmingly  attractive  personal  character. 
Their  fourth  child,  Effie  Marion  Frances,  was 
born  in  Croton,  Mass.,  January  9,  ]<S52.  The 
family  removed  to  Queechee,  Yt.,  in  1855,  living 
there  among  the  mountains  until  Effie  was 
twelve  years  of  age,  when  they  returned  to 
their  old  home  town,  (troton  was  one  of  the 
academy  towns  of  New  England,  which,  be- 
fore the  establishment  by  law  of  high  schools 
in  all  tlie  larger  towns,  were  centres  of  learning 
and  refinement.  For  a  century  or  more  the 
Lawrence  Academy  in  Groton  held  high  rank 
in  its  cla,ss,  and  here  Miss  Needham  ac(iuired 
a  soliil  groimding  in  ed\ication,  which  was  sup- 
plemented by  a  year  of  study  at  the  Prospect 
Hill  School  in  Greenfield,  Mass.,  and  a  season 


at  the  Misses  Gilman's  finishing  school  in  Boston. 
From  1809  to  1877  she  resided  in  Boston,  and 
on  October  23  of  this  latter  year  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Harris  Cowdrey  Hartwell.  Her  home 
has  since  been  in  Fitchburg.  Two  sons  were 
born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hartwell,  namely:  Nor- 
cross  Needham  Hartwell,  December  15,  1880; 
and  Harold  Hall  Hartwell,  May  6,  1891. 

Mr.  Hartwell  was  a  native  of  Groton  and  an 
alumnus  of  Lawrence  Academy.  He  was  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  College  in  1869.  He  studied 
law  in  Fitchburg,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1873.  He  was  Repre.sentative  from  Fitch- 
burg in  the  Massachu.setts  Legislature  in  1883, 
1884,  1885,  and  a  State  Senator  in  1887,  1888, 
1889,  being  president  of  the  Senate  in  1889. 
His  untimely  death  in  1891  cut  short  a  career 
of  unusual  promise.  In  Mr.  Hartwell's  public 
and  official  life  his  wife  was  his  strong  supporter 
and  efficient  help,  and  his  manly  qualities  and 
public  ])osition  undoubtedly  quickened  her 
natural  executive  ability  and  strong  desire  to 
serve  others.  She  has  l)een  itlentified  with 
many  of  the  best  institutions  of  her  city.  She 
was  the  first  president  of  the  Fitchburg  Woman's 
Club,  continuing  in  office  for  six  consecutive 
years;  and  during  that  time,  under  her  vigorous 
administrative  ability,  the  club  took  rank 
among  the  highest  of  the  State  in  sohd  educa- 
tive \york,  healthy  growth,  and  steadily  in- 
creasing value  to  its  members,  becoming  one 
of  the  acknowledged  forces  of  the  city.  Mrs. 
Hartwell  was  a  director  of  the  Massachusetts 
State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  and  has 
served  on  several  of  its  committees.  She  is  the 
vice-president  of  the  Old  Lailies'  Home  Cor- 
poration, the  j)resident  of  its  Ladies'  Benevo- 
lent Society,  and  one  of  the  stanchest  sup- 
porters and  workers  for  this  useful  institution, 
which  has,  from  a  small  but  earnest  beginning, 
grown  to  own  its  large  ami  conunodious  brick 
home,  housing  and  providing  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  inmates. 

Taking  an  interest  in  everything  teniling  to 
the  advancement  of  woman,  she  is  a  stanch 
advocate  of  suffrage  for  her  sex  on  an  equality 
with  male  suffrage.  During  the  existence  of 
the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union 
in  Fitchburg,  Mrs.  Hartwell  was  a  personal 
worker,   untiring  in  her  efforts  to  keep  it  to 


148 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  jmrpose  indicated  by  its  name.  She  is  a 
director  in  the  Benevolent  Union  (the  Asso- 
ciated Charities  organization  in  Fitchburg), 
and  is  a  most  active  working  member  of  the 
Baldwinsville  Hospital  Cottage  Auxiliary,  a 
society  formed  to  aid  the  partially  State-sup- 
ported hospital  for  epileptic  children  at  Bald- 
winsville, Mass.  She  is  also  a  warm  frieml  and 
helper  to  the  Children's  Home,  another  of  the 
charitable  and  practically  helpful  institutions 
of  her  city. 

Mrs.  Hartwell  has  always  been  an  earnest 
Unitarian  in  her  religious  belief  and  affiliation, 
and  has  been  among  the  foremost  in  the  First 
Parish  Church  of  Fitchburg  in  all  its  activities, 
giving  unstintedly  of  her  time  and  means  to 
promote  its  best  welfare,  and  hlling  for  more 
or  less  extended  time  the  various  church 
appointments  usually  enjoyed  by  women. 

In  sinnming  up,  we  may  .say  that  conspicu- 
ous executive  ability,  indomitable  energy  and 
persistenc)^  a  clear  and  broad  vision,  great 
tact,  loyalty  to  friends  and  to  purpose,  and 
painstaking  fidelity  to  any  matter  in  hand  are 
Mrs.  Hartwell 's  characteristics,  anfl  give  the 
key  to  the  success  she  has  attained  in  good 
works.  Such  women  mean  more  to  their  sur- 
roundings than  can  be  told  in  words  or  meas- 
ured perhaps  by  anj^  of  our  common  standards. 
Their  number  is  increasing  among  us,  and  in 
large  degree  owing  to  examples  like  that  of 
Mrs.  Hartwell,  which  are  a  steady  inspiration 
both  for  the  present  and  the  future. 


CALISTA    ROBINSON  .JONES,  Past 
National    President    of    the   Woman's 
Relief  Corps,  was  born  March  22,  1S39, 
in  Chelsea,  Vt.,  and  during  the  greater 
part  of  her  life  has  been  a  resident  of  that  State, 
her  home  for  the  past  twenty  years  and  more 
having  been  in  the  town  of  Bradford. 

Her  parents  were  Cornelius  and  Mary  A. 
(I'ike)  Robinson.  Her  maternal  grandmother, 
Sophia  Lyman,  wife  of  James  Pike,  was  a 
daughter  of  Richard  Lyman,  of  Lebanon,  Conn., 
who  inarched  with  others  from  Connecticut 
"for  the  relief  of  Boston  in  the  Lexington  alarm, 
April,  177.'i,"  and  in  April,  1777,  enlisted  for 
three  years  under  Captain  Benjamin  Throop, 


having  the  rank  of  Sergeant  in  the  First  Regi- 
ment, Connecticut  line,  under  Colonel  Jedediah 
Huntington.  Solomon  Robinson,  great-grand- 
father of  Cornelius  Robinson,  was  in  the  battle 
of  Bennington. 

Calista  Robinson,  as  she  was  known  in  girl- 
hood, was  educated  in  the  public  schools  and 
academy  of  Chelsea  and  at  Rutgers  Female 
Institute,  New  York  City.  For  three  years  she 
was  a  teacher  in  the  Washington  School  in 
Chicago.  A  few  tlays  after  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter,  with  the  assistance  of  three  other 
teachers  she  made  a  regulation  fifteen-foot 
bunting  flag,  every  star  of  which  was  sewed 
on  by  hand.  This  was  the  first  flag  to  float 
over  a  school-house  in  Chicago.  She  assisted 
in  distributing  supplies  to  the  thousands  of 
troops  who  passed  through  that  city  en  route 
for  Washington.  Returning  to  Vermont  in 
1864,  she  was  marrietl  in  Chelsea,  September 
8  of  that  year,  to  Charles  .Jones,  a  native  of 
Tunbridge,  Vt.,  and  a  graduate  of  Chelsea 
Academy.     He  was  born  .July  18,  18.37. 

When  a  Relief  Corps  auxiliary  to  Washburn 
Post,  G.  A.  R.,  was  formed  in  Bradford,  \'t., 
Mrs.  Jones  became  a  charter  member,  serving 
as  President  two  years  and  holding  some  office 
ever  since.  The  Department  Convention  of 
Vermont  elected  her  successively  Junior  Vice- 
President,  Senior  Vice-President,  and  Presi- 
dent. She  has  served  on  important  commit- 
tees in  the  State  and  national  organizations, 
and  has  been  active  as  a  member  of  the  Ander- 
sonville  Prison  Board  of  the  National  W.  R.  C. 
After  doing  effective  work  as  Department 
Patriotic  Instructor,  she  was  appointetl  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  National  Committee  on  Patriotic 
Instruction.  She  was  National  Junior  Vice- 
President  in  1899,  and  at  the  convention  held 
in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  September,  1901,  she 
was  elected  National  President,  receiving  a 
unanimous  vote.  She  performed  the  duties 
of  this  office  in  an  admirable  manner,  and  her 
address  delivered  in  Washington,  Otober  9, 
at  the  session  of  the  Twentieth  National  Con- 
vention, was  received  with  approval.  A  few 
extracts  are  here  given:  "The  Twentieth  Na- 
tional Convention  marks  the  close  of  the  sec- 
ond decade  in  the  history  of  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief   Corps.     The    history    of    the    first    decade 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


149 


was  OIK'  largely  cxpcriinciital  and  character- 
ized by  most  rayiul  growtli  in  nunibpr.«  and  de- 
velopment. .  .  .  Now  we  tind  ourselves  look- 
ing out  over  a  field  of  work  limitl»'ss  in  extent, 
and  we  find  ourselves,  too,  most  admirably 
prepared  to  carry  forward  the  lines  of  work 
projected  to  reach,  if  possible,  the  highest  ideal 
ever  set  for  woman's  work. 

"This  year,  1901-1002,  has  been  a  remark- 
ably successful  one  from  every  standpoint.  .  .  . 
This  has  been  brought  about  because  the  time 
was  ripe,  the  officers  of  the  administration 
wonderfully  cajiable  for  the  places  they  were 
called  to  fill;  the  spirit  of  the  day  was  for  pros- 
perity, for  advancement. 

"  It  is  with  feelings  of  great  satisfaction  that 
I  am  permitteil  to  tell  you  to-day  that  never 
were  Memorial  Sunday  and  Memorial  Day 
more  generally  observed  than  in  the  year  1902. 

"Contributions  to  the  Southern  Memorial 
Day  fund  came  with  much  promptness  from 
corps  and  also  from  indivitlual  members,  in 
many  instances  accompanied  with  letters  filled 
with  patriotic  enthusiasm.  There  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  national  treasurer,  from  last  year's 
contribution,  nine  hundred  and  forty-two  dol- 
lars. This  year  we  have  .sent  to  the  Quarter- 
master-general of  the  Grand  Army  one  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  thirty-one  dollars  and 
ninety-three  cents,  and  there  is  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  dollars  and  ninety-four  cents 
now  remaining  in  the  treasury.  .  .  .  The  amount 
sent  South  this  year  by  the  W.  R.  C.  is  the  larg- 
est sum  ever  sent  in  any  one  year.  We  are 
most  glad  that  the  response  was  so  generous, 
and  we  are  positively  assured  by  the  com- 
mander-in-chief that  the  need  was  never  greater 
nor  the  work  of  decorating  more  thoroughly 
performed.  .  .  . 

"We  have  formed  a  closer  union  with 
the  G.  A.  R.,  to  whom,  as  Colonel  Bakewell 
says,  '  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  is  married '  : 
and  in  that  closer  union  of  spirit  and 
methods  of  work,  in  uniformity  of  pm'pose 
and  material,  we  must  hand  to  our  posterity  a 
heritage  rich  in  the  ideal  teaching  anil  living 
of  a  higher  citizenship  than  we  have  ever 
known. 

"  Patriotic  days  have  been  widely  observed. 
In  response  to  the   Flag  Day  letters  bearing 


the  joint  message  of  the  (i,  A.  R.  and  W.  R.  ('., 
flags  floated  from  ocean  to  ocean.  .  .  . 

"Work  has  rapidly  advanced  along  all  lines. 
Flags,  charts,  oleographs,  have  been  placed 
in  the  schools.  Patriotic  j)rograms  of  rare 
merit  have  been  constantly  prepared,  and  the 
children  of  our  land  have  sung  'The  Star- 
spangled  Banner'  with  a  new  sjiirit  and  vigor. 

"  I  wish  especially  to  commend  the  work 
of  the  Sons  of  Veterans.  Their  organization 
is  one  of  noble  purpose,  and  the  results  of  their 
united  efforts  cannot  fail  to  be  a  grand  success. 
I  woukl  also  call  especial  attention  to  the  open- 
ing of  the  new  educational  institution,  the 
Sons  of  Veterans  Memorial  University,  on  Sep- 
tember 10,  at  Mason  City,  la." 

Mrs.  Jones  is  honored  in  her  native  State, 
and  has  filled  places  of  responsibility  in  other 
lines  of  work.  She  is  one  of  the  Trustees  and 
chairman  of  the  Book  Conunittee  of  tlie  Brad- 
ford Public  Library,  which  was  started  at  her 
suggestion.  Its  beginning  was  in  1874,  when 
Mrs.  Albert  Bailey  and  Mrs.  Jones  went  about 
from  house  to  house,  and  jirocured  subscrip- 
tions of  one  dollar  each  from  sixty-three  women 
to  a  fund  for  the  purchase  of  books  for  a  li- 
brary. In  addition  to  the  annual  subscrip- 
tions, money  was  obtainetl  by  entertainments 
and  lectures  conducted  by  the  association. 
The  books  were  kept  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Jones, 
who  acted  as  librarian  three  years.  At  the 
dedication  of  the  present  building,  the  gift  of 
John  Lunn  Woods,  in  1895,  the  address  was 
delivered  by  the  Hon.  J.  H.  Benton,  Jr.,  of 
Boston,  a  former  resident  of  Bradford.  Re- 
ferring to  the  work  of  the  Ladies"  I^ibrary  As- 
sociation, he  said:  "Who  can  measure  the  good 
which  has  resulted  to  this  comnumity  from 
this  patient,  persistent,  un.selfish  work  of  these 
wise  and  public-spirited  women?  They  de- 
serve our  jM-aise  equally  with  him  whose  name 
this  buiUling  bears.  While  his  name  is  car- 
ried upon  the  portals  of  your  library,  theirs 
should  be  borne  upon  tablets  upon  its  walls, 
that  in  the  years  and  generations  to  come  those 
who  enjoy  the  benefits  may  not  forget  how 
nuich  they  owe  to  those  who  made  its  existence 
possilile." 

Mrs.  Jones  is  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Daughters  of  American  Revolution  in  \'ermont, 


150 


REPRESENTATI\E   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


having  been  a  iiicmlicr  of  tlic  first  Chapter  in 
th-  State. 

Charles  Jones,  the  date  of  whose  birth  is 
recorded  above,  was  engaged  for  many  years 
in  the  insurance  Inisiness  in  Bradford,  in  part- 
nership with  Colonel  John  C.  Stearns.  The 
firm  became  one  of  the  best  known  in  that  sec- 
tion of  Vermont.  Mr.  Jones  held  various  po- 
sitions of  trust  in  Bradford,  serving  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Village  Corporation,  ^^'ater  Com- 
missioner, School  Trustee,  and  director  and 
treasurer  of  the  Bradford  P^lectric  Lighting 
Company.  He  died  in  A\n-\\,  1901.  The  local 
paper  of  Bradford,  in  the  issue  of  April  19, 
paid  the  following  tribute  to  his  memory; 
"  One  of  the  saddest  duties  of  our  twenty  years' 
newspaper  experience  is  to  chronicle  the  death 
of  Charles  Jones,  to  us  a  personal  bereavement, 
anfl  shared  by  a  large  number  of  our  citizens 
outside  his  immediate  family.  His  worth  was 
best  known  to  those  with  whom  he  was  long- 
est and  most  intimately  a.ssociated  and  who 
were  brought  into  closest  contact  with  him. 
He  was  upright  and  honorable,  capable  in  all 
the  positions  of  i)ublic  and  private  affairs  which 
he  administered." 

Mrs.  Jones  has  one  daughter,  Marj^  Ellen, 
who  was  born  in  Bradford,  May  30,  1868. 
She  received  her  early  education  in  the  Brad- 
ford public  schools  and  academy,  and  then 
took  a  five  years'  course,  scientific  and  musical, 
in  Wellesley  College,  receiving  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Science  in.  1889.  During  a  large 
part  of  her  college  life  she  acted  as  secretary 
for  the  professor  of  history,  thus  acquiring 
experience  that  has  been  useful  in  other  posi- 
tions. After  leaving  college  she  taught  suc- 
cessively in  Bradford  Academy;  two  years  at 
Platt.sburg,  N.Y.;  in  Pontiac,  III.;  three  years 
in  liradford,  'N't.  She  was  married  July  6, 
1899,  to  David  Sloane  Conant,  who  is  now 
serving  a  second  term  as  State's  Attorney  for 
Orange  County.  He  is  a  lineal  descendant 
of  Roger  Conant,  who  in  1026  with  a  few  ff)l- 
lowers  began  the  settlement  of  Naumkeag, 
now  Salem,  Mass.  In  club  and  society  life 
Mrs.  Conant  has  been  active  and  useful,  being 
especially  apt  in  i)lanning  and  carrying  out 
social  events.  Various  Bradford  institutions 
have  i^rofited  much  from  her  skill  in  their  di- 


rection, es])ocially  the  Public  Library,  in  which 
she  has  always  had  a  keen  interest.  I'pon  the 
election  of  her  mother  to  the  office  of  National 
President  of  the  W.  R.  C.  in  1901,  Mrs.  Conant 
was  a]ii)ointed  National  Secretary  of  the  or- 
ganization. She  made  improvements  in  the 
books  and  papers,  is.sued  special  instruction 
blanks  regarding  reports  and  other  work  of  the 
order,  and  (lerfonned  the  duties  of  the  office 
in  an  intelligent,  vigorous,  and  thorough  man- 
ner. Mr.  and  Mrs.  Conant  have  two  children: 
Dorothy  Stewart,  born  August  11,  1900:  and 
Barbara  Allerton,  born  Novendjer  6,  1902. 


CORA  BELLE  AYLING  was  born  De- 
cember 16,  1870,  in  the  village  of  Paw 
Paw,  III.,  her  parents  uniting  the  blood 
of  the  old  Scotch  Presbyterians  with 
that  of  the  English.  H(>r  father,  Alfred  Stain- 
brook,  in  early  life  settled  at  his  okl  home  as 
a  breeder  of  high-grade  horses.  A  man  of 
striking  personality,  he  represented  the  best 
type  of  the  pioneer,  and  to  his  little  daughter 
Cora,  who  became  liis  constant  companion, 
he  was  the  ideal  of  all  that  was  best  in  man- 
hood. In  those  long  days  they  spent  in  the 
saddle,  riding  over  the  great  ssweep  of  prairie, 
his  strong  character  impressed  on  the  child 
its  absolute  fearlessness,  its  sincerity,  its  ha- 
tred of  shams  and  hypocrisy.  To  this  day  she 
is  wont  to  exclaim,  "  I  have  yet  to  meet  my 
father's  equal." 

In  1880  the  Stainbrooks  moved  to  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  the  father  becoming  interested  in 
a  manufacturing  concern.  Cora  attended  the 
public  schools,  showing  remarkable  ability 
in  mathematics,  and  studied  to  prejjare  her- 
self for  teaching.  Her  plans  were  abruptly 
changed  by  the  sudden  death  of  her  father 
while  trying  to  save  the  lives  of  some  of  his 
men  after  an  explosion  of  chemicals.  The  girl 
of  seventeen  found  herself  the  res])onsible  head 
of  the  family,  with  an  invalid  mother  and  two 
young  sisters  de]i(>ndent  on  her  for  supjDort. 
She  bravely  confronted  the  problem  of  bread- 
winning,  and  succeeded  in  maintaining  the 
home,  giving  her  sisters  a  business  education 
as  a  basis  for  their  own  independence.  For 
;i   time  Cora  held   the  position  of  book-keep(>r; 


COHA    B.  AVLING 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


151 


but  lier  energies  required  a  more  active  life, 
and  for  several  years  she  travelled  through  the 
Middle  States,  representing  a  Chicago  firm, 
a  cereal  food  house.  Her  salary,  seventy-five 
dollars  a  month  for  the  first  two  months,  was 
then  increased  to  three  thousand  dollars  a  year 
and  expenses.  In  1894  she  married  Arthur 
Putnam  Ayling,  a  native  of  Boston,  then  a 
glass  manufacturer  in  Milwaukee,  Wis.  She 
was  elected  treasurer  of  the  company,  the  North- 
ern Glass  W^orks,  and  had  ]>ractical  charge  of 
the  office  and  sales  ilepartment.  In  1S98,  her 
health  failing,  the  Aylings  moved  to  a  delight- 
ful country  house  in  Bridge  water,  Mass.,  where 
the  rest  and  outdoor  life  proved  restorative. 
Later,  when  her  husband's  business  interests 
took  him  to  the  remote  Southwest,  Mrs.  Ayling 
assumed  the  business  management  of  a  new 
Boston  publication,  the  Brown  Book,  which  in 
less  than  two  years  achieved  a  most  remark- 
able success.  She  is  also  the  presitlent  of  the 
Automatic  Addressing  Machine  Company,  and 
has  interests  in  various  other  enterprises. 

Personally  Mrs.  Ayling  is  a  woman  of  rather 
slight  physique,  far  too  slight  for  the  stress 
the  mind  would  impose  upon  it;  but  her  in- 
domitable will  carries  her  through  tasks  that 
might  well  deter  many  men.  Her  rather  quiz- 
zical gray  eyes  have  an  almost  clairvoyant 
power  in  reatling  those  with  whom  she  comes 
in  contact.  Her  mind  rapidly  grasps  the  salient 
points  of  any  proposition,  ignoring  unimpor- 
tant details,  anil  her  deductions  are  seldom 
in  error.  She  places  her  objective  points 
clearly,  and  attains  them  by  very  direct  meth- 
ods, possessing  strong  executive  ability.  She 
systematizes  the  work  of  her  assistants,  and 
inspires  intense  loyalty  in  those  about  her. 
Mrs.  Ayling  is  a  member  of  the  New  England 
Women's  Press  Club,  and  was  a  charter  member 
of  the  Ousametiuin  Club  of  Bridgewater. 


MERCY    A.    BAILEY,    art     teacher, 
Boston,  was  born    in    the    town    of 
Wellfleet,  on   Cape   Cod,   Massachu- 
setts.    Her   parents   were    the  Rev. 
Stephen  Bailey,  a  native  of  Portsmouth,  N.H., 
and    his    wife,    Mrs.    Sally  Whitman    Bailey, 
daughter  of  Dr.  Jonas  and  Mercy  (Goodspeed) 


\\'liitnian,  of  Barnstable.  Miss  Bailey's  maternal 
grandfather,  Dr.  Jonas  Whitman  (Yale  Coll., 
1772),  was  a  descendant  in  the  fifth  genera- 
tion of  JohnWhitman,  an  early  settler  of  Wey- 
mouth, Mass.,  who,  through  his  daughter  Sarah, 
was  an  ancestor  of  President  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. The  Whitman-Lincoln  line  is  thus  .shown: 
Sarah"  Whitman,  daughter  of  John,'  married 
about  1653  Abraham  Jones;  and  their  daugh- 
ter, Sarah^  Jones,  married  Mordecai"  Lincoln, 
of  Hingham,  from  whom  the  line  continued 
through  Mordecai,^  born  in  1686,  who  removed 
to  New  Jersey  and  later  to  Pennsylvania;  John,^ 
who  settled  in  Virginia;  Abraham,^  who  re- 
moved to  Kentucky;  to  Thomas,"  father  of 
Abraham,'  the  sixteenth  President  of  the 
United  States. 

Miss  Bailey  was  educateil  in  [jrivate  schools 
in  Boston  and  at  Wheaton  Seminary,  in  Norton, 
Mass.  She  remembers  no  time  when  she  was 
not  busy  with  pencil  and  brush.  Even  as 
a  tiny  child  she  thus  rejjroduced  the  familiar 
objects  about  her.  Her  parents,  recognizing 
her  talent,  wisely  re.solved  to  have  it  properly 
developed;  and  accordingly  she  received  the 
benefit  of  the  best  instruction  from  both  native 
and  foreign  teachers,  a  part  of  her  student  days 
being  spent  in  Lontlon  anil  Paris. 

She  had  been  a  painstaking  student  for  sev- 
eral years  when  she  accepted  her  first  position 
as  a  teacher  of  drawing  in  the  public  schools 
of  Dorchester,  Mass.  When  Mr.  Walter  Smith 
came  to  Boston  and  started  the  movement 
for  introducing  the  teaching  of  drawing  in  the 
public  and  evening  schools  of  the  city,  there 
was  a  rapidly  increasing  ilemand  for  well- 
trained  teachers.  This  resulted  in  the  found- 
ing of  the  Normal  Art  School,  in  which  Miss 
Bailey  has  been  a  popular  and  esteemed  teacher 
for  twenty  years,  teaching  light  and  shade 
drawing  from  animal  forms  and  still  life  in 
oil  and  water-colors.  She  has  been  a  diligent 
worker  and  student  in  her  chosen  field  all  her 
life,  continuing  to  draw  and  paint  during  the 
years  when  teaching  claimed  the  greater  part 
of  her  time.  Art  has  held  first  place  with  her 
always,  society,  dress,  vacations,  becoming  mat- 
ters of  secondary  importance.  She  has  ex- 
hibited in  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Western 
cities,  her  subjects  being  heads,  animals,  and 


152 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OE   NEW   ENGLAND 


landscapes.  She  has  received  medals  from 
the  Mechanics'  Art  Association.  Among  her 
former  ])upils  are  many  of  the  art  instructors 
at  the  Pratt  Institute,  the  Cleveland  Art  School, 
and  other  important  educational  institutions. 
She  was  the  hrst  woman  to  be  elected  su])er- 
visor  of  drawing  in  the  public  schools  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. She  lias  lectured  on  art  in  vari- 
ous cities. 

Miss  Bailey  is  a  regular  attendant  of  Trinity 
Church,  Boston,  and  is  interested  in  its  several 
charities.  Perhaps  her  warmest  symjiathies 
are  enlisted  for  sailors,  to  the  homes  and  hos- 
pitals for  whom  many  comforts  find  their 
way  from  the  hands  of  the  quiet  artist  in  her 
unostentatious  home  at  the  Grundmann  Stu- 
dios. Miss  Bailey  is  a  member  of  the  C-opley 
Society  of  Boston  and  of  the  Industrial  Art 
Teachers'  Association.  She  is  an  apostle  of 
thoroughness  and  application,  and  more  than 
one  professor  of  fine  arts  to-day  remembers 
with  gratitude  her  efficient  training. 


REBECCA  AUGUSTA  PICKETT,  sec- 
retary of  the  Relief  Committee  of  the 
^  Massachusetts  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
traces  her  ancestry  back  seven  gener- 
ations to  John  Putnam,  who,  with  his  three 
sons,  Thomas,  Nathaniel,  and  John,  came  from 
Buckinghamshire,  England,  to  Salem,  Mass., 
received  a  grant  of  land  in  1G41,  was  admitted 
a  freeman  in  1647,  and  died  in  1662.  The  line 
of  descent  is:  John,^  Captain  John,*  Captain 
Jonathan,^  Jonathan,''  Jonathan,''  Nathan," 
Perley,^  and  Perley  Zebulon  Montgomery  Pike.'* 
Jonathan*  Putnam,  born  in  1691,  married 
Elizabeth'*  Putnam,  daughter  of  Joseph^  and 
Elizabeth  (Porter)  Putnam  and  an  elder  sister 
of  General  Israel   Putnam. 

Nathan"  Putnam,  of  Uanvers,  Mass.,  great- 
grandfather of  Mrs.  Pickett,  was  wounded  in 
the  battle  of  Lexington.  He  married  Hannah 
Putnam,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Amo.s"'  Putnam 
(John,*  John,'  Nathaniel,"  John'). 

Mrs.  Pickett's  paternal  grandfather,  Perley' 
Putnam,  was  born  in  Danvers,  Sei)temb(>r  16, 
1778.  He  was  named  for  his  uncle,  Perley 
Putnam,  who  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Lexing- 
ton, and  whose  name,  with  those  of  the  other 


Danvers  soldiers  who  fell  on  that  day,  is  in- 
scribed on  the  monument  in  Peabody. 

When  in  his  twenty-first  year  Perley'  Put- 
nam was  employed  in  building  the  famous 
frigate  "E.ssex,"  the  keel  of  which  was  laid  on 
Salem  Neck,  Ajjril  VA,  1799,  the  vessel  being 
launched  September  30,  1799.  By  request  of 
Colf)nel  William  Ricker,  Collector  of  Customs 
for  the  district  of  Salem  and  Beverly,  he  pre- 
sented a  plan  for  a  custom-house  and  store  for 
the  town  of  Salem  on  June  19,  LSIS,  which 
was  sul)stantially  accejited  by  the  govern- 
ment. The  present  custom-house  was  built 
under  his  superintendence.  He  also  worked 
on  the  first  Franklin  Building,  and  erected 
some  of  the  solid  houses  on  Chestnut  and  other 
streets. 

He  was  instrumental  in  organizing  the  old 
Salem  Mechanic  Light  Infantry,  of  which  he 
was  Captain  on  the  occasion  of  their  first  parade, 
in  1S07.  He  was  elected  Major  in  1810,  pro- 
moted to  Lieutenant  Colonel  in  1811,  and  was 
conunanding  officer  of  the  day  on  their  fiftieth 
anniversary  in  1857. 

In  the  War  of  1812  he  was  a  Major  in  the 
United  States  army  and  assigneil  to  Colonel 
Loring's  Forty-eighth  Regiment.  He  marched 
his  troops  through  Salem  to  Eastport,  Me., 
taking  command  of  Fort  Sullivan,  but  was 
obliged  to  cajjitulate  his  little  garrison  of  fifty- 
nine  men  (eleven  of  whom  were  sick)  to  the 
British  general.  Sir  Thomas  Hardy.  Return- 
ing to  Salem  at  the  close  of  the  war,  Colonel 
Putnam,  as  he  was  generally  known,  gave  his 
time  and  inflvience  to  public  measures. 

As  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Selectmen  (to 
which  body  he  was  elected  several  years  in 
succession),  he  was  one  of  the  committee  that 
drafted  the  first  city  charter.  The  honor 
was  accorded  to  him  of  transferring  the  keys 
of  the  old  town  house  to  Leverett  Saltonstall, 
the  first  mayor  of  the  city  in  1836.  Colonel 
Putnam  was  appointed  the  first  City  Marshal 
of  Salem,  and  held  that  position  until  1847. 
He  was  Street  Commissioner  from  1846  to 
1862,  and  was  weigher  and  ganger  for  several 
years  in  the  Salem  custom-hou.se.  As  a  life- 
long Democrat,  he  was  earnest  in  his  devotion 
to  the  princi])les -of  that  ])artv.  He  died  July 
4,   1864. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF    NEW    ENGLAND 


153 


Colonel  Putnam  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Universalist  church  in  Salem,  and  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  work  of  that  denomina- 
tion. He  was  very  persevering  in  his  researches 
as  an  antiquarian  and  genealogist,  collecting 
many  records  of  the  Putnam  family,  which 
since  his  death  have  been  placed  in  the  library 
of  the  Essex  Institute,  and  have  been  fre- 
cjuently  consulted  by  students  of  the  family 
history.  Colonel  Putnam  married  November 
3,  1801,  Betsey  Preston,  of  Danvers.  They 
had  three  sons  and  seven  (laughters,  all  born 
in  Salem. 

Perley  Z.  M.  Pike  Putnam,  .son  of  Colonel 
Perley'  and  Betsey  (Preston)  Putnam,  was 
a  .sea  captain.  He  died  in  August,  1849,  of 
typhus  fever,  on  board  the  brig  "Messenger," 
on  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  He  was  l)uried 
at  .sea.     His  wife  was  Mary  K.  Whitney. 

His  daughter,  Rebecca  Augusta,  the  subject 
of  tliis  sketch,  was  born  Sejjtember  22,  1847, 
in  Salem,  Mass.  She  married  first,  February 
20,  1872,  William  Henry  Cook,  of  Salem,  who 
died  October  30,  1872.  Siie  marrietl  second, 
January  31,  1883,  Charles  Pickett,  of  Beverly, 
where  they  now  reside.  Her  son  by  her  former 
marriage,  William  Henry  Cook,  second,  born 
January  14,  1873,  also  lives  in  Beverly. 

Charles  Pickett,  of  Beverly,  went  to  Cali- 
fornia in  August,  1847,  in  the  bark  "  San  Fran- 
cisco," returning  via  Central  America  in  May, 
1853.  He  was  mustered  into  the  United  States 
service  August  22,  1862,  at  Lynnheld,  in  Com- 
pany B,  Fortieth  Massachusetts  Regiment, 
and  was  in  the  following  battles:  siege  of  Suf- 
folk, Va. ;  Baltimore  Cross-roads:  siege  of  Fort 
Wagner,  S.C. ;  Seahook  Farm,  Ten  Mile  Run, 
Lobe  City,  Olustee,  Cedar  Creek,  and  McGirsh's 
Creek,  Fla. ;  Petersburg  Heights,  siege  of  Peters- 
burg, repulse  of  Haygood's  brigade,  liattle  of 
the  Mine,  Bennuda  Hundred,  Fair  Oaks,  oper- 
ations before  Richmond.  At  Olustee,  Fla., 
February  20,  1864,  he  was  wounded  in  the  thigh. 
As  First  Sergeant,  Company  B,  Fortieth  Mas- 
sachusetts Regiment,  he  was  honorably  dis- 
charged .lune  16,  1865,  at  the  close  of  the  war. 

Api)ointed  .superintendent  of  the  Beverly 
water-works  in  August,  1869,  he  held  that 
position  until  ilarcli  1,  1896,  when  lie  resigned 
"after  twenty-six  years  of  faithful  service  to 


town  and  city,  antl  leaving  to  other  hands  one 
of  the  best  kept  systems  of  water-works  in  the 
country."  He  is  a  member  of  John  H.  Chipman, 
Jr.,  Post,  No.  89,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Beverly. 

Mr.  Pickett  had  two  brothers  in  the  Union 
army,  Josiah  and  George  A.  Pickett.  The 
younger  brother  was  in  Company  G,  Twenty- 
third  Ma.ssacluLsetts  Regiment.  The  elder 
brother,  Josiah  Pickett,  was  "  First  Lieutenant, 
Third  Battalion  Riflemen,  M.  \.  M.,  in  .service 
of  the  United  States,  April  19,  1861;  .  .  .  Cap- 
tain Twenty-fifth  Ma.ssachu.setts  Infantry,  Octo- 
ber 12,  1S61:  .  .  .  Major,  March  20,  1862;  Colo- 
nel, October  29,  1862.  Served  in  North  Caro- 
lina from  October,  1861,  to  January,  1865. 
Present  at  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor,  \a., 
where  he  was  severely  wounded.  Brevet 
Brigadier-general,  United  States  Volunteers, 
June  3,  1864.     Mustered  out,  January  10,  1865." 

Mi's.  Pickett  is  a  charter  member  of  the 
Relief  Cor])s  auxiliary  to  the  John  H.  Chipman, 
Jr.,  Post,  (}.  A.  R.,  of  Beverly,  which  was  in- 
stituted May  28, 1883.  She  .served  the  corps  two 
years  as  conductor  and  one  year  as  senior  vice- 
presiilent;  was  installed  president  in  1892  and 
again  in  1897;  has  also  held  the  office  of  chap- 
lain, performed  the  duties  of  treasurer  three 
years  and  of  .secretary  two  years.  For  four 
years  she  served  faithfully  as  chairman  of 
the  Executive  Committee.  She  has  also  been 
chairman  of  the  Relief  Committee.  She  was 
appointed  Department  Aide  in  1893,  1895, 
1900,  and  1901,  and  is  serving  (1903)  for 
the  sixth  year  as  Assistant  Inspector.  In 
1895  .she  travelled  extensively  as  treasurer 
of  the  Exemplification  staff,  appointed  by 
Mrs.  Eva  T.  Cook,  Department  President. 
In  1896  she  declined  a  nomination  as  De- 
partment Press  Correspondent,  but  in  1900  ac- 
cepted an  appointment  as  a  member  of  the 
Department  Relief  Connnittee,  which  was 
tendered  her  by  Mrs.  Mary  L.  Oilman,  Depart- 
ment President.  As  secretary  of  this  com- 
mittee she  has  gained  a  reputation  for  efficiency 
and  zeal  in  the  arduous  and  oftentimes  per- 
plexing duties  of  the  office.  She  is  thoroughly 
familiar  witli  matters  relating  to  pension  laws. 
State  aid,  the  management  of  Soldiers'  Homes, 
and  so  forth,  and  is  well  known  in  Grand  Army 
and  Relief  Cor|)s  circles  throughout  the  State. 


154 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Mrs.  Pickett  is  a  member  of  the  Finance 
Committee  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Bev- 
erly, and  has  been  an  active  member  of  the 
church  for  several  years.  She  is  interested  in 
the  home  and  foreign  mission  work,  is  treas- 
urer of  the  "Ina.smuch"  circle  of  King's  Daugh- 
ters and  a  teacher  in  the  Chinese  department 
of  the  Bible  school.  She  is  also  chairman  of 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Woman's 
Federation  of  the  First  Baptist  Church.  She 
is  a  member  of  the  Lothrop  Club  and  of  the 
Supply  Committee  of  the  Old  Ladies'  Home 
Society  of  Beverly.  In  1898  and  1899  she  was 
secretary  of  the  Beverly  Volunteer  Aid  Associa- 
tion, which  conducted  special  work  for  the 
soldiers  of  the  Spanish-American  War. 


JLLIA  MARIA  BAKER,  wife  of  William 
James  Baker,  of  Worcester,  was  born  in 
that  city,  October  13,  1830,  daughter  of 
Sanuiel  and  Mary  (Harrington)  Perry. 
In  a  published  article  by  Professor  Arthur 
L.  Perry,  LL.D.,  entitled  ''An  Ancestral  Re- 
search," whence  has  been  derived  some  of  the 
early  historj'  and  genealogy  that  follows,  the 
Perry  lineage  is  traced  back  to  the  Rev.  John 
Perry,  of  Farnborough  (now  Fareham,  Hamp- 
shire), Englantl,  who  died  in  1621.  The  clergy- 
man's son  John,  shortly  after  his  father's  death, 
was  apjirenticed  to  learn  the  cloth-workers' 
trade.  He  married  Johanna,  daughter  of  Jo- 
seph Holland,  a  cloth-worker  and  citizen  of 
London.  Her  father's  will,  dated  1659,  printed 
in  Waters's  "Genealogical  Gleanings,"  makes 
becjuests  to  his  "son-in-law,  John  Perry,  and 
Johanna,  his  wife,  my  daughter,"  and  their 
three  children.  It  was  this  John'  Perry  who, 
accompanied  by  his  son  John,^  came  to  New 
England  and  settled  in  AA'atertown,  near  Bos- 
ton, near  the  close  of  the  year  1666  or  early  in 
1667. 

John-  Perry  married  in  Watertown  in  Decem- 
ber, 1667,  Sarah  Clary.  They  had  nine  chil- 
dren, Josiah,^  born  in  1684,  being  the  seventh. 
Josiah'  Perry  married  Bethiah  Cutter,  daugh- 
ter of  Ephraim  and  Bethiah  (Wood)  Cutter  and 
grand-daughter  of  Richard'  Cutter.  Nathan'' 
Perry,  born  in  1718,  was  one  of  their  ten  chil- 
dren.    He    married    at    Watertown    in     1746 


Hannah  Fiske.  The  Perrys  of  Watertown  in 
colonial  times  were  engaged  in  some  form  of 
cloth-working,  being  mostly  weavers  and 
tailors.  Bethiah,  first  wife  of  Josiah  Perry 
and  mother  of  his  children,  died  in  1735,  and 
his  second  wife,  Elizabeth,  died  in  1748.  In 
1751  Josiah  and  his  son  Nathan  settled  on  a 
farm  of  eighty  acres  on  the  north-western  slope 
of  Sagatal)scot  Hill  (now  I'nion  Hill),  Worces- 
ter, Mass.  Of  this  property  they  were  joint 
owners.  Much  of  the  land  remains  in  the 
hands  of  the  family  at  this  day. 

Nathan*  Perry,  by  occupation  a  farmer  and 
weaver,  was  Treasurer  of  Worcester  County 
fifteen  years,  also  Town  Treasurer  most  of 
the  time,  and  for  many  years  Notary  Public. 
He  was  for  twenty-three  years  deacon  in  the 
old  South  Church.  A  stanch  patriot  in  trying 
times,  he  stood  high  in  the  confidence  of  his 
fellow-citizens.     He  died  in  February,  1806. 

Moses  Perry,  son  of  Nathan  and  one  of  a 
family  of  eight  children,  was  born  in  1762,  and 
lived  to  be  eighty  years  old.  He  succeeded  to 
the  ownerslii|)  of  tlie  home  farm,  was  indus- 
trious, frugal,  and  tlu'ifty,  and  although  his 
schooling,  it  is  said,  had  been  limited  to  six 
weeks,  he  was  nuich  respected  as  a  man  of  in- 
telligence anil  influence,  a  slow  speaker,  l)ut  one 
whose  words  carried  weight.  With  a  placid 
temper  he  combined  great  force  of  character. 
It  is  related  of  him  that  at  a  church  meeting 
where  the  members  were  becoming  e.xcited  he 
arose  and  said:  "  Brethren,  we  are  getting  pretty 
warm.  I  think  we  had  better  go  home,  and  I 
shall  set  the  example."  He  then  took  his  hat 
and  started.  He  was  a  deacon  in  the  South 
Church  thirty-five  years  and  in  the  I'nion 
Church  six  years.  His  wife,  Hannah  Hall, 
whom  he  married  in  1791,  died  in  November, 
1861,  at  ninety-three  years  of  age.  She  is 
spoken  of  as  having  been  somewhat  eccentric 
and  "perhaps  lacking  balance  of  mind,"  but  of 
a  "kindly,  social  nature,  very  fond  of  her 
cluu'ch,  and  with  a  wond(>rful  memory  for  the 
sermon."  They  had  eight  children,  five  sons 
and  three  daughters.  Three  of  the  sons  were 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  two  were  farmers, 
one  settling  in  Central  New  York,  and  the 
other,  Samu(>l,  in  Worcester.  Two  of  the 
daughters     married     farmers.      One    was    the 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


155 


mother  of  fourteen  children;  the  other,  of 
twelve. 

SamueP  Perry,  the  next  owner  and  occupant 
of  the  Worcester  farm,  was  horn  Novemljer  26, 
1796,  died  Feliruary  12,  1878.  His  wife,  Mary 
Harrington,  whom  lie  wedded  in  December, 
1823,  was  born  March  20,  1804,  daughter  of 
Francis  Harrington,  Jr.  She  died  Feliruary 
18,  1869.  Her  grandfather  Harrington  bought 
land  in  Worcester,  and  settled  there  in  1740. 
When  Samuel  Perry  married,  on  three  sides  of 
his  farm  was  a  dense  forest.  In  preparing  to 
make  a  home  for  his  bride  he  cut  down  the 
first  tree  at  the  north.  He  .served  as  a  Captain 
in  the  militia,  and  for  thirty-five  years  was  a 
deacon  of  the  Union  Church,  of  which  he 
was  one  of  the  founders.  He  was  very  benev- 
olent, a  man  of  good  judgment  in  affairs, 
and  a  peacemaker  in  the  church  and  neighbor- 
hood. Opposed  to  the  renting  of  jjews,  he 
took  upon  himself  to  secure  subscriptions,  col- 
lect the  money,  and  pay  the  bills.  When  he 
could  not  collect  what  was  pledged,  he  paitl  it 
himself.  He  had  ten  children.  One  son,  David 
Brainard  Perry,  D.D.,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  was 
for  some  years  a  home  missionary  in  Nebraska 
and  is  now  president  of  Doane  College.  An- 
other son  was  a  successful  business  man,  autl 
three  were  farmers.  Of  the  five  daughters, 
four  became  teachers,  in  time  marrying  in- 
telligent, well-to-do  business  men.  The  other 
ilaughter,  Mary  S.  Perry,  who  died  in  Worces- 
ter, August  8,  1902,  was  much  beloved  as  a 
"woman  of  rare  qualities  of  heart  and  mind, 
of  great  synijiathy  for  the  unfortunate,  with 
keen  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  nature,  a 
wide  range  of  reading  and  thought,  remarkable 
knowledge  of  the  Scri|)tures,  and  great  rev- 
erence for  sacred  things."  A  vohune  of  her 
poems  published  during  her  last  illness  is  held 
as  a  precious  legacy. 

The  mother,  Mrs.  Mary  Harrington  Perry,  a 
kindly,  hospitable  woman,  with  a  charm  of 
manner  that  attracted  strangers  to  her,  was  a 
notable  housekeeper,  bringing  up  her  chiUlren 
to  habits  of  industry  and  thrift.  In  the  sick- 
room she  had  rare  tact  and  skill.  Her  simi:»le 
presence  was  a  blessing. 

Julia  Maria  (Mrs.  Baker)  was  the  fourth  child 
of  Deacon  Sanmel  Perry  and  his  wife   Maiy. 


She  acquired  her  educiition  in  the  district  school, 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  her  home,  the 
Worcester  High  School,  o])ened  in  1846,  Leices- 
ter Acatlemy,  and  Williraham  Academy.  For 
several  years  she  was  engaged  in  teaching,  her 
first  school,  in  a  neighboring  town,  being  an 
ungraded  one  of  seventy-six  pupils.  She  after- 
ward taught  in  interm*'diate  and  grammar 
schools.  Ecjuipped  with  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  branches  to  be  taught  and  with  a  native 
force  of  character  that  showed  itself  in  emer- 
gencies, she  brought  to  her  work  an  enthusi- 
asm that  aroused  and  held  the  interest  of  her 
pupils,  and  ensured  her  success  as  teacher  and 
di.sciplinarian. 

On  June  27,  1861,  she  married  William  James 
Baker,  of  Worcester,  a  son  of  James  and  Lydia 
(Gouldingj  Baker.  For  many  years  Mr.  Will- 
iam J.  Baker  was  in  active  business  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Charles  Baker  &  Co.,  of  Worces- 
ter, lumber  manufacturers  and  dealers.  Owing 
to  failing  health  he  retired  from  business  cares 
about  five  years  ago. 

Mrs.  Baker  brought  up  from  babyhood  a 
niece  of  her  husband's,  a  child  whose  father, 
a  minister,  had  died.  Later  God  bestowed 
upon  her  a  baby  boy  who  has  since  grown  to 
a  jjromising  manhood,  being  of  strong  char- 
acter and  good  business  ability. 

Mrs.  Baker  is  a  member  of  Union  Church,  of 
the  Congregational  denonnnation,  and  has 
taken  a  jirominent  part  in  church  work.  For 
eight  years  she  was  deaconess  under  the  pastor- 
ates of  Drs.  Stlmson  and  Davis,  and  during 
that  time  she  had  charge  of  the  women's  prayer 
meeting,  and  also  had  the  main  care  of  si.xteen 
families.  Her  helpers  were  not  suited  to  the 
woi'k,  or  were  too  busy  or  were  too  easily  dis- 
couraged. She  has  since  contimied  it,  having 
cared  for  .some  of  the  families  up  to  this  day. 
Her  reward  has  been  in  seeing  them  prosper, 
become  members  of  the  church  and  useful 
members  of  the  community.  Mrs.  Baker  keeps 
up  her  interest  in  some  of  those  whom  she  has 
thus  helped,  and  still  corresponds  with  tho.se 
who  have  moved  away  from  Worcester.  She 
was  formerly  vice-president  of  a  literary  society 
in  Wilbraham,  most  of  the  time  acting,  owing 
to  the  sickness  of  tht>  president.  She  possesses 
rare  tact  and  skill   in  nursing,  inherited  from 


156 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


her  mother,  and  developed  by  practical  experi- 
ence through  long  periods  of  severe  sickness  in 
both  her  own  and  in  h(>r  jiarents'  family.  For 
a  number  of  year!>  she  lias  kept  a  home  for 
teachers  of  the  high  school,  of  both  the  normal 
and  other  grades,  having  sometimes  four  in  the 
family,  and  this  because  so  few  are  wiUing  to 
receive  them.  She  hs^  derived  nmch  pleasure 
and  benefit  by  reading  and  studying  with  them, 
thus  kee{)ing  in  touch  mentally  with  the  active 
workers  of  the  younger  generation. 

Mrs.  Baker's  reminiscences  of  her  girlhood 
give  interesting  pictures  of  country  life  in  the 
thirties  and  forties  of  last  century.  "Every 
daughter,"  she  says,  "had  her  work  planned 
and  systematized.  Those  were  strenuous 
times.  The  family  rose  at  five  in  the  morning, 
even  in  winter,  getting  and  eating  breakfast 
by  candle-light."  Beside  the  ordinary  work 
of  hoasekeeping  there  was  much  to  be  done 
at  special  times  in  the  course  of  the  year. 
Among  other  things  she  sjiecifies  the  "cider  to 
be  1)oiled  down,  barrels  of  apple  sauce  to  be 
made  for  home  use  and  for  regular  customers, 
apples  to  be  cut  and  dried,  cucumbers  to  be 
pickled,  yeast  cakes  to  be  made  antl  dried  for 
the  coming  year,  pumpkins  to  be  cooked  and 
dried,  sausages  to  l)e  made,  candles  to  be 
clipped  or  later  run  in  moulds." 

"  I  remember  the  cooking  of  chickens  and 
turkeys  on  the  spit  of  the  tin  kitchen  set  be- 
fore the  open  fire,  the  baking  of  johnny-cake 
on  a  wooden  form,  the  first  rotary  stove  and 
the  pleasure  of  turning  it.  (irandfather  was 
very  busy  at  the  sho])  with  his  loom  in  those 
early  days.  He  wove  our  woollen  sheets  for 
winter  use,  also  the  material  for  our  winter 
gowns,  ^'ery  warm  and  strong  it  was.  During 
vacations  we  were  taught  to  liraid  straw,  each 
having  her  stint  of  so  many  yards  of  braiding, 
and  then  knitting  so  many  times  round  before 
we  could  go  out  to  play."  Mental  diversion 
was  sometimes  happily  combined  with  work, 
so  that  it  was  "not  always  drudgery."  Then, 
too,  there  were  special  seasons  of  festivity  and 
fun.  "Thanksgiving  Days  were  times  to  be 
looked  forward  to  and  prepanMJ  for  the  whole 
previous  year.  As  years  pas.sed  on,  the  tables, 
l)ountifully  spread,  grew  larger  and  larger.  In 
the  evening  all  kinds  of  games  were  played,  the 


father,  the  youngest  player  of  all,  the  evening 
ending  with  singing,  Bible  reatling,  and  prayer." 
Considering  herself  ])rimarily  a  home-maker, 
caring  for  husband  and  .son,  and  exercising  hos- 
pitality, Mrs.  Baker  continues  in  her  old-time 
habits  of  reading  and  study.  For  leisure  hours 
she  finds  congenial  employment  in  making 
scraii-books.  Of  these  she  has  "many  for 
many  purposes,"  and  she  hopes  they  will  be 
pleasing  and  useful  to  the  coming  generation. 
Looking  back,  she  says:  "Certain  physical  and 
mental  traits  have  descended  through  all  the 
generations — strong  constitutions,  long  lives, 
large  families,  habits  of  industry,  good  mental 
abilities,  and  a  high  standard  of  morals." 


ISABICL  NORTON  HOLBROOK,  of  Hol- 
brook  and  I-5oston,  Mass.,  for  .several  years 
Regent  of  Paul  Revere  Chapter,  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution,  and  now 
one  of  the  three  honorary  State  Regents  of  that 
society,  is  a  native  of  New  London,  Merrimack 
County,  N.H.  Born  February  14,  1841,  daugh- 
ter of  AValter  Powers  Flanders  and  his  wife, 
Susan  Everett  Greeley,  she  numbers  among 
her  ancestors  many  colonial  worthies  whose 
names  are  woven  into  the  history  of  New  Eng- 
lanfl.  Among  them  was  Major-general  Hum- 
phrey Atherton,  who  held  many  positions  of 
honor,  both  civil  and  military,  and  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  in  ItiGl,  was  commander-in-chief 
of  the  colonial  forces.  Another  was  Tristram 
Coffin,  who.se  descendants  trace  their  lineage 
back  to  the  Nantucket  home  with  pride;  and 
beside  these  were  .lames  Trowbridge,  John 
Whipple,  Edward  Jackson,  John  \A'ard,  and 
Ebenezer  Stone,  all  prominent  men  in  the  early 
days  of  Newton  and  C'amljridge.  Of  the  fifteen 
ancestors  under  whom  Mrs.  Holbrook  ({uali- 
fied  for  membership  in  the  Society  of  Colonial 
Dames,  nine  were  Deputies  to  the  General 
Court.  P'oiu-  of  her  ancestors — namely,  Ste- 
phen Harriman,  Stephen  Harriman,  Jr.,  Eben- 
ezer Shepard,  and  Joseph  Greeley — served  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  the  last  two  as  minute- 
men  on  the  alarm  of  the  battle  of  Lexington. 

Walter  Powers  Flanders  was  born  in  ^^'arner, 
N.H.,  March  29,  1X05.  He  died  in  Milwaukee, 
^^'is.,  January  24,  LS83.     He  was  son  of  I']zra 


ANGIE   A.  ROBINSON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


157 


and  Lucy  {Harriiiian)  FlandtTs  and  a  lineal 
descendant  of  Stephen  Flanders,  an  early  in- 
habitant of  Salisbury,  Mass.  The  family  to 
which  his  inotlu'r  belonged  was  founded  by 
Leonard  Harriinan,  who  was  of  Rowley,  Mass., 
as  early  as  1649. 

Walter  P.  Flanders  was  graduated  at  Dart- 
mouth College  in  18.'U.  He  became  an  able 
and  successful  lawyer  in  New  Hampshire,  and 
was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature. He  removed  to  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  in 
1848.  He  was  treasurer  of  the  Milwaukee  and 
Prairie  du  Chien  Railroad,  and  later  had  large 
landed  interests. 

Susan  Everett  Greeley,  who  became  the  wife 
of  AValter  Powers  Flanders,  September  2.S,1834, 
was  born  in  New  London,  N.H.,  January  8, 
1811.  She  died  in  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  May  10, 
1888.  In  the  History  of  New  London,  N.H., 
the  pleasant  hill  town  where  nearly  half  her 
life  was  spent,  she  is  reverently  recorded  as 
a  "woman  of  rare  mental  endowment  and  singu- 
larly beautiful  character."  She  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Squire  Jonathan  and  Polly  (Shepard) 
Greeley  and  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  seven 
children.  Her  mother  was  a  daughter  of 
Lieutenant  Ebenezer  Shepard,  of  Dedham, 
Mass.,  and  New  London,  N.H.,  who  married 
Jane  McCordy.  Her  father,  Jonathan  Greeley, 
was  a  son  of  Joseph  and  Prudence  (Clement) 
Greeley,  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  and  traced  his 
descent  from  Andrew  Greeley,  who  was  an 
original  proprietor  of  Salisbury,  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony. 

Isabel  Norton  Flanders  was  eilucated  at 
Milwaukee  College,  one  of  the  pioneer  insti- 
tutions devoted  to  the  higher  education  of 
women,  and  noted  for  thoroughness  of  train- 
ing. She  was  gratluated  in  1858,  and  later 
was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  board 
of  trustees  of  the.  college.  She  was  married 
February  11,  1862,  tc^  William  Lafayette  Dana, 
general  freight  agent  of  the  Milwaukee  and 
Prairie  du  Chien  Railroad.  Mr.  Dana  died 
two  years  later,  and  she  resided  with  her 
parents  in  Milwaukee  until  February  7,  1889, 
when  she  was  married  to  F..  Everett  Holbrook. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holbrook  spend  their  sununers 
in  Holbrook,  Mass.,  at  the  homestead  fif  Mr. 
Holbrook's  father,  Elisha  Niles  Holbrook,  after 


whom  the  town  was  named  and  fiom  whom  it 
received  the  town  hall  and  ])ublic  library. 
Their  winter  residence  is  in  Boston,  and  they 
enjoy  fre([uent  seasons  of  foreign  travel. 

Mrs.  Holbrook's  ancestry  has  had  its  rightful 
influence,  and  she  is  warmly  interested  in  pa- 
triotic work.  Under  her  regency  the  Paul 
Revere  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution,  began  its  etlucational  work  for 
boys,  instructing  them  in  American  history 
and  the  principles  of  good  citizenship,  under 
the  sujjervision  of  the  Denison  House.  Mrs. 
Holbrook  is  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the 
New  England  Won)en's  Club,  a  director  of  the 
Woman's  Home  Missionary  Association,  and 
a  trustee  of  the  Holbrook  Public  Library.  She 
has  been  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church 
since  her  sixteenth  year,  and  for  many  years 
in  Milwaukee  was  active  in  the  work  of 
Plymouth  Chui-ch  and  Sunday-school.  She 
was  also  for  thirteen  years  secretary  of  tlu; 
Milwaukee  Home  for  the  Friendless. 


ANGIE  ADELE  ROBINSON,  past  Pres- 
/\  ident  of  the  Department  of  Massachu- 
X  \.  setts.  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  is  one 
of  the  representative  women  of  Worces- 
ter, her  native  place,  and  is  known  throughout 
the  State  for  her  great  interest  in  patriotic 
work. 

She  was  born  August  6,  1843,  daughter  of 
Timothy  Eliot  and  Sarah  Hadaway  (Bartlett) 
Kidder.  Her  paternal  grandfather  was  Tim- 
othy Kidder;  her  maternal  grandfather,  John 
Hadaway  Bartlett.  She  was  educated  in  pri- 
vate schools,  of  which  there  were  many  in 
Worcester  at  that  time.  At  the  age  of  ten 
years  she  began  the  study  of  nmsic  under  the 
instruction  of  Miss  Frances  Kidder,  an  aunt. 
Later  she  was  a  pupil  of  Eugene  Thayer,  the 
eminent  organist,  of  Boston.  She  continued 
these  studies  several  years,  but,  owing  to  re- 
verses in  the  family,  was  unable  to  carry  out 
her  plan  and  obtain  a  thorough  musical  eiluca- 
tion. 

The  marriage  of  .\ngie  Adele  Kidder  and  Wil- 
liam Lyman  Robinson,  a  native  of  Barre,  Vt., 
and  in  boyhootl  and  youth  a  resident  of  Con- 
cord, N.lf.,  tocjk  place  August  7,   1861.     This 


158 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


was  tlic  opening  year  of  the  Civil  \\'ar  and,  as 
she  says,  "  a  trying  time  to  make  a  start  in  the 
world."  Mrs.  Robinson's  brother,  George  Mor- 
timer Kidiler,  enlisted  in  September,  1861,  in 
Company  C,  Fourth  New  Hampshire  Regiment, 
was  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Deep  Bot- 
tom (or  Deep  Cut,  as  it  is  sometimes  called), 
and  suffered  in  Libby,  Belle  Tsle,  and  Salisbury 
Prisons  for  nearly  ten  months.  He  was  paroled 
March  9,  1865,  but  lived  only  eleven  days  after 
reaching  his  home  in  Worcester.  His  death 
occurred  just  before  the  surrender  of  General 
Lee,  the  news  of  which  he  was  anxious  to  hear. 
Relincjuishing  a  good  position,  in  July,  1863, 
Mr.  Robinson  enlisted,  and  was  enrolled  in  the 
United  States  navy  and  credited  to  the  cpiota 
of  New  Hampshire. 

Before  her  marriage  Mrs.  Robinson  had  made 
jackets  for  the  State  militia  in  AA'orcester,  and 
she  continued  to  work  for  the  soldiers  through- 
out the  war.  She  had  many  kinsmen  and 
friends  in  the  army,  to  whom  she  frequently 
sent  letters  and  supplies.  She  was  an  eye- 
witness of  the  departure  of  numerous  com})anies 
and  regiments,  as  they  passed  through  Worces- 
ter, and  a  frequent  visitor  at  Camp  Lincoln 
and  Camp  Scott  in  that  city.  "These  scenes," 
she  says,  "  are  vivid  in  my  mind  and  will  never 
be  erased." 

When  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  began 
its  beneficent  work,  Mrs.  Robinson  renewed  her 
efforts  for  the  veteran,  in  whose  welfare  she 
had  never  ceased  to  take  an  interest.  She  was 
a  charter  member  of  Relief  Corps  No.  11,  auxil- 
iary to  George  H.  Ward  Post,  No.  10.  The 
Hon.  Alfred  S.  Roe,  a  Past  Commander  of  Post 
No.  10,  refers  to  her  local  Grand  Army  work 
as  follows: — 

"  From  the  beginning  Mrs.  Angle  Adele  Rob- 
inson has  been  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  and 
efficient  workers  in  the  Relief  Corps  of  AVorces- 
ter.  Seeing  her  brother  go  into  the  service  as 
a  member  of  the  Fourth  New  Hampshire  In- 
fantry, and  herself  wedded  in  1861  to  William 
Lyman  Robinson,  who  did  his  patriotic  duty 
in  the  navy  in  those  troublous  days,  it  was  very 
natural  that  her  very  being  should  be  bound 
up  in  the  progress  and  issue  of  the  struggle. 
It  was  her  fortune  as  a  girl  to  help  make  jackets 
worn  l)v  the  Massachusetts  militiamen  in  their 


April  trip  to  Baltimore  and  Washington,  giving 
to  the  work  all  the  time  there  was,  Sundays 
includetl.  As  a  wife  and  mother  she  could  tell 
the  whole  story  of  the  anxiety  which  followed 
the  absent  husband  and  father.  Her  interest 
in  the  families  of  in<ligent  and  suffering  veter- 
ans did  not  await  for  its  application  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Relief  Corps.  Long  before 
the  good  women  of  the  land  had  formed  their 
invaluable  band,  she  had  sought  out  and  helped 
relieve  the  wants  of  many  a  suffering  house- 
hold. Thus,  when  the  organization  was  pro- 
jected, she  was  ready  to  become  one  of  the 
earliest  members  and  one  of  the  workers  from 
the  start.  Serving  in  the  liome  corps  in  about 
all  the  offices  there  were,  she  has  repeatedly 
represented  the  same  in  the  State  and  national 
liodies.  Among  the  many  excellent  presiding 
officers  whom  the  local  and  department  organ- 
izations have  had,  it  will  not  be  tof)  much  to 
state  that  no  one  has  ever  performed  her  duties 
more  intelligently  or  effectually.  Thoroughly 
posted  in  the  working  programme  of  the  order, 
ready  in  thought  and  speech,  graceful  in  action, 
her  accomplishment  of  each  and  every  assign- 
ment is  a  source  of  pleasure  and  pride  to  her 
friends;  but,  above  all,  her  loyal  devotion  to 
the  ends  and  aims  of  the  Relief  Corps,  namely, 
the  helping  of  those  in  distress,  marks  her  as 
one  of-  the  most  .successful  and  gracious  of 
Worcester's  women." 

Mrs.  Robinson  has  been  a  jjrominent  partici- 
pant in  the  State  conventions  of  the  Woman's 
Relief  Corps  for  many  years.  She  has  been  a 
member  of  the  Department  Executive  Board, 
Department  .lunior  Mce-President,  Senior  A'ice- 
President,  and  at  the  annual  convention  held 
in  Boston,  February,  1899,  she  was  luiani- 
mously  elected  Department  President.  Her 
tact,  good  judgment,  and  business  ability  were 
manifest  throughout  the  year. 

In  the  discharge  of  her  duties  while  thus 
standing  at  the  head  of  o\'er  fourteen  thousantl 
women,  she  attended  many  gatherings  under 
the  auspices  of  posts  and  corps  in  all  sections 
of  the  State.  Referring  in  her  report  to  this 
part  of  her  duties,  she  said: — 

"(.)f  the  very  many  invitations  received  the 
past  year,  I  have  been  alile  to  accept  all,  ex- 
cept where  dates  condicteil  ■  and  then  I  detailed 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


159 


one  of  the  ilepartnient  officers  to  represent  the 
department.  As  I  look  back,  it  seems  as  if 
I  had  been  on  the  road  the  entire  year,  arriving 
at  my  home  for  Sundays  only.  I  cannot  take 
the  space  to  enumerate  all  the  diffeient  gather- 
ings that  I  have  attentled,  l)ut  they  have  been 
many.  I  began  like  a  dutiful  citizen  by  pay- 
ing my  respects  to  our  Governor,  and  closed 
by  attending  the  dedication  of  the  beautiful 
hall  of  Hartsuff  Corps,  of  Rockland.  Among 
the  delightful  occasions  was  the  reception  ten- 
dered me  by  my  own  corps,  March  11,  1S99: 
and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  know  that  the  honor  that 
had  come  to  one  of  its  members  was  so  highly 
appreciated  by  the  members  of  the  corps." 

Intensely  loyal  to  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
R,epublic  and  pleased  to  note  that  all  the  corps  in 
the  department  were  working  in  harmony  with 
their  posts,  she  urged  the  making  of  greater 
efforts  to  assist  them  in  the  years  to  come. 

At  the  reception  given  in  Berkeley  Temple 
at  the  close  of  her  administration,  February  14, 
1900,  her  work  was  referretl  to  in  compliment- 
ary terms  by  John  E.  Gilman,  who  that  day 
retired  from  the  ofhce  of  Department  Com- 
mander, and  by  other  prominent  frientls.  Mrs. 
Robinson  subsequently  resumed  her  active 
work  for  the  local  corps  in  Worcester,  serving 
on  the  Relief  Committee,  of  which  she  has  been 
a  member  eighteen  years. 

During  the  years  of  the  Spanish-American 
War  she  gave  nearly  six  months  of  her  time 
to  the  work  of  the  Volunteer  Aid  Association. 
Major  Edward  T.  Raymond,  clerk  of  the  Central 
District  Court  of  Worcester,  who  was  officially 
identified  with  the  \'olunteer  Aid  Association 
work  in  that  city,  thus  i-efers  to  her  services: — 

"  Mrs.  Angle  Adele  Robinson,  of  Worcester, 
was  among  the  first  to  rally  to  the  assistance 
of  the  sokliers  of  the  late  war  with  Spain  and 
their  families.  Her  work  from  May  IS,  189S, 
to  November  3,  1898,  was  having  charge  of  the 
relief  and  relief  workers  established  l)y  the 
Worcester  A'olunteer  Aid  Association.  During 
the  time  she  assisted  some  four  hundred  soldiers 
and  their  families.  She  worked  early  and  late, 
and  it  was  work  of  the  most  trying  and  nerve- 
exhausting  kind.  To  answer  the  thousands  of 
(luestions  and  endure  at  times  the  soinewhat 
ungracious  remarks  of  those  who  were  seeking 


help  fell  to  her  lot.  She  solicited  clothing  of  all 
kinds,  and  fitted  out  many  soldiers'  families. 
Only  those  who  have  pas,sed  through  a  similar 
experience  can  understand  what  she  passed 
through.  Her  work  was  p,erformed  not  for 
pecuniary  reward,  Mrs.  Robinson  having  vol- 
unteered her  services.  The  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Vohmteer  Aid  Association  pa.ssed 
a  vote  comuientling  her  work  and  thanking  her 
for  her  faithful  attention  to  the  suffering  soldiers 
and  their  families." 

By  invitation  of  the  Woman's  Unitarian 
League  of  Worcester,  Mrs.  Robinson  recently 
prepared  and  read  a  paper  upon  the  \'ohmteer 
Aid  work,  which  siie  also  read  by  request  at 
Northboro,  Mass.,  and  also  before  the  Ladies' 
Society  of  the  Central  Church.  This  paper, 
which  is  a  record  of  experiences  in  a  work  that 
^^ill  always  be  memorable,  she  designated  by 
the  title  "The  Sununer's  Campaign  on  the  Home 
Side." 

Mrs.  Robinson  is  a  meihber  of  the  District 
Nurse  Association  of  Worcester,  also  of  the 
Woman's  Employment  Society,  a  charitable 
organization  which  assists  women  and  children. 

Mr.  Freeman  Brown,  clerk  of  the  Board  of 
Overseers  of  the  Poor  of  Worcester,  pays  the 
following  tribute  to  her  work  of  charity: — 

"  In  the  first  place,  Mrs.  Robinson  is  a  noble 
woman.  By  nature,  by  training,  by  environ- 
ment, by  devotion  to  duty,  by  living  for  the 
benefit  and  comfort  of  others  less  fortunate 
than  herself,  she  is  a  s])lenditl  representative 
of  true  New  England  womanhood,  the  best  in 
the  world.  Her  work  in  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  both  locally  and  in  the  State,  is  a  matter 
of  record,  known  throughout  the  country.  It 
is  a  record  of  which  every  i-esident  of  Worces- 
ter is  proud,  and  in  thus  honoring  her  city  and 
her  State  she  has  brought  honor  upon  herself. 
\A'ith  the  \'olunteer  Aid  Association  during  the 
Spanish- American  War  in  1898,  Mrs.  Robinson 
did  grand  service  for  the  boys  who  fought  under 
the  stars  and  stripes.  Her  work  in  this  con- 
nection, like  that  in  the  work  in  the  Woman's 
Relief  ("orps,  is  also  a  matter  of  record. 

"  For  four  years  Mrs.  Robinson  has  been  a 
visitor  of  the  Worcester  Employment  Society, 
visiting  poor  families  regularly  each  month  in 
the  vear.     It   is  of  her  unrecorded  charitable 


160 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


work  and  ministration  of  conifort  to  those  in 
distress  that  I  will  speak.  While  Mrs.  Robin- 
son has  found  time  to  perform  an  enormous 
amount  of  work  of  a  pul)lip  nr  semi-public 
nature,  she  has  qlso  pinched  out  an  hour  or 
day  from  such  work  to  visit  the  unknown  sick, 
to  collect  and  disburse  comforts  antl  delicacies 
to  those  in  distress,  and  to  give  a  guiding  liand 
in  the  affairs  of  families  helpless  because  of  in- 
efficiency or  shiftlessness.  One  or  two  specific 
cases  described  is  better  than  a  column  of  gen- 
eralities. One  family  to  which  she  was  called 
consisted  of  a  husband,  wife,  and  eight  small 
children.  Husband  a  drinking  man,  wife  a 
drinking  woman,  who  had  led  a  life  of  de- 
bauchery and  was  in  the  last  stages  of  consump- 
tion. Home  barren  of  furniture  and  even  of  the 
commonest  utensils  of  a  kitchen  outfit.  To 
this  miserable  home  Mrs.  Robinson  went  out  one 
night  and  nvu'sed  the  sick  woman  for  .several 
days,  until  the  jwor  unfortunate  passed  on  to 
the  great  majority.  Few  women  occupying 
Mrs.  Robinson's  sphere  in  life  would  have 
deigned  to  leave  their  own  comfortable  homes 
and  become  a  nurse  in  a  stranger's  house,  and 
still  fewer  the  number  who  would  venture  into 
a  household  of  squalor  and  vermin  to  perform 
the  noble  service." 

Mrs.  Robinson  is  a  member  of  the  Benevolent 
Committee  of  the  First  Universalist  Church  of 
Worcester,  and  is  one  of  the  leading  workers  of 
the  church.  The  Rev.  Almon  Gunnison,  D.D., 
President  of  St.  Lawrence  University,  Canton, 
N.Y.,  a  former  pastor,  thus  speaks  of  her: — 

"Mrs.  Robinson  has  been  for  many  years 
prominently  associated  with  the  First  Univer- 
salist Church  of  Worcester,  Mass.  She  has  held 
the  position  of  president  of  the  Ladies'  Social 
Circle,  one  of  the  largest  and  oldest  organiza- 
tions of  the  church.  The  position  called  for 
many  and  varied  duties,  all  of  which  she  dis- 
charged with  marked  ability.  Possessing  great 
dignity  of  manner,  she  presided  over  the  meet- 
ings of  the  organization  with  grace  and  force, 
fulfilling  the  manifold  executive  functions  of 
the  place  with  great  skill  and  tact.  A  forceful 
and  graceful  speaker,  she  was  conciliatory  in 
manner,  and  had  great  energy  in  pushing  to 
completion  her  various  plans.  !\Irs.  Robinson 
has  never  permitted  her  public  work  to  inter- 


fere with  or  mar  her  administiation  of  her 
home.  Her  husband  and  children  mingle  admi- 
ration with  their  affection,  for  she  has  ever  been 
.solicitous  in  looking  after  their  welfare.  Tlie 
home  has  been  the  place  to  which  the  childnni 
have  ever  returned  with  pleasure,  and  the  wife 
and  mother  has  omitted  no  duty.  One  of  lier 
daughters  is  a  student  at  St.  Lawrence  Uni- 
versity." 

Of  her  experience  in  relief  work,  Mrs.  Robin- 
son says:  "I  have  taken  pleasure  in  giving  my 
time,  means,  and  efforts  to  this  work.  It  is  a 
great  education  in  many  ways,  and  has  assisted 
me  in  a  knowledge  of  how  to  bring  up  my  chil- 
dren, which,  for  all  this  outside  work,  I  have 
done,  having  n(>ver  in  any  way  neglectetl  their 
education  or  good  health.  I  believe  a  mother 
should  mingle  with  the  world  and  take  an  in- 
terest in  matters  outside  the  home,  in  order  to 
be  capal:)le  of  teaching  her  children  as  they 
should  be  taught.  A  mother  is — or  should  he — 
a  teacher  through  her  entire  life  to  her  children." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robinson  have  six  children, 
namely:  George  K.,  born  P'ebruary  11,  1864; 
Angle 'M.  (now  Mrs.  Ewen),  born  May  19,  1867; 
William  L.,  Jr.,  born  August  25,  1871;  Harry 
C,  born  April  7,  1873;  M.  Beatrice,  born  Ai)ril 
29,  1880;  Sarah  Isabel  E.,  born  December  21, 
1881.  All  were  born  in  Worcester  except  the 
eldest  daughter,  whose  birthplace  is  Cambridge- 
port,  Mass.  The  three  sons  are  prosperous 
business  men,  and  Harry  C.  is  also  prominent  in 
musical  circles. 


ELLEN  MARIA  FOGG  was  born  in 
Salem,  Mass.,  in  1828,  diuighter  of 
Stephen  and  Lucinda  (Goldthwait) 
Fogg.  From  the  age  of  four  3'ears  to 
that  of  thirteen  the  sul:iject  of  this  sketch  was 
a  pupil  at  a  young  ladies'  school.  From  that 
time  until  reaching  the  age  of  sixteen  she  at- 
tended a  school  kept  liy  Henry  K.  Oliver,  a 
teacher  of  high  rank  and  for  many  years  an 
esteemed  ]iublic  official  (sometime  Adjutant- 
general  of  Massachusetts  militia  and  later  State 
Treasurer).  Miss  Fogg  excelled  in  her  studies, 
particularly  in  mathematics  and  astronomy. 
Her  proficiency  in  these  branches  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  when  her  teacher  requested 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


161 


some  members  of  the  class  to  calculate  an 
eclipse,  and  two  of  the  pupils  agreed  to  calcu- 
late an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  she  undertook  the 
more  difficult  task  of  calculating  the  next  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun,  her  calculation  proving  cor- 
rect to  a  minute. 

In  after  years,  as  Genei'al  Oliver  livetl  near 
her,  Miss  Fogg  usetl  frequently  to  call  on  him. 
Upon  one  such  occasion,  as  they  were  talking 
of  old  school  ilays,  he  spoke  of  the  calculation 
of  the  eclipse,  and  asked  her  whether  she  still 
htid  the  paper  on  which  she  had  worked  it  out, 
and  what  she  was  going  to  do  with  it.  She 
replied  that  it  was  rolled  up  in  a  box,  and  she 
was  not  going  to  do  anything  with  it.  "Will 
you  give  it  to  me?"  he  asked.  She  consented 
and  took  it  to  him,  and  he  thereupon  presented 
it  to  the  Essex  Institute  in  Salem,  where  it 
now  is. 

She  had  several  years  of  happy  home  life 
after  leaving  school,  being  active  in  church 
work  and  always  keeping  up  with  current  liter- 
ature; arut,  when  her  father  and  mother  hail 
passed  away,  she  went  abroatl  for  a  year.  She 
spent  same  time  in  Germany,  to  perfect  herself 
in  the  German  language,  and  then,  leaving  in 
Germany  the  friends  she  ha'i  been  with  uj)  to 
that  time,  she  visited  Russia  in  company  with 
a  young  lady  whom  she  had  met  in  Italy,  and 
who  had  requested  permission  to  j(jin  her. 
This  journey  was  a  new  and  delightful  experi- 
ence. When  they  arriveil  in  Russia,  they  took 
a  carriage  to  the  best  Russian  hotel.  There  was 
a  fine  English  hotel,  but  Miss  Fogg  preferred 
when  in  Russia  to  see  Russian  life.  It  was  a 
fine  hotel,  and,  as  they  found  that  German 
was  spoken  there,  they  experienced  no  diffi- 
culty in  making  themselves  -understood.  But, 
after  partaking  of  a  light  lunch,  Miss  Fogg 
thought  it  best,  as  everything  was  new  and 
strange,  to  see  the  American  minister,  and 
asked  for  a  carriage.  They  were  taken  directly 
to  his  office,  and  received  a  cordial  welcome. 
Through  his  kindly  offices  their  way  was 
smoothed,  they  found  comfortable  acconnnoda- 
tions  and  ready  service,  and,  when  they  re- 
sumed their  travels,  a  courier  was  provided  anil 
their  journey  facilitatcil  in  every  possible  way. 
After  leaving  Russia,  Miss  Fogg  proposed  to 
her  friend  that  they  should  extend  their  travels 


to  the  nortli,  and  they  therefore  crossed  over 
and  visited  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark. 
An  account  of  their  visit  to  St.  Petersburg  and 
Moscow  was  prepared  by  Miss  Fogg  in  tlie  form 
of  two  lectures,  one  on  St.  Petersburg  and  one 
on  Moscow,  which  she  has  read  in  private 
parlors  several  times  to  large  and  appieciative 
audiences. 

Miss  Fogg  has  also  visiteil  Sorrento,  Capri, 
and  the  Blue  Grotto,  and  was  the  last,  with 
one  or  two  friends,  to  make  a  partial  ascent  of 
Mount  ^'esuvius  just  before  one  of  its  notable 
eruptions.  An  account  of  these  travels,  written 
to  a  friend,  was  published,  unknown  to  her,  in 
a  New  York  paper  In  June,  1883,  she  had  the 
great  pleasure  of  seeing  the  Passion  Play  per- 
formed at  Brinlegg,  in  the  Austrian  Tyrol;  and 
she  wrote  a  full  account  of  it,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Church  Eclectic,  covering  ten  pages. 

Between  her  two  visits  to  Europe,  Miss  Fogg 
spent  several  winters  in  New  York,  and  while 
there  translated  for  a  clerical  friend  two  French 
theological  works,  one  of  which  was  published. 
She  eilited  the  Girls'  Friendly  Magazine  as 
long  as  it  was  published  in  Boston.  For  sev- 
eral years  she  also  reviewed  new  books  for  the 
Church  Eclectic.  When  she  came  to  Boston, 
after  several  winters  spent  in  New  York,  slie 
was  asked  to  take  a  class  in  church  history, 
and  consented  reluctantly,  being  doubtful  of 
her  own  ability;  but,  with  careful  study  she 
carried  on  the  class  through  the  winters,  giving 
thirteen  lectures,  one  every  Satunlay  morning, 
an  hour  long,  to  a  class  of  thirty  young  ladies. 

Miss  Fogg  converses  about  her  travels  in  an 
entertaining  and  instructive  manner.  Her  de- 
scriptions of  scenes  bring  them  vividly  before 
her  hearers.  She  has  some  beautiful  souve- 
nirs gathered  from  places  of  note.  Her  lecture 
on  Russia,  a  country  which  so  few  visit  in  their 
trips  abroad,  written  wholly  from  her  own  ex- 
perience, is  especially  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive; and,  through  the  solicitation  of  students 
and  artists  who  have  travelled  abroad,  this, 
with  her  other  lectures,  will  soon  be  pub- 
lished. 

While  in  Rome  Miss  Fogg  made  a  collection 
of  pictures  to  illustrate  her  copy  of  Hawthorne's 
tald,  "The  Marble  Faun;  or,  The  Romance  of 
Monte  Beni,"  in  England  published  under  the 


162 


RErRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


title  "Transformation."  The  fifty-five  pictures 
bound  up  in  her  book  add  very  much  to  its  in- 
terest and  vahie. 

A  communicant  of  the  Episcopal  church, 
Miss  Fogg  is  also  a  member  of  the  Dorcas  So- 
ciety of  St.  Stephen's,  of  tiie  Educational  and 
Industrial  Union,  the  Girls'  Frientlly  Society, 
and  an  associate  of  St.  Margaret's. 


MARY  E.  M.\cGREr.()ft,  of  Portland, 
the  president  of  the  Maine  Home 
for  Friendless  Boys  and  widely 
known  in  connection  with  the  child- 
saving  work  of  the  State,  was  born  in  Portland, 
being  the  daughter  of  George  S.  and  Ellen 
(Merrill)  Barstow.  Her  father  was  a  merchant 
in  that  city,  and  her  mother  a  writer  of  both 
prose  and  ver.se,  with  several  children's  books 
to  her  credit.  (See  .sketch  of  Mr.s.  MacGregor's 
sister,  Mrs.  Augusta  M.  Hunt.) 

Mary  E.  Barstow  (now  Mrs.  MacGregor)  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Portland, 
completing  her  course  of  study  in  the  high 
school.  On  November  12,  1!S59,  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Gains  B.  MacGregor,  of  Lock  Haven, 
Pa.,  the  descendant  of  a  long  line  of  sturdy 
Scottish  ancestors,  all  of  marked  nuisical  abil- 
ity. His  grandfather  MacGregor,  who  was  a 
Revolutionary  soldier,  married  Betsey  Bellows, 
whose  family,  it  is  said,  figured  co.nspicuously 
in  the  early  history  of  A'ennont,  her  father 
being  an  eminent  jurist. 

The  early  married  life  of  Mrs.  MacGregor  was 
|)assed  in  States  west  of  New  F^-nglnnd.  Twenty- 
two  years  ago  she  returned  to  her  native  city, 
where  at  present  she  is  known  as  tlie  "children's 
frieml." 

The  society  for  the  protection  and  care  of 
friendless  and  destitute  Ijoys  of  Maine  was  es- 
tablished February  9,  1S98.  After  two  years 
of  practical  experience  in  placing  boys  for 
adoption  in  country  or  city  homes,  and  thus 
removing  them  from  vicious  surroundings,  it 
was  deemed  wise  to  establish  a  home  where 
neglected  boys  might  have  proper  care  until 
permanent  places  could  be  obtained  for  them. 
The  actual  necessity  for  such  a  temijorary 
home  was  shown  in  the  fact  that  many  boys, 
taken   from   bad   surroundings  and   sometimes 


inheriting  evil  tendencies,  required  special  train- 
ing and  some  refining  influences  before  they  were 
eligible  for  permanent  homes.  Accordingly  a 
building  was  leased,  November,  1895,  to  be 
known  as  the  Maine  Home  for  Friendless  Boys. 
I'urnishings  and  some  money  were  solicited, 
but,  as  no  assured  fund  was  forthcoming,  special 
effort  has  been  made  constantly  for  this  ])nr- 
pose.  A  new  l)uilding  was  erected  in  Portland, 
and  formally  opened  in  February,  1901.  The 
success  and  present  prosjjerity  of  the  home  is 
due  largely  to  the  energy  and  per.severance  of 
Mrs.  MacGregor,  the  president  and  the  originator 
of  the  ])lan  of  work.  She  lias  interested  Maine 
peoi:)le  in  the  enterj^rise,  and  to-day  the  insti- 
tution represents  in  a  large  degree  her  labor 
and  influence. 

For  the  i)ast  twelve  years  Mrs.  MacGregor 
has  been  an  indefatigable  worker  in  the  Fresh 
Air  Society  of  Portland,  of  which  she  was  one 
of  the  original  founders.  She  served  most  ac- 
ceptably for  twelve  years  as  a  director  of  the 
Female  Samaritan  Association,  and  then  re- 
signed the  jiosition  to  devote  her  time  to  the 
Home  for  Boys. 

Aside  from  philanthropic  work,  she  is  prom- 
inently known  in  social  and  literary  circles  of 
Portland,  her  connection  with  the  Monday  Club 
(one  of  the  first  women's  clubs  organized  in 
that  cit)')  extending  over  a  period  of  twenty 
years.  As  a  member  of  the  Woman's  Literary 
Union,  her  influence  has  been  helpful,  both 
through  contributions  from  her  pen  and  her 
efforts  to  establish  a  high  ideal. 

Mrs.  MacGregor  is  a  most  a])proachable, 
sympathetic  woman,  ever  nvidy  to  do  some- 
thing toward  lightening  tlic  bvu'dcns  of  the 
sorrowing. 

Ellen  B.\rst()w  M.\cGhecor,  of  Portland, 
Me.,  the  daughter  of  Gains  B.  and  Mary  E.  ( Bar- 
stow) MacGregor,  was  educated  at  Temple  Grove 
Seminary,  Saratoga,  N.Y.,  where  she  ranked 
high  as  a  student.  She  is  now  well  known  as  a 
])ianist  and  com])o.ser.  She  inherited  her  nuisical 
talent  from  her  father's  family,  who  claim  some 
noted  nmsicians  of  the  past.  When  only  two 
3'ears  of  age  she  conunitted  to  memory  a  num- 
ber of  tunes,  and  accurately  sang  them.  At 
the  age  of  five  siie  comj)ose(l  little  pieces,  which 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


163 


she  would  play  on  the  piano,  giving  a  left -ham  1 
accompaniment,  while  the  remarkable  memory 
for  committing  music  began  to  develop  also. 
Miss  MacGregor  has  had  the  benefit  of  the  best 
instruction  in  piano  playing,  harmony,  and 
counteri)oint,  umler  Carl  Baermann,  of  Boston, 
Dudley  Buck,  of  New  York,  and  other  leatling 
teachers.  Her  first  compositions  of  instru- 
mental music  were  marches,  which  have  re- 
ceiveil  the  commendation  of  Ciilmore,  Sousa, 
Jean  Mi.ssud,  and  other  leading  band-masters 
in  this  country,  who  have  paid  her  the  high 
compliment  of  adapting  and  ])laying  them  on 
important  occasions.  At  the  Maine  Musical 
Festival  given  in  Portland  in  October,  1899, 
her  compositions  were  jilayed,  and  received 
great  favor.  Of  late  she  has  been  turning  her 
attention  with  marked  success  to  song-writing 
almost  exclusively,  and  numbers  among  her 
productions  some  very  taking  songs:  a  luUaby, 
"We're  sailing  to  Dreamland"  (with  violin  obli- 
gato);  "My  Phyllis";  "The  Old  Love";  Sere- 
nade; "Now  and  Then";  and  "()  Lassie,  be 
True  to  me,"  a  Scottish  song  for  contralto,  which 
has  been  received  most  favorably.  ( )f  her  in- 
strumental music  the  "Dirigo  March,"  "The 
Bowdoin,"  "The  Gaiety"  (two-step),  and  the 
"Colonial  Dames  Waltzes"  are  best  known. 
Some  of  her  most  recent  compositions  are: 
"Little  Gems  for  Little  Folks"  (a  set  of  eight 
pieces  for  piano),  and  "The  Fadette  Two-step," 
dedicated  to  Carohne  Nichols,  leader  of  Fatlctte 
Woman's  Orchestra. 

As  a  prominent  member  of  the  Rossini  Club, 
an  organization  of  Portlanil  ladies,  she  is  iden- 
tified with  the  musical  interests,  not  only  of 
Maine,  but  of  all  New  England.  She  is  a 
member  of  the  Shubert  Concert  Company  (as 
pianist  and  accompanist),  and  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Boston  Lleal  (,)uartette  (miscellane- 
ous). Miss  MacGregor  has  ixho  given  a  numljcr 
of  muscal  lecture  recitals  on  famous  composers, 
besides  one  on  "  Contemporary  Women  Com- 
posers," and  two  others  entitled  res|);--ctively 
"  Development  of  the  Op^ra,"  and  "  Formation 
of  the  Ballad,"  all  illustrated  by  nms-c.  Her 
services  musically  have  always  been  freely  given 
for  charity,  and  few  nuisiciaiis  have  contributed 
more  lilierally  of  their  talent  and  time  than  Miss 
MacGregor. 


/4DELAIDE    A.    HOSMER    CALKINS, 

/  \  of  Springfield,  Ma.ss.,  was  born  in 
X  A.  ^^'est  Boylston,  AVorcester  County, 
where  her  paternal  ancestors  settled 
before  the  Revolution.  She  is  the  daughter 
of  the  late  Ebenezer  Mason  Hosmer  and  Mary 
Cheney,  his  wife,  and  is  of  pure  English  stock. 
She  is  descended  from  the  colonial  family  of 
James  Ho.smer,  who  came  to  America  from 
Hawkhurst,  England,  in  1635,  and  settled  in 
Concord,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Calkins  acquired  her  education  in  the 
schools  of  her  native  town,  Wilbraham  Acad- 
emy, and  Charlestown  Female  Seminary,  the 
last  named  being  a  flourishing  institution  in 
its  time,  conducted  by  Miss  Martha  Whiting, 
who  stood  high  among  the  educators  of  the 
State.  In  1855  she  (Adelaide  A.  Hosmer) 
married  Dr.  Marshall  Calkins,  and  in  1S60 
they  took  up  their  residence  in  Springfield. 
Of  this  union  there  is  one  child,  Dr.  Cheney 
Hosmer  Calkins,  an  oculist,  residing  in  Spring- 
field. 

In  1865  the  Home  for  Friendless  Women 
antl  Children  was  organized.  Mrs.  Calkins 
became  a  manager  in  1867,  and  for  the  ten 
succeeding  years  was  active  in  its  work,  serv- 
ing on  the  Children's  Conunittee. 

In  1877  she  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Rice  one  of  an  advisory  board  of  three  women 
to  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  and  was  its 
chairman,  its  duties  being  to  inspect  quarterly 
the  Tewskbury  almshouse  and  the  State 
primary  and  reform  schools,  and  report  upon 
the  same.  The  following  year  the  advisory 
board  was  abolished,  and  its  members  ap- 
pointed as  trustees  of  the  same  institutions, 
where  tlirect  power  rather  than  advisory  could 
be  exercised.  Heretofore  the  trustees  govern- 
ing State  institutions,  except  those  for  women 
only,  were  composed  entirely  of  men. 

Mrs.  Calkins  being  appointed  on  the  trustee 
board  of  the  State  primary  and  reform  schools, 
the  State  primary  at  once  engaged  her  most 
careful  attention.  This  congregate  institution, 
with  its  system  of  herding  hundretls  of  chil- 
dren together  with  the  fewest  possible  chances 
for  the  right  develo]Mnent  of  mind  and  body, 
had  appealed  to  Mrs.  Calkins  while  a  member 
of  the  advi.sory  board  as  a  subject  Un  reform. 


164 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


In  her  now  position  she  interested  lier  ussoeiate 
trustees,  the  State  Boanl  of  Charities,  and  the 
local  press  in  the  matter.  As  a  result  the  man- 
agement was  radically  changed,  and  by  act 
of  Legislature,  1879-80,  the  young  wards  of 
the  State  between  four  and  ten  years  of  age 
might  be  placed  at  board  in  suitable  families. 

Mrs.  Calkins  declined  reappointment  as  a 
trustee  in  July,  1880,  anil  accepted  appoint- 
ment on  a  newly  created  board  of  auxiliary 
visitors  to  the  vState  Board  of  Charities,  con- 
sisting of  five  women.  The  object  of  the  or- 
ganization was  to  secure  voluntary  women 
visitors  in  different  sections  of  the  State  to 
visit  regularly  the  dependent  and  delinquent 
children  ])laced  in  families.  More  than  fifty 
women  engaged  in  the  work.  Up  to  this  time 
all  official  visitors  of  State  children  were  men. 

Mrs.  Calkins  also  accepted  at  this  time  the 
responsil)ility  of  beginning  the  work  of  plac- 
ing young  children  at  board  in  Western  Massa- 
chusetts and  visiting  them  quarterly.  In  this 
voluntary  work  she  continued  until  the  sum- 
mer of  1883,  when  the  success  and  growth  of 
the  work  necessitated  the  entire  time  of  a 
supervising  visitor,  and,  a  salaried  officer  l)eing 
appointed,  Mrs.  Calkins  retired. 

In  1878  Mrs.  Calkins  took  uj)  the  work  of 
the  Union  Relief  Association,  then  established 
in  Springfield  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
pauperism  by  helping  the  poor  to  help  them- 
selves, and  was  among  its  first  corps  of  visitors. 
Its  first  notable  work  was  the  investigation 
of  the  condition  of  the  city  almshouse,  and 
as  a  result  she  was  soon  after  included  in  a 
committee  to  go  before  the  Legislature  to  urge 
a  change  in  the  law  regarding  children  in  alm.s- 
houses,  so  that  no  young  child  could  be  i)lace(l 
in  an  almshouse  without  its  mother.  Out  of 
this  successful  movement  grew  the  present 
Hampden  County  Children's  Aid  Society. 

In  1883  a  committee  of  visitors,  with  Mrs. 
Calkins  as  chairman,  was  appointed  to  organ- 
ize a  day  nur.sery  and  raise  funds  for  its  sup- 
port. To  this  nursery  in  1885  were  succes- 
sively added  a  labor  bureau  and  an  industrial 
laundry.  These  several  departments  were  soon 
successfully  united  in  a  building  of  their  own 
under  the  name  of  the  Industrial  House  Char- 
ities.    This  institution  has  continued  its  help- 


ful work  in  caring  for  infants,  teaciiing  laun- 
dr3nng,  and  providing  ])laces  for  days'  work 
for  destitute  widows  and  deserted  wives  with 
young  children  and  other  j)r)or  women. 

In  1879  Mrs.  Calkins  was  apj^ointed  by 
Mayor  Powers  one  of  the  first  board  of  trus- 
tees of  the  City  Hospital,  and  more  especially 
for  its  reorganization,  as  up  to  that  time  it 
had  no  medical  staff  or  systematic  hospital 
management.  Mrs.  Calkins  is  still  a  member 
of  the  corporation  of  the  SpringfieUl  Hospital, 
an  outgrowth  of  the  former  institution. 

In  1883  Mrs.  Calkins  resigned  from  all  char- 
ity boards  except  that  of  the  day  nursery,  and 
accompanied  her  husband  and  son  to  Europe 
for  a  period  of  rest,  study,  and  recreation. 
She  improved  this  opportunity  to  visit  chari- 
table institutions  ami  schools  in  London  and 
Vienna,  oKserving  their  methods  and  manage- 
ment. 

In  1886  Mrs.  Calkins  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  school  conuuittee  of  Springfield.  This 
position  she  held  for  twelve  years,  helping  to 
inaugurate  the  modern  and  progressive  methods 
that  have  made  Springfield  schools  prominent 
in  the  State  and  country.  Cooking,  kinder- 
gartens, suitable  lunches  at  minimum  cost  for 
high  school  scholars,  were  among  the  especial 
objects  of  her  attention,  also  the  proper  .sani- 
tary conditions  of  the  school-rooms  for  growing 
children,  including  hygienic  seats  and  desks, 
])roper  arrangement  of  light,  cleanliness,  and 
school  architecture. 

In  1891  the  organization  of  the  Society  of 
the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution 
came  to  the  notice  of  Mrs.  Calkins  through 
a  newspajjer  item.  She  at  once  sought  ilefi- 
nite  information  concerning  the  society,  and 
in  a  few  months  became  a  member.  On  De- 
cember 17  of  the  same  year  she  was  appointed 
chapter  regent  for  Springfield,  the  first  aj)- 
pointed  in  the  State.  On  the  17th  of  June, 
1892,  she  formally  organized  the  first  chapter 
in  the  State,  the  Mercy  Warren,  with  twenty- 
three  charter  members.  She  retained  the 
regency  until  October,  1893,  when  the  chapter 
was  well  established  with  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  members.  The  pressure  of  other 
duties  now  reijuired  her  retirement.  In  1901 
Mrs.   Calkins   again   accepted   the   regency   for 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


165 


one   year,   and  on  lier  resignation  was  made 
honorary  life  regent. 

The  chapter  early  appointed  a  committee 
to  seek  out  the  neglected  and  forgotten  graves 
of  the  Revolutionary  soldiers  of  Springfield, 
and  ever  since  that  time  they  have  been  marked. 
Sixteen  "real"  daughters  have  been  accepted 
members  of  the  chapter,  and  their  lives  made 
brighter  and  in  neeiled  cases  more  comforta- 
ble by  the  kindly  offices  of  a  standing  com- 
mittee appointed  for  the  purpose.  The  chap- 
ter has  contributed  to  various  patriotic  objects, 
including  fifty  dollars  for  the  relief  of  the  Cuban 
reconcentrados;  but  in  no  direction  has  its 
work  been  more  gratifying  than  in  the  local 
reawakening  of  a  general  interest  in  colonial 
and  Revolutionary  history. 

At  the  call  of  Governor  Wolcott,  May  3, 
1898,  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  Spanish 
War,  for  the  formation  of  a  State  soldiers' 
relief  association,  the  chapter  at  once  took 
the  lead  in  organizing  a  Springfield  auxiliary, 
and  kept  energetically  to  the  work  until  the 
receiving  of  the  soldiers  on  their  retuin  home, 
August  27.  A  memorial  tablet  to  the  Spring- 
field soldiers,  to  be  placed  in  the  city  library, 
was  the  last  act  of  the  Springfielil  auxiliary, 
whose  foremost  officers  were  members  of  the 
chapter. 

In  1899  the  chapter  established  ami  furnished 
at  no  inconsiderable  expense  headquarters  for 
its  board  of  officers  in  connection  with  an 
assembly  hall.  The  whole  number  of  mem- 
bers enrolled  is  four  hundretl  and  twenty- 
three,  and  the  present  membership  (April, 
1904)  is  two  hundred  and  seventy-five. 

Mrs.  Calkins  was  one  of  the  board  of  man- 
agers of  the  Springfield  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 
Aid  Society  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  War. 

In  1895  the  State  primary  school,  through 
the  policy  of  the  State  to  place  its  young  wards 
in  families,  had  become  so  depleted  that  it 
was  abolished  and  the  property  turned  over 
to  a  board  of  trustees  appointed  by  Governor 
Wolcott  for  the  establishment  of  a  hospital 
for  epileptics.  Mrs.  Calkins  was  appointed 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  hospital,  and  is  still 
in  its  service. 

Mrs.  Calkins  is  a  member  of  the  Springfield 
Women's  Club,   an   honorary   member   of   the 


Teachers'  Club,  and  a  member  of  the  Rama- 
pogue  Historical  Society.  Her  church  mem- 
bership is  with  the  First  Congregational  So- 
ciety. 


CORA  DAY  YOUNG,  the  matron  of 
the  Ohio  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Orphans' 
Home  in  Xenia,  and  Past  National 
Senior  Vice-President  of  the  Wom- 
an's Relief  Corps,  is  a  New  England  woman  by 
birth,  parentage,  and  education.  She  was 
born  in  Springvale,  Me.,  March  26,  1847,  her 
parents  soon  after  removing  to  Boston.  She 
was  graduated  from  the  Bowdoin  School  in 
this  city  in  July,  1863. 

One  of  her  great-great-grandfathers  on  the 
maternal  side  was  Colonel  Jeremiah  Moulton, 
who  was  born  in  1688  in  York,  Me.  In  1692, 
when  he  was  four  years  old,  he  and  his  mother 
were  taken  prisoners  by  the  Indians,  and  she 
was  scalped.  In  1724  he  was  oommantler  at 
the  reduction  of  Norridgewock.  Colonel  Moul- 
ton was  rewai'ded  with  a  silver  tankard  from 
King  George  II.  for  valiant  conduct  at  the  siege 
of  Louisburg  in  1745-47.  He  was  afterward 
High  Sheriff  of  York  County,  Maine,  one  of 
the  Governor's  Councillors,  also  Judge  of  the 
Courts  of  Common  Pleas  and  of  Probate. 

His  son  Jeremiah,  Jr.,  was  a  Lieutenant 
Colonel  at  L(niisburg;  and  his  grandson,  Jotham 
Moulton,  was  a  Colonel  and  later  Brigadier- 
general  in  the  war  of  the  Re^olution.  He  died 
of  camp  fever  at  Ticonderoga. 

The  father  of  Mrs.  Young  was  Albert  Day, 
M.D.,  a  native  of  Wells,  Me.,  ami  a  graduate 
from  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  For 
manj'  years  he  practised  medicine  in  Boston 
as  a  specialist  of  nervous  diseases.  He  was  a 
lineal  descendant  of  Anthony  Day,  who  set- 
tled in  Gloucester,  Mass.,  in  1645;  and  on  his 
mother's  side  was  descended  from  the  Storers 
of  colonial  military  distinction  in  Maine.  In 
1857  Dr.  Day  was  a  member  of  the  lower  branch 
of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature.  He  was  al- 
ways identified  with  philanthropic  and  jiatri- 
otic  movements.  In  Maine  he  was  associated 
with  General  Samuel  Fessenden  in  the  early 
anti-slavery  reform,  and  when  a  young  man 
he  was  a  candidate  on  that  ticket  for  treasurer 


166 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  York  County.  Dr.  Day  was  likewise  an 
early  supporter  of  the  Washingtonian  move- 
ment, and  probably  was  the  first  physician  in 
this  country  to  treat  methomania  as  a  disease. 
He  was  for  thirty-six  years  (not  consecutive) 
the  superintendent  of  the  Washingtonian  Home 
in  Boston.  He  died  in  April,  1894.  This 
home,  which  has  a  national  reputation,  was 
organized  in  November,  1857,  and  in  March, 
1859,  was  incorporated  by  the  State  Legis- 
lature, receiving  a  grant  of  five  thousand  dol- 
lars. A  new  building  on  Waltham  Street, 
erected  for  the  home,  was  dedicated  December 
20,  1873.  Many  thousand  patients  were  under 
the  care  of  Dr.  Day  in  the  Washingtonian 
Home.  It  has  been  estimated  that  one-third 
of  them  were  permanently  cured,  and  more 
than  half  the  remainder  benefited.  Dr.  Day 
published  a  number  of  valuable  works  upon 
this  subject. 

During  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  Dr.  Day, 
as  a  member  of  the  Boston  School  Board,  as- 
sisted in  establishing  the  first  school  for  "con- 
trabands" or  freedmen  on  this  continent. 

His  son,  Albert  A.  Day,  in  July,  1862,  at  the 
age  of  seventeen,  enlisted  in  the  Forty-third 
Regiment,  Massachusetts  ^^olunteers.  He  was 
First  Sergeant  of  Company  K,  and  served  in 
the  battle  of  Kinston  and  other  engagements 
in  North  Carolina.  At  the  expiration  of  nine 
months'  term  of  service,  "  under  an  order  is- 
sued July  7  rendering  it  optional  with  the  men 
to  go  to  the  front  or  return  home,  two  huntlred 
and  three  officers  and  men  voted  to  go  to  the 
front"  (Adjutant-general's  report).  Among 
these  was  Sergeant  Day.  When  he  came  home 
at  a  later  date,  he  brought  with  him  a  negro 
boy  about  twelve  years  old,  who  had  escapetl 
from  his  master  in  North  Carolina.  The  boy 
lived  in  the  family  of  Dr.  Day  for  many  years, 
and  was  educated  by  the  Doctor's  daughter 
Cora,  Mrs.  Young.  He  is  now  in  the  service 
of  Dr.  Nichols,  of  Worcester.  For  several  years 
he  contributed  to  the  support  of  his  former 
mistress,  a  Mrs.  Gregory,  of  ]']lizabeth  City, 
N.C.,  who  was  aged  and  in  destitute  circum- 
stances. 

At  Wakefield,  Mass.,  January  18,  1871, 
Cora  Day  was  married  to  Charles  L.  Yomig, 
LL.D.,  of  Buffalo,  N.Y.,  a  distinguished  soldier 


of  the  Civil  AVar.  His  first  service  after  being 
a  Zouave  Cadet  in  April,  1861,  was  in  the  Ex- 
celsior Brigade  of  New  York  under  General 
Daniel  10.  Sickles.  Throughout  the  Peninsu- 
lar Camjxiign,  A'iiginia,  he  served  on  the  staff 
of  General  Joseph  Hooker.  He  was  promoted, 
and  commanded  his  regiment  during  the  sec- 
ond Bull  Run,  Pope's  campaign,  including  the 
battles  of  Bristoe  Station,  Groveton,  Bull  Run 
or  Manassas,  and  Chantilly.  At  the  battle 
of  Chancellorsville  he  was  on  the  staff  of  Gen- 
eral Sickles,  in  the  Inspector-general's  depart- 
ment, with  the  rank  of  Major,  and  was  desper- 
ately wounded.  With  his  wound  unhealed, 
he  returned  to  the  front,  and  was  with  Gen- 
eral Sickles  when  the  latter  lost  his  leg  at  Get- 
tysl)urg.  He  was  again  wounded  in  the  Wil- 
derness, then  in  the  Inspector-general's  de- 
partment of  General  Winfiekl  Scott  Hancock. 
He  was  the  last  in  command  of  his  regiment 
in  line  of  battle  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy. 
After  the  war  Major  Young  was  brevetted 
Lieutenant  Colonel  of  Volunteers  for  meritori- 
ous services  during  the  Civil  War. 

After  their  marriage  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Young 
resided  in  Toledo,  Ohio.  The  Governor  of  Ohio 
with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  appointed  him 
Quartermaster-general  and  Commissary-gen- 
eral, with  the  rank  of  Brigadier-general.  For 
several  years  he  has  been  superintendent  of 
the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Orphans'  Home  at 
Xenia,  Ohio.  For  nine  years  Mrs.  Young  has 
been  the  matron  of  the  Orphans'  Home,  which 
is  a  State  institution,  and  has  nine  hundred 
pupils. 

Mrs.  Young  was  first  secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Home  for  Friendless  Women 
in  Toledo,  Ohio.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Ur- 
sula Wolcott  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  of  Toledo,  and  of  the  Wom- 
an's Club,  of  Xenia,  Ohio. 

Mrs.  Young  was  among  the  earliest  support- 
ers of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  auxiliary 
to  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  She 
was  secretary  and  also  president  of  the  first 
corps  organized  west  of  Massachusetts.  As 
Department  Senior  Vice-President,  she  twice 
presided  over  the  State  Convention  of  Ohio, 
and  was  elected  to  the  second  place  of  honor 
in  the  national  body,  serving  as  National  Sen- 


L.  ISAHKI.    HlOAl.U 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


167 


ior  Vice-President  in  1886.  Hor  life  has  been 
devoted  to  benevolent  work,  either  in  private 
or  public  channels. 

(Jeneral  Young  is  a  Past  National  Senior 
Vice-Coinniander-in-chief  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic.  He  was  for  twelve  years  a 
director  of  the  Gettysburg  Battlefield  Memo- 
rial Association.  General  and  Mrs.  Young  are 
not  only  appreciated  for  their  ability  and  their 
great  philanthropic  work,  but  are  popular  in 
social  life,  and  have  many  friends  in  all  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  They  have  two  children, 
a  son  and  a  daughter.  The  former,  Dr.  Nel- 
son Holland  Young,  is  assistant  suj^erintend- 
ent  and  physician  at  the  Ohio  State  Hospital 
for  the  Insane,  which  is  located  at  Toledo  and 
has  seventeen  hundreil  patients.  The  daugh- 
ter is  Mrs.  Eleanor  M.  Cunningham,  of  Brook- 
lyn, N.Y. 


LIS  ABEL  HEALD  was  born  in  Dex- 
ter, Me.,  being  the  daughter  of  Otis 
r,  and  Emeline  Robinson  Seavy  Cutler. 
Her  father,  moving  to  Portland  in 
1852,  became  the  first  appraiser  at  the  port, 
and  was  holding  this  office  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  in  May,  1868.  He  was  a  man  of  noble 
character  and  excellent  judgment,  having  mat- 
ters of  grave  importance  submitted  to  his  de- 
cision. His  wife  survived  him  many  years, 
dying  in  May,  1884. 

Otis  Cutler  was  of  the  seventh  generation 
of  that  branch  of  the  Cutler  family  in  New 
England,  whose  immigrant  progenitor,  John 
by  name,  died  at  Hingham,  Mass.,  in  February, 
1638.  It  has  been  said  that  John  Cutler,  of 
Hingham,  Mass.,  came  from  the  vicinity  of 
Norwich,  England,  in  1637  (see  Morse) ;  but 
this  has  been  questioned.  The  History  of 
Hingham,  Genealogical,  vol.  ii.,  states  that  he 
had  land  granted  him  tliere,  on  Broad  Cove, 
in  1635.  From  John'  the  line  appears  to  have 
descentied  through  Samuel,-  Ebenezer,^  Eben- 
ezer,^  Jonathan,'^  and  Tarrant,'*  to  Otis,'  born 
in  1817  at  Royalston,  Mass. 

From  another  English-born  Cutler,  Robert,' 
of  Charlestown,  Mass.,  was  descended  the  Rev. 
Timothy  Cutler,  D.D.,  the  first  rector  of  Christ 
Church,  Boston,  and  "one  of  the  first  scholars 


of  his  age  in  the  colonies."  Others  of  this  name 
in  America  have  occupied  high  rank  in  the 
clerical,  legal,  and  medical  professions. 

An  uncle  of  Mrs.  Heald,  General  Lysander 
Cutler,  had  an  interesting  career.  Born  in 
Royalston,  Mass.,  in  1807,  he  moved  to  Dex- 
ter, Me.,  when  a  young  man,  engaged  in  busi- 
ness as  a  woollen  manufacturer,  and  became 
the  most  eminent  citizen  of  that  place.  Later 
in  life  he  removed  to  Milwaukee,  Wis.  En- 
listing at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War, 
he  was  commissionetl  Colonel  of  the  Sixth  Wis- 
consin Regiment,  served  with  great  honor  in 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  was  afterward 
promoted  to  Major-general.     He  died  in  1866. 

Mrs.  Heald's  mother  was  a  lovely  character, 
gentle  and  conscientious,  dispensing  words  of 
kindness  and  the  quiet  charities  which  shun 
publicity.  The  family  home  being  in  Port- 
land during  Mrs.  Heald's  childhood  and  youth, 
she  was  educated  in  the  city  schools.  In  the 
year  1870  she  married  John  Sumner  Heakl, 
claim  adjuster  of  the  Maine  Central  Railroad. 
Mr.  Healil  is  the  granilson  of  the  Hon.  Mark 
Langdon  Hill,  of  Phippsburg,  Me.,  one  of  the 
early  settlers,  a  prominent  and  wealthy  man 
in  his  day.  It  was  in  his  family  barouche  that 
General  Lafayette  was  taken  through  the 
streets  of  Portland  when  entertained  there 
during  his  visit  to  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica in  1824-25.  Mr.  Hill's  barouche  was  the 
most  elegant  one  at  hand,  and  was  loaned  to 
Portland  for  the  occasion. 

Always  of  a  deeply  religious  turn  of  mind, 
Mrs.  Heald  became  when  very  young  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Episcopal  church.  She  has  been  a 
student  of  creeds,  autl  has  plunged  into  an- 
cient and  modern  philosophy.  She  has  stud- 
ied science,  theosophy,  and  the  works  of  deep 
thinkers  of  all  ages,  not  for  diversion,  but  to 
find  truth.  Whatever  her  creed  is  to-day, 
her  rule  of  life  is  most  emphatically,  "Love  thy 
neighbor."  She  has  the  tenderest  love  and 
sympathy  for  children,  and  has  been  a  willing 
helper  in  Sunday-schools.  For  a  number  of 
years  she  has  been  active  in  charitable  and 
club  work.  It  was  she  who  was  instrumental 
in  forming  the  Cumberland  Relief  Cure,  an 
organization  which  raised  funds  to  send  twenty- 
five  men  to  the  Keely  Cure,  furnishing  and 


168 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


equipping  a  reading-room  for  them.  Thougli 
there  were  some  disappointing  features  in  this 
labor,  one  bright  particular  case  is  so  happy 
in  results  that  it  seems  ample  reward  for  all 
the  effort  put  forth. 

Mrs.  Heald  was  for  five  years  the  efficient 
president  of  the  Beecher  Club,  whose  study 
was  evolution;  and  she  has  been  on  the  execu- 
tive board  of  many  of  the  well-known  Portland 
associations,  including  the  Women's  Literary 
Union.  At  one  time  she  belonged  to  fourteen 
organizations.  She  is  now  State  president  of 
the  Maine  division  of  the  International  Sun- 
shine Society,  an  office  that  is  no  sinecure, 
since  she  is  usually  called  to  write  no  less  than 
sixty  letters  a  week.  Attracted  to  the  Sun- 
shine columns  in.  the  papers  some  time  ago, 
she  took  hold  of  the  \.ork  with  such  grasp  that 
she  was  .soon  appointed  its  leader  in  Maine. 
This  .society  is  "  not  a  charity,  Init  an  inter- 
change of  kindly  greetings  and  the  passing  on 
of  good  cheer."  There  are  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  daily  and  weekly  papers  reporting 
"Sunshine"  news.  The  society  was  founded 
by  Mrs.  Cynthia  Westover  Alden  in  1896.  Its 
object  is  to  incite  its  members  to  the  perform- 
ance of  kind  and  helpful  deeds,  and  to  thus 
bring  the  sunshine  of  happiness  into  the  great- 
est possible  number  of  hearts  and  homes.  Its 
active  membership  consists  of  people  who  are 
desirous  of  brightening  life  by  some  thought, 
word,  or  deed. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Journal  the  president- 
general,  Mrs.  Cynthia  Westover  Alden,  writes: 
"  Every  week,  regularly,  your  paper  comes  to 
Sunshine  head(|uarters,  and  we  read  it  with 
continued  and  renewed  interest,  especially 
the  Sunshine  work  in  your  State.  I  write  now 
to  particularly  thank  you  for  your  kindness, 
and  trust  that  you  are  going  to  continue  lik- 
ing us  forever  and  ever. 

"With  your  energetic  president,  Mrs.  Heald, 
of  Portland,  the  State  is  becoming  thoroughly 
organized.  In  fact,  it  is  the  best  organized 
in  Sunshine  work  of  any  State  in  the  Union. 
There  are  now  two  thousand  and  sixty-six 
well-organized  Sunshine  branches  reporting  reg- 
ularly, not  counting  the  many  branches  that 
are  formed,  but  sent!  in  their  reports  irregu- 
larly." 


Mrs.  Heald  has  incorporated  the  State  of 
Maine  division  of  the  International  Sunshine 
Society,  and  at  this  writing  a  petition  to  the 
Legislature  for  an  approjiriation  for  the  ameli- 
oration of  the  condition  of  the  cripples  in  the 
State  is  in  preparation.  Names  of  men  and 
women  of  influence  have  been  secured,  and  it 
is  reasonably  hoped  that  it  will  succeed.  If 
in  the  future  attention  is  given  these  hopeless, 
helpless  sufferers,  it  will  be  due  to  her  untiring 
efforts  in  their  behalf.  Through  her  personal 
efforts  several  cripples  have  already  enjoyed 
the  services  of  a  specialist.  Her  experience 
ami  observation  have  developed  in  an  unusual 
degree  all  that  is  tender  and  lovable  in  her  nat- 
ure. Her  (juick  sym{)athy  with  all  suffering, 
hoih  physical  and  mental,  renders  her  minis- 
trations doubly  sweet.  Her  heart  and  hands 
are  ready  for  all  appeals  for  aid:  to  none  is 
.she  indifTerent.  She  is  eminently  adapted  to 
be  at  the  head  of  an  organization  who.se  watch- 
word is  good  cheer,  for  she  is  of  pleasant  ad- 
ilress,  and  her  greeting,  even  to  the  stranger, 
is  always  warm-hearted  and  gracious. 


GERTRUDE  FRANKLIN  SALIS- 
BURY, better  known  to  the  mu.sical 
world  as  Gertrude.  Franklin  and  in 
private  life  as  Virginia  Beatty  Salis- 
bury, is  one  of  the  most  widely  and  favorably 
known  of  Boston's  vocal  teachers.  She  was 
born  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  September  4,  1858, 
and  l)elongs  to  a  wealthy  and  aristocratic 
family.  Her  father,  Mr.  .lohn  Beatty,  of  Balti- 
mor(\  was  the  son  of  the  late  Mr.  James  Beatty, 
an  eminent  merchant  of  Baltimore,  who  held 
))Ositi()ns  of  great  trust  under  President  Madi- 
.son.  Her  mother,  Mrs.  ElizalK'th  Jackson 
Beatty,  was  the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  William 
Jackson,  a  native  of  England.  Among  other 
distinguished  ancestors  was  her  great-grand- 
father, Gunning  Bedford,  who  for  a  short  time 
in  the  Revolutionary  War  was  aide-de-camp 
to  General  .Washington.  He  represented  Del- 
aware in  the  Continental  Congress,  1783  to 
1786,  and  was  a  ])rominent  member  of  the 
convention  that  framed  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

Miss  Franklin's  parents  removetl  to  Boston 


SARAH   J.  HOYDEN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


169 


when  she  was  four  years  old,  and  her  early 
schooling  was  receivetl  in  that  city.  Her 
musical  education  began  when  she  was  a  young 
girl,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  she  gave  prom- 
ise of  being  a  brilliant  pianist.  Her  taste, 
however,  was  for  vocal  music  rather  than  in- 
strumental, and,  prompted  by  natural  inclina- 
tion and  the  possession  of  a  voice  of  remarka- 
ble sweetness  and  purity,  she  began  to  take 
lessons  in  singing.  Mr.  Aaron  Taylor  and 
Signor  Agramonti  were  her  first  teachers,  and 
on  the  advice  of  the  latter  she  went  to  Paris, 
where  she  studied  under  Madame  Lagrange 
and  with  Professor  Barbot  of  the  Conserva- 
toire. Before  leaving  Paris,  Miss  Franklin 
appeared  at  a  concert  at  the  Salle  l^.rard,  and 
achieved  encouraging  success,  which  was  em- 
phasized by  immediate  offers  of  concert  en- 
gagements and  for  a  season  of  Italian  opera. 
These  flattering  offers  she  was,  however,  obligetl 
to  decline,  as  she  hail  made  arrangements  to 
go  to  London.  Here  she  studied  with  Shake- 
speare and  Alberto  Randegger,  the  latter  being 
so  pleased  with  h<-r  voice  that  he  besought  her 
to  remain  and  make  a  career  in  EngUyid.  But 
she  had  been  too  long  absent  from  American 
soil,  and  in  her  eagerness  to  return  she  declined 
not  only  this  offer  but  one  to  join  Carl  Rosa's 
English  Opera  Company.  On  returning  home 
she  took  an  extended  course  of  study  under 
Madame  Rudersdorff  for  oratorio  and  the 
more  serious  range  of  classical  concert  music. 
Miss  Franklin  has  appeared  in  the  sym- 
phony concerts  of  Boston,  New  York,  and 
Brooklyn,  and  in  classical  and  other  concerts 
in  most  of  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States. 
Her  work  has  been  under  the  leadership  of 
such  men  as  Theodore  Thomas,  Wal*  Dam- 
rosch,  Emil  Paur,  Karlberg,  Ilenschei  ricke, 
Nikisch,  Tomlins,  antl  Gilchrist.  He  icert 
work  was  remarkable  apart  from  her  ,  'oice 
because  of  the  extent  of  her  reperto  She 

sings  in  French,  German,  Italian,  and  i;lish, 
and  has  the  proud  distinction  of  lur  the 
largest  repertoire  of  any  American  sin  also 
the  largest  collection  of  arias  and  c  jstra 
scores   for   the   concert   stage.     Miss  iklin 

has  never  repeated  a  programme  in  tl  .•  ame 
place,  or  an  aria,  unless  called  upon  at  a  mo- 
ment's notice  to  sing  without  rehearsal. 


In  April,  1896,  Miss  Franklin  married  Mr. 
W.  C.  G.  Salisbury,  of  Boston,  and  retired  from 
public  life  to  devote  her  time  to  teaching.  As 
an  instructor,  she  has  been  even  more  success- 
ful than  as  a  singer.  Her  pupils  are  on  the  oper- 
atic, concert,  and  oratorio  platform  in  Europe 
and  America. 


SARAH  JANE  BOYDEN  was  born  in 
Chelsea,  Ma.ss.,  July  17,  1842,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Darius  Allen  and  Sarah  Ann  (Han- 
son) Martin.  When  but  six  weeks  old 
she  was  deprived  through  death  of  a  mother's 
love  and  care,  and,  being  a  child  of  feeble  health, 
it  was  feared  she  would  not  live  to  maturity. 
Her  early  education,  obtained  in  the  public 
schools  of  Chelsea  and  Boston,  was  supple- 
mented by  a  course  of  study  in  Bradford  Acad- 
emy at  Bratlford,  Mass.,  and  in  Captain  Samuel 
Hayden's  private  school  in  Braintree,  Mass. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  she  became  the  wife 
of  Robert  Curtis  Davidson,  of  Chelsea.  Just 
previous  to  their  marriage  Mr.  Davidson  had 
enlisted  in  Company  C,  Thirty-fifth  Massachu- 
setts Regiment,  to  fight  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Union.  After  two  years'  service  in  the 
army,  he  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Peters- 
burg, July  30,  1864,  and  died  at  City  Point, 
Va.,  on  the  ISth  of  August  following.  In  1872 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  again  married, 
her  .second  husband  being  Walter  Willington 
Boyden,  of  Roxbury.  She  is, the  mother  of 
two  daughters,  Gertrude  Louise,  Edith  Ferdi- 
nand, and  a  son,  Walter  Allen. 

From  her  father  Mrs.  Boyden  inherited  traits 
of  character  which  have  made  her  steadfast 
in  purpose  and  firm  in  principle.  Mr.  Martin 
hekl  the  position  of  State  Constable  for  years, 
and  was  noted  for  his  courageous  acts  in  closing 
the  saloons  in  Chelsea.  Mrs.  Boj'den's  pastor, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Albert  H.  Plumb,  says  of  her:  "I 
have  known  Mrs.  Boytien  for  some  thirty  years. 
She  is  a  living  exemplification  of  the  power  to 
do  and  of  the  wisdom  of  doing  two  things  at 
once,  each  being  done  better  because  the  other 
is  also  in  hand.  In  her  own  home  and  in  the 
homes  of  the  afflicted  she  has  been  a  ministering 
angel.  In  the  family,  the  church,  in  charitable 
and  reformatory  work,  she  has  lived  in  all  good 


170 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


fidelity  and  zeal.  In  every  sphere  where  she 
has  moved  she  has  shown  great  energy  and 
administrative  skill,  a  genial  friendliness  of 
spirit,  and  a  genuine  love  for  everything  good. 
As  one  indication  of  the  order  of  her  house- 
hold, I  have  learned  that  during  fourteen  years 
of  school  life  her  daughter  was  never  absent 
or  tardy,  save  one  half-day,  and  never  missed 
a  session  of  the  Sunday-school  in  a  still  longer 
period.  'I  used  to  think,'  said  Will  Carleton, 
the  poet,  '  if  my  wife  ever  got  to  he  a  clul) 
woman,  I  would  not  live  with  her — much  of 
the  time.  Since  she  has,'  he  added,  'I  find 
I  value  her  more  than  ever  before — what  there 
is  of  her.' 

"To  be  at  one's  best,  one  needs  to  see  each 
duty  in  its  relation  to  the  whole  problem  of 
life.  For  a  person  to  become  religious  docs 
not  mean  any  vmdue  withdrawal  of  time  and 
strength  from  any  lines  of  laudable  activity 
previously  enjoyed.  Some  such  withdrawal 
often  conduces  to  desirable  variety  and  there- 
fore to  efficiency.  These  considerations  have 
a  special  application  to  the  vexed  questions 
concerning  woman's  sphere." 

Naturally,  a  woman  of  so  great  executive 
ability  has  been  sought  for  as  one  of  the  leaders 
among  women.  Mrs.  Boyden  is  one  of  the 
Board  of  Management  of  the  Home  for  In- 
temperate Women,  president  of  the  Woman's 
Publishing  Company,  and  treasurer  of  the 
Suffolk  Coimty  Branch  of  the  King's  Daugh- 
ters and  Sons.  Her  chief  work,  however,  is 
as  the  efficient  leader  of  the  Ward  and  City 
Committee  of  the  Independent  Women  ^'oters, 
of  which  she  is  president.  This  organization 
has  a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  public 
schools.  It  is  thoroughly  organized,  and  is  a 
power  at  every  election.  Mrs.  Boyden's  prov- 
ince is  to  arrange  for  campaigns,  instruct  the 
women  in  the  twenty-five  wards  of  Boston, 
confer  with  kindred  organizations  and  political 
parties,  and  keep  an  outlook  on  all  that  concerns 
the  city  schools,  always  working  for  theii-  best 
interests.  Naturally  diffident,  it  was  with  ex- 
treme reluctance  that  she  accepted  the  position 
of  president  of  so  large  an  organization,  but 
experience  has  so  enlarged  her  opportunities 
for  service  that  now  she  commands  the  forces 
with    skill,    wisdom,    and    tact.    She   has   en- 


deared herself  to  the  women  she  leads.  Strong 
in  body,  cheerful  in  temperament,  cordial  in 
manner,  loving  in  heart,  in  the  prime  of  life,  she 
wields  a  potent  influence  in  helping  many  of 
her  sisters  to  a  higher  life  and  into  broader 
paths  of  usefulness. 

(By  a  friend  of  long  standing,  E.  T.  H.). 


ADELAIDE  E.  BOOTHBY,  the  wife  of 
/\  Colonel  Frederic  E.  Boothby,  of  Port- 
_/  J^  land,  Me.,  and  one  of  the  leading 
women  workers  in  various  charitable 
organizations  of  that  city,  is  a  native  of  ^^'ater- 
ville.  Me.  Her  parents  were  Charles  and  Vesta 
B.  Smith.  As  Adelaide  Endora  Smith  she  was 
married  to  Frederic  E.  Boothby,  October  25, 
1871.  Colonel  Boothby  was  born  in  Norway, 
Me. ,  being  the  son  of  Levi  Thompson  and  Sophia 
Packard  (Brett)  Boothby.  In  1S57  the  fam- 
ily removetl  to  Waterville.  For  many  years 
Colonel  Boothby  has  been  an  official  of  the 
Maine  Central  Railroad.  His  title  comes  from 
his  service  on  the  staff  of  Governors  Bodwell, 
Marble,  and  Burleigh,  six  years  in  all.  He  was 
president  of  the  Portland  Board  of  Trade  for 
five  years,  was  elected  Mayor  of  the  city  in 
the  spring  of  1901,  and  is  now  (autumn  of  1903) 
serving  his  third  term  in  that  office.  With 
the  exception  of  a  three  years'  residence  in 
Augusta,  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Boothby  have  livetl 
in  Portland,  their  pleasant  rooms  at  the  Fal- 
mouth House  being  a  hospitable  social  centre. 

Possessing  an  unusually  sympathetic  dispo- 
sition, Mrs.  Boothby  has  proved  a  ready  lis- 
tener and  a  willing  helper  to  many  who  have 
applied  to  her  for  aid  and  encouragement.  She 
has  held  offices  of  responsibility  in  the  Invalids' 
Home,  the  Temporary  Home  for  Women  and 
Children,  the  Home  for  Friendless  Boys,  and 
auxiliaries  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation. Even  in  her  social  life  she  has  remem- 
bered the  claims  of  charity  and  philanthropy, 
and  has  caused  the  proceeds  of  whist  parties 
and  merry-makings  to  go  toward  the  allevia- 
tion of  suffering.  ^Irs.  Boothliy  has  been  espe- 
cially interested  in  the  work  for  the  girls  of 
the  Temporary  Home,  of  which  she  is  a  prac- 
tical and  thoughtful  officer. 

Conspicuous  among  her  energetic   labors   is 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


171 


her  service  as  president  of  the  Civic  Club, 
which  vk^as  founded  in  May,  1898,  by  Mrs.  Etta 
H.  Osgood.  Its  object  is  "  to  promote  by  e<Ui- 
cation  and  active  co-operation  a  higher  jxibiic 
hfe  and  a  better  social  order."  One  of  its 
principles  is  a  belief  in  the  trinity  of  health — 
pure  food,  pure  air,  antl  pure  water.  The 
watchword  of  the  club  is,  "  Duties  assigned 
cheerfully  assumed."  Aijplications  for  mem- 
bership are  carefully  considered,  and  only  those 
who  are  willing  to  perform  some  service  in  be- 
half of  its  objects  ai'e  welcomed  as  members. 

The  club  has  laid  out  playgrounds  at  the 
North  School  in  Portland,  has  been  instrumental 
in  procuring  the  ordinance  prohibiting  expec- 
toration, and  secured  the  placing  of  rul)l)ish 
buckets  on  the  streets.  It  has  also  secured  an 
appropriation  for  public  baths  and  for  milk 
inspection.  Its  power  for  good  is  appreciated 
by  the  citizens  of  Portland,  and  its  valuable 
W(jrk  will  receive  their  earnest  sup]>ort. 

\Mien,  several  years  ago,  Professoi-  Chapman 
was  making  strenuous  efforts  to  establish  the 
Maine  .Musical  Festival,  Mrs.  Booth))y  entered 
heartily  hito  his  plans.  At  a  time  when  failure 
seemed  inevitable,  she  was  one  of  the  stanch 
supporters  of  this  ]iroject,  which  has  given  to 
the  State  such  rare  musical  pi'ivileges. 

Mrs.  Boothby's  private  charities  are  legion 
and  vmknown.  As  the  wife  of  the  Mayor  she 
extemls  cordial  good  will  antl  ready  welcome 
to  all.  As  an  officer  of  various  organizations 
she  is  faithful  and  efficient.  As  a  citizen  .she 
is  valued  for  her  generous  sympathies  and  for 
her  support  of  all  matters  of  public  interest. 

When  a  citizen  of  Maine  said,  "  I  am  sure 
Portland  is  written  on  the  hearts  of  Mayor 
Boothby  and  his  wife,  they  have  always  so 
laiiored  for  the  good  of  the  city,"  he  expre.ssed 
a  .sentiment  that  is  endorsed  by  all  good  people 
within  its  borders. 


MARY  PARKS  PUTNAM,  M.D.,  was 
born  April  28,  1841,  in  Charlestown, 
N.H.,  known  at  the  time  of  its  set- 
tlement as  Township  No.  4.     She  is 
the  eldest  of  the  three  daughters  of  the  late 
David  Whipple  and  Jane  (Ellison)  Parks,  and 
is  of  English  descent.    The  ancestral  kin  on 


the  paternal  side  includes  physicians,  lawyers, 
and  teachers,  beside  several  persons  who  were 
highly  skilled  in  trades.  Her  father  was  a  sol- 
dier of  the  Civil  War  in  the  sixties  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  did  his  full  share  toward 
the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

Having  an  inherent  love  for  study  and  in- 
vestigation. Dr.  Putnam's  professional  career 
was  early  foreshadowed.  When  barely  fifteen 
years  of  age  she  became  a  teacher  under  the 
old  district-school  system  in  her  native  town 
and  its  vicinity.  Such  was  her  success  that 
her  services  were  in  constant  demand,  and  she 
made  the  record  of  fifty-three  consecutive 
terms  in  the  same  school-room.  Wliile  pur- 
suing this  vocation,  she  began  the  study  of  medi- 
cine, reading  extensively  by  herself  and  then 
taking  a  three  years'  course  in  a  school  well- 
known  at  that  time.  Later  entering  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  Boston, 
she  devoted  three  more  years  to  study,  and  was 
graduated  at  the  age  of  fifty-three.  She  inmie- 
diately  opened  her  office  in  one  of  the  best 
resitlential  districts  of  Boston,  where  her  prac- 
tice has  steadily  increased  and  become  firmly 
established. 

Doctor  Putnam  has  always  been  ready  to  ex- 
tend a  helping  hand  to  young  women  anil  girls. 
To  one  she  gave  the  protection  of  her  home 
and  the  same  education  and  liberal  training 
that  she  bestowed  upon  her  own  daughter, 
antl  to  many  another  has  she  given  encourage- 
ment and  opportunity  to  gain  higher  education 
and  development.  She  is  interested  in  training- 
schools  for  imr.ses  in  Boston  and  elsewhere,  also 
in  nimierous  philanthropic,  educational,  anil 
charitable  movements.  Needless  to  say,  she 
has  a  large  circle  of  friends.  In  the  progress  of 
modern  science  she  keeps  well  posted,  particu- 
larly on  all  lines  relating  to  her  chosen  work. 

She  married  during  her  .service  as  school- 
teacher Mr.  Wesley  D.  Putnam,  of  her  native 
town.  For  many  years  Mr.  Putnam  has  been 
connected  with  one  of  the  leading  manufactur- 
ing houses  in  Massachusetts.  He  has  always 
given  his  hearty  sympathy  and  encouragement 
to  his  wife  in  the  attainment  of  her  professional 
ambition,  and  their  home  on  Commonwealth 
Avenue  has  been  a  happy  one,  its  sole  shadow 
having  been  the  death  of  their  only  child,  a 


172 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


beautiful  and  accomplished  young  lady,  wife 
of  one  of  the  rising  young  business  men  of 
Boston. 


JESSIE  ELDRIDGE  SOUTHWICK,  one  of 
the  faculty  of  the  Emerson  College  of 
Oratory  and  an  interpreter  of  Shake- 
speare's plays,  is  a  native  of  Wilmington, 
Del.  Her  father,  Issachar  Eldridge,  descended 
from  the  Quaker  Eldridges  of  Philadelphia. 
Her  mother,  whose  maitlen  name  was  Martha 
Gause,  was  from  Chester  County,  Pennsylva- 
nia. She  was  related  to  a  number  of  leading 
teachers  and  writers.  Bayard  Taylor,  the  noted 
traveller  and  author,  being  a  near  kinsman.  To 
her  maternal  ancestors  Mrs.  Southwick  is  prob- 
ably indebted  for  her  marked  literary  talents. 
When  Jessie  Eldridge  was  five  years  old,  her 
parents  removed  to  Van  Wert,  Ohio,  where  her 
childhood  days  were  spent.  Her  mother  was 
her  first  teacher,  her  early  lessons  being  learned 
at  home.  She  afterward  pursued  her  studies 
successively  at  the  high  school  and  at  Glendale 
Female  College,  near  Cincinnati,  and  at  the 
age  of  fifteen,  under  a  private  tutor,  completetl 
her  preparation  for  Vassar  College.  Changing 
her  plans,  however,  she  came  to  Boston  be- 
cause of  the  better  advantages  here  aiTorded 
for  the  study  of  music  and  elocution,  and  en- 
tered the  New  England  Conservatory  of  Music. 
Devoting  herself  esjiecialiy  to  oratory,  for  which 
she  seemed  well  adapted,  she  was  graduated 
from  that  department  in  1883.  While  studying 
at  the  Conservatory,  she  also  attended  Miss 
Johnson's  private  school  on  Newbury  Street, 
Boston.  To  further  qualify  herself  for  the  pro- 
fession of  oratory,  she  continued  her  studies  at 
the  Monroe  Conservatory  (now  the  Emerson 
College  of  Oratory).  She  was  graduated  there 
in  1885,  and  then  took  a  post-graduate  course 
of  two  years,  during  which  time  she  assisted  in 
teaching.  For  a  while  she  was  an  assistant 
to  Miss  Mary  A.  Currier  in  the  department  of 
oratory  at  Wellesley  College,  but  that  position 
she  was  obliged  to  give  up  at  length  on  account 
of  the  increasing  demands  on  her  time  for  public 
work.  She  had  made  a  specialty  of  Shake- 
speare's plays,  and  her  intelligent  interpretation, 
with  her  fine  stage  presence  and  well-modulated 


voice,  has  since  won  her  a  wide-spread  reputa- 
tion, her  readings  being  in  demand  in  various 
parts  of  the  country. 

In  1889  Jessie  Eldridge  married  Henry  Law- 
rence Southwick,  a  graduate  of  the  college,  then 
teaching  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Southwick  be- 
came the  following  year  a  partner  of  Dr.  C.  W. 
Emerson  in  th"  Fm^rson  Cr^'lo^e,  nnd  remained 
there  until  1897,  Mrs.  Southwick,  as  one  of  the 
faculty,  having  charge  of  the  classes  in  voice 
culture,  dramatic  interpretation,  and  the  ren- 
dering of  Shakespeare.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  South- 
wick have  conducted  summer  schools  at  Glens 
Falls,  N.Y.,  Cottage  City,  Martha's  Vineyard, 
and  at  several  places  in  Virginia,  as  well  as  in 
Boston. 

In  June,  1900,  Dean  Southwick  purchased 
Dr.  Emerson's  share  in  the  college  and  took 
the  full  management,  Dr.  Emerson  remaining 
as  President  and  lecturer  in  his  individual 
work.  Since  assuming  the  management  Dean 
Southwick  has  made  many  changes  and  adtled 
numerous  courses.  The  Emerson  College  of 
Oratory  stands  to-day  as  the  largest  institution 
of  its  kind  in  the  world.  Established  in  1880 
as  a  private  school  by  Charles  Wesley  Emerson, 
in  September,  1886,  it  was  formally  incorpo- 
rated under  the  laws  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts  as  the  Monroe  College  of  Ora- 
tory, being  named  in  honor  of  the  late  Professor 
Lewis  B.  Monroe.  LIpon  petition  to  the  Legis- 
lature in  1890,  a  bill  was  passed  authorizing 
the  change  of  name  to  Emerson  College  of  Ora- 
tory. 

This  college  is  a  school  for  personal  culture. 
It  aims  to  awaken  in  the  student  of  expression, 
whether  he  be  a  creative  thinker  or  an  inter- 
preter, a  realization  of  his  own  potentialities, 
and  to  give  such  direction  to  his  training  that 
he  may  attain  them.  While  conserving  the 
best  traditions  of  the  past,  the  college  aims  to 
stand  for  thorough  investigation,  the  mo^t  ad- 
vanced educational  methods,  and  the  highest 
professional  standards  and  ideals. 

In  1900  the  college  was  moved  into  elegant 
(juarters  at  Chickering  Hall,  one  of  the  hand- 
somest and  best  appointed  of  Boston's  new 
buildings.  Situated  on  Huntington  Avenue 
near  the  corner  of  Massachusetts  Avenue,  it  is 
easily  accessible  from  all  railroads  leading  into 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


173 


the  city,  and  cars  to  all  points  pass  close  to  its 
doors.  Within  five  minutes'  walk  of  the  Fens, 
within  eight  minutes  of  the  Public  Library  ancl 
the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  and  close  beside 
the  new  Symphony  Hall  and  beautiful  new 
hall  of  the  Horticultural  Society,  the  college 
home  is  in  the  artistic  and  literary  centre  of 
Boston. 

Mrs.  Southwick  has  been  connected  with  the 
college  as  either  pupil  or  teacher  almost  since 
its  inception,  and  to  her  faithful  and  efficient 
work  in  conjunction  with  her  husband  is  at- 
tributed much  of  its  success  and  growth.  As 
a  reader  and  especially  as  a  Shakespearean  ex- 
ponent, she  is  well  known  to  literary  American 
audiences  as  a  leading  artist.  Her  dramatic 
power  and  personal  magnetism  hold  her  audi- 
ences almost  spellbound.  The  series  of  recitals 
given  every  season  under  the  direction  of  Dean 
and  Mrs.  Southwick  have  become  a  marked 
feature  of  literary  Boston,  as  is  shown  by  the 
large  audiences  in  attendance.  Mrs.  South- 
wick is  also  a  power  in  the  social  element  of 
the  college  life,  where  she  takes  a  personal 
interest  in  all  the  receptions  given,  and  comes 
in  contact  with  all  of  the  pupils  of  the 
school. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Southwick  have  three  children, 
namely:  Ruth,  born  September  18,  1893;  Mil- 
dred, born  August  15,  1895;  and  Jessie,  born 
November  18,  1897 — all  of  whom  are  now  re- 
ceiving the  best  educational  advantages  that 
can  be  secured. 


HANNAH  E.  AND  JULIA  R.  OILMAN, 
the  principals  of  the  Home  and  Day 
School  for  Girls  at  324  Conunon- 
wealth  Avenue,  Boston,  belong  to  a 
family  which  for  many  generations  has  mani- 
fested a  marked  interest  in  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  Christian  education.  Their  genealog- 
ical tree  shows  New  England  stock  of  the  best 
quality.  In  one  branch  appears  the  name  of 
Daniel  C.  Oilman,  the  first  President  of  Johns 
Hopkins  Lhii versify  and  now  at  the  head  of  the 
Carnegie  Institution,  \A'ashiiigton,  D.C.  In 
anothei-  branch  is  found  the  name  of  Arthur 
Oilman,  of  Cambridge,  formerly  regent  of  Rad- 
cliffe  College. 


The  Rev.  Tristram  Oilman  (Harv.  Coll. 
1757)  gi'eat-grandfather  of  the  Misses  Oilman 
of  Boston,  was  the  honored  and  beloved  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  in  North  Yarmouth,  Me., 
for  forty  vears,  or  from  the  date  of  his  ortlina- 
tion  in  1769  until  his  death  in  1809.  Their 
grandfather,  .Iosei)h  Oilman,  who  was  an  emi- 
nent physician  in  Wells,  Me.,  was  a  stanch  ad- 
vocate of  education,  good  citizenship,  and  every 
form  of  philanthropy.  A  more  distant  for- 
bear, the  Rev.  Nicholas  Oilman,  A.M.  (Harv. 
Coll.  1724),  father  of  Tristram,  had  the  same 
qualities  of  firm  principle,  sound  judgment, 
and  strong  sense  of  duty  which  have  "run  in 
the  family,"  as  the  phrase  goes,  from  the  be- 
ginning. The  men  were  more  ambitious  to 
be  useful  members  of  society  than  to  acquire 
either  fame  or  fortune,  and  they  were  distin- 
guished for  their  quiet  home  virtues. 

The  subjects  of  this  sketch  were  born  in  Fox- 
croft,  Me.,  being  the  daughters  of  EbenezoT 
and  Roxana  (Palmer)  Gilman.  The  parents 
had  high  ideals  for  their  children,  eight  in  all, 
and  together  they  trained  the  boys  and  girls 
in  habits  of  industry,  thrift,  self-control,  and 
a  genuine  religious  faith.  The  father  was  a 
man  of  unusual  sweetness  and  purity  of  char- 
acter. The  mother,  like  so  many  New  Eng- 
land women  of  that  period,  had  a  practical 
wistlom  and  energv  which  beautifully  com- 
plemented her  husbaml's  gentle  traits.  Both 
believed  in  the  value  of  a  good  education,  for 
daughters  equally  with  sons,  and  labored  cheer- 
full)'  to  secure  for  their  large  family  such  ad- 
vantages as  the  times  afforded. 

The  elder  of  these  two  sisters,  Hannah, 
studied  first  at  the  Foxcroft  Academy  and 
late]-  at  Bradford  Seminary,  being  graduated 
in  1857.  From  this  time  onward  she  devoted 
herself  assiduously  to  study,  not  for  the  sake 
of  mere  accomplishment  or  mental  exercise, 
but  with  an  earnest  purpose  to  embody  in  her 
life  the  spirit  expressed  in  Whittier's  lines, 

"  Make  the  world  within  your  reach 
Somewhat  the  better  for  your  living, 
And  gladder  for  your  human  speech." 

Her  love  of  culture  was  inborn,  and  the  whole- 
some discipline  of  Puritan   training  gave   her 


174 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


large  capacity  for  work.  To  these  traits  were 
added  soundness  of  jndgment,  strength  of  will, 
cheerfulness,  unselfishness,  and  deep  and  un- 
affected piety.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  she 
had  the  qualifications  of  the  ideal  teacher,  and 
naturally  she  was  soon  sought  for  by  the  best 
private  schools  in  New  Elngland,  having  first 
served  an  apprenticeshij)  in  the  ])ublic  schools. 
ICverywhere  she  met  with  signal  success.  In 
the  autumn  of  1884  she  opened  the  now  well- 
known  Gilman  School,  which  rapidly  outgrew 
its  original  quarters,  and  in  1890  was  trans- 
ferred to  its  present  location,  324  Common- 
wealth Avenue. 

In  this  work  she  was  ably  assisted  by  her 
sister  Julia,  who  resigned  a  position  in  the 
Perkins  Institution  and  Massachusetts  School 
for  the  Blind,  South  Boston,  where  she  had 
taught  for  nine  years,  in  order  to  engage  in 
this  larger  service.  She,  too,  had  studied  at 
the  Foxcroft  Academy,  also  with  her  aunt. 
Miss  Rebecca  I.  Gilman,  who  for  many  years 
was  principal  of  a  large  private  school  in  Boston. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  how  strongly  marked 
is  the  predilection  for  teaching  in  the  various 
branches  of  this  family. 

Both  sisters  have  given  substantial  proof 
of  their  attachment  to  the  place  where  they 
received  their  early  education  bj'  the  assistance 
which  they  have  lately  rendered  to  the  trustees 
of  P'oxcroft  Academy  in  raising  an  endowment 
fund  for  that  institution.  Evidence  of  the 
hold  of  these  women  upon  the  affection  of  their 
former  pupils  is  seen  in  the  fact  that,  when  they 
solicited  the  money  from  this  particular  circle 
of  friends,  girls  who  had  lio  personal  interest 
in  the  small  village  in  Maine,  the  letters  which 
came  in  reply  to  their  appeal  for  gifts  were  full 
of  love  and  loyalty. 

To  the  strong  influence  for  good  which  they 
exerted  upon  their  pujjils  another  testimonial, 
among  hundreds  which  might  be  adduced, 
appears  in  this  extract  from  a  letter,  dated 
March,  1903,  written  to  Miss  Julia  Gilman  by 
Mary  Chandler  Lowell,  i)erhaps  the  only  young 
woman  in  America  who  has  taken  a  tlegree  in 
both  medicine  and  law:  "The  other  morning, 
when  I  stood  in  the  court  room  and  took  the 
solemn  oath  of  office  of  an  attorney  at  law,  my 
mind  turned  toward  you.  ...  It  was  my  good 


fortune  in  early  youth  to  have  several  excel- 
lent teachers,  but  I  think  that  none  played 
so  important  a  part  in  moulding  my  character 
and  inspiring  within  me  a  desire  to  press  for- 
ward and  make  the  most  of  my  abilities  as  did 
you.  .  .  .  But  for  your  W"ords  of  encouragement 
and  cheer  I  might  never  have  been  al)le  to 
hold,  as  I  do  to-day,  certificates  which  entitle 
me  to  the  privileges  of  both  the  medical  and 
the  legal  profession." 

Such  letters  give  an  insight  into  the  motives 
which  control  these  teachers.  When  Mi.ss 
Julia  Gilman  left  South  Boston,  Mr.  Anagnos, 
the  director,  jiaid  a  high  tribute  to  her  as  "one 
of  the  most  efficient  and  conscientious  teachers 
ever  emploj^ed  by  the  Institution,"  and  laid 
special  emphasis  on  the  way  she  had  helped  to 
"enlarge  its  ethical  atmosphere  to  a  very  grati- 
fying extent." 

In  this  last  sentence  is  revealed  the  secret 
of  their  power.  Neither  of  the  sisters  could 
ever  be  satisfied  simply  to  impart  instruction. 
The  ethical  has  been  the  dominant  note  in  their 
teaching.  Their  aim  is  to  provide  "a  home 
life  which  shall  secure  the  development  of  true 
womanhood."  As  one  means  to  this  end  they 
have  secured  as  lecturers  at  the  school  from 
year  to  year  men  and  women  who  are  eminent 
in  various  walks  of  life,  and  who,  in  particular, 
are  exponents  of  the  finest  Christian  ideals. 
Among  re])resentative  women  they  have  ha<l 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  Amelia 
Quinton,  Lillian  Nordica,  Mary  E.  Wilkins, 
Amelia  E.  Barr,  and  Pundita  Ramabai.  The 
list  of  lecturers  of  the  other  sex  includes  many 
prominent  clergymen,  artists,  and  authors. 

The  Home  and  Day  School  of  the  Misses 
Gilman  stands  to-day  as  a  witness  to  the  value 
of  jjersonaiity  as  a  factor  in  the  education  of 
youth.  With  the  old  Phrygian  philosopher, 
]']pictetus,  these  women  have  felt  that  "  the 
formation  of  the  spirit  and  character  must  be 
our  real  concern,"  and  this  is  the  basic  prin- 
ciple of  their  school.  Its  success  demonstrates 
the  truth  of  Emerson's  words:  "In  my  dealing 
with  .my  child,  my  Latin  and  my  Greek, 
my  accomplishments  and  my  money,  stead 
me  nothing  ;  but  as  much  soul  as  I  have 
avails." 

Frances  J.  Dyer. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


175 


HARRIETTE  J.  COOKE,  superintend- 
ent of  Medical  Mission,  36  Hull 
Street,  Boston,  Mass.,  is  a  native 
of  New  Hampshire.  She  was  born 
in  the  town  of  Sandwich,  Carroll  County, 
in  the  central  part  of  the  State,  December  1, 
1829,  daughter  of  Josiah  and  Jane  (Cox) 
Cooke.  Her  father  was  of  the  third  genera- 
tion of  his  family  to  reside  in  Sandwich,  being 
a  son  of  Joel  Cooke  and  grandson  of  Cornelius 
Cooke,  an  early  settler  in  that  locality,  men 
characterized  by  sincerity,  uprightness,  and 
simplicity  of  life. 

Harriette  Cooke  early  imbibed  the  belief 
that  a  thorough  education  was  the  greatest 
of  helps  to  a  life  of  usefulness.  As  there 
were  no  colleges  open  to  women  in  those  days, 
she  was  obliged  to  gather  what  learning  she 
could  from  the  various  schools  and  seminaries 
accessible  to  her  and  from  private  instruction. 
In  1853  she  was  graduated  at  the  New  Hamp- 
shire Conference  Seminary,  now  Tilton  Sem- 
inary. After  a  few  years  of  successful  teaching 
in  Massachusetts  she  accepted  a  position 
as  teacher  in  Cornell  College,  Mount  Vernon, 
Iowa,  which  she  entered  in  November,  1857, 
its  opening  year.  She  was  then  a  young 
woman,  possessing  an  ambition  to  excel  in 
whatever  she  undertook  to  do.  Her  charac- 
ter was  well  adapted  to  pioneer  educational 
work,  having  in  it  the  decidedly  marked 
combination  of  strength  and  tender  womanly 
sympathy.  She  was  fully  up  to  the  times 
as  regarded  methods  of  instruction  and  mental 
discipline. 

She  had  especially  had  stampetl  on  her 
soul — as  if  by  divine  impress — a  desire  to 
assist  in  the  higher  education  of  woman.  A 
profound  conviction  that  only  by  intellectual 
and  moral  culture  can  the  world  be  raised 
from  the  degrading  influences  of  ignorance, 
and  that  this  end  can  be  best  attained  through 
the  home  by  the  elevation  of  woman,  rendered 
her  conscious  of  the  importance  of  her  high 
calling.  She  thus  brought  to  her  new  field 
of  labor  an  enthusiasm  which  was  immediately 
recognized.  Being  unusually  rigid  in  her  re- 
quirements of  work  from  her  pupils,  she  gained 
a  reputation  for  over-exactness  that  for  a 
time   was  not   altogether   conducive   to   mere 


popularity.  But  with  all  their  unfavorable 
criticisms,  among  thinking  students  she  soon 
commanded  the  highest  respect.  In  1886 
Miss  Cooke  was  made  preceptress  of  the  college 
and  in  1872  professor  of  German  and  history, 
the  latter  appointment  being,  it  is  said,  the 
first  honor  of  the  kind  conferred  upon  a  woman 
in  the  I'nitcd  States.  These  departments 
of  the  college  she  built  up  and  establishetl 
on  a  firm  foundation.  In  1886  she  was  re- 
lieved of  the  German  and  made  professor  of 
history  anil  the  science  of  government.  Granted 
leave  of  absence  in  1872,  she  spent  the  year 
in  Great  Britain  and  on  the  Continent,  avail- 
ing herself  of  the  advantages  given  by  the 
London  University  for  the  study  of  history 
and  literature,  also  increasing  her  knowledge 
of  the  German  language  by  the  assistance 
of  native  teachers.  She  continued  her  work 
at  Coi'iiell  College  until  1890. 

This  brief  account  of  the  educational  career 
of  Professor  Harriette  J.  Cooke,  together 
with  the  following  appreciation  of  her  work 
and  character,  is  gathered  from  a  sketch 
written  for  the  College  Year  Book'  for  1890 
by  a  former  pupil  and  lifelong  friend,  namely, 
Mrs.  Collin,  wife  of  Alonzo  Collin,  the  senior 
professor  of  Cornell  College. 

Miss  Cooke  has  given  special  attention  to 
the  moral  and  religious  training  of  the  hvmdreds 
of  young  ladies  who  have  been  placed  under 
her  immediate  charge.  Many  of  them  testify 
that  her  strong  appeals  to  the  noblest  powers 
of  their  being  were  among  their  chief  incen- 
tives in  trying  to  develop  themselves  into 
the  highest  types  of  true  womanhood.  She 
had  a  realizing  sense  of  the  great  responsibility 
resting  upon  her,  a  feeling  that  none  can 
know  but  those  who  have  consecrated  them- 
selves to  lives  of  self-sacrifice  for  the  good 
of  others.  Possessed  of  an  active  mind  and 
a  physical  organization  that  seems  never  to 
have  known  weariness,  she  has  endured  un- 
ceasing toil  for  years,  having  in  all  her  college 
life  lost  but  one  term,  and  this  because  of  a 
serious  injury  occasioned  by  a  fall.  With 
a  spirit  of  unselfishness  and  a  great  capacity 
to  endure,  she  has  generally  done  the  work 
of  two. 

Miss  Cooke  is  a  very  pleasing  public  speaker, 


176 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF    NEW   ENGLAND 


having  frequently  used  her  talents  in  this 
direction  for  the  benefit  of  her  college  and 
other  philanthropic  objects.  She  is  a  strong, 
terse  writer,  with  an  interesting  style,  as  is 
often  shown  by  class  lectures  and  papers 
read  before  literary  and  other  organizations. 
She  has  been  a  zealous  student  and  a  constant 
and  .successful  teacher  of  the  Bible.  This 
inspired  volume  has  given  her  much  of  the 
wonderful  faith,  hope,  and  love  she  has  in 
and  for  humanity.  She  is  well  informed  on 
the  affairs  of  state  and  the  science  of  business 
relations.  In  the  sick-room  she  has  shown 
herself  unusually  skilful  as  a  nurse.  Fortunate 
are  they  who  have  her  name  upon  tlieir  list 
of  friends.  Fearless  and  faithful,  she  will 
be  to  them  loyal  and  true,  cheerful  and  kind. 
Soon  after  leaving  Cornell  College,  Miss 
Cooke  went  to  England  for  the  purpose  of 
studying  Christian  work  as  carried  on  by 
Mildmay  in  North  London.  This  great  mission 
was  the  first  attempt  on  a  large  scale  to  carry 
on  reformatory  work  in  the  slums  of  a  great 
city  by  workers  living  among  the  crowded 
population.  During  the  winter  of  1872,  when 
Miss  Cooke  was  making  some  research  in 
history  at  University  College,  London,  her 
attention  was  attracted  to  this  work,  which, 
by  its  unusual  methods  and  by  the  high  rank 
of  those  engaged  in  it,  excited  great  interest 
in  the  city.  Indirectly  it  \yas  the  outgrowth 
of  the  plague  which  made  such  havoc  in  the 
congested  section  of  East  London  during  the 
years  1865-66.  It  was  impossible  to  care  for 
the  dying  or  to  bury  the  dead,  for  sometimes 
whole  families  were  taken  sick  in  one  house. 
At  this  crisis  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pennefather,  with 
a  band  of  women  from  the  upper  class  of  society, 
offered  to  assist  the  clergyman  at  Bethnal 
Green  in  that  centre  of  the  plague.  These 
women,  six  in  number,  began  their  labor  of 
love  by  opening  an  old  warehouse  as  a  home 
for  themselves  and  as  a  centre  of  distribution 
of  such  help  as  they  could  give.  They  pre- 
pared suitable  food,  gathered  such  things  as 
they  might  need — drugs,  disinfectants,  clean 
linen,  and  so  forth — and  began  their  visits 
to  the  homes.  With  nutritious  food,  comforts 
of  every  kind,  and  words  of  love  they  cheered 
the  sick,  comforted  the  dying,  read  the  Bible, 


and  made  the  rooms  they  visited  clean  and 
tidy.  They  went  to  the  city  magistrate, 
and  pleaded  for  better  sanitary  conditions. 
When  the  i)lague  under  their  vigorous  measures 
began  to  abate,  they  did  not  cease  their  work. 
They  established  a  permanent  home  in  the 
dark  section,  the  worst  in  London.  It  was 
really  the  first  "settlement"  in  any  slum, 
though  not  so  called.  They  began  industrial 
work  and  established  educational  classes,  Eng- 
land at  this  time  (1867)  having  no  system  of 
free  public  schools.  Their  night  school  was  soon 
crowded  with  men  of  all  ages  and  conditions. 
They  gathered  the  street  boys  into  bright, 
warm  rooms,  and  organized  them  into  clubs. 

One  lady  belonging  to  the  cultured  class 
went  into  the  "thieves'  quarters,"  working 
and  teaching  there  for  years.  Through  her 
loving  faithfulness  hundreds  were  rescued  from 
lives  of  shame,  aiul  became  upright  citizens. 
One  whom  Miss  Cooke  knew  became  a  lay 
preacher,  whose  effective  work  rescued  many. 
Men's  clubs  were  opened,  mothers'  meetings 
held,  coffee  rooms  establisheil;  and  lodging- 
houses,  clean  and  well  kept,  took  the  place 
of  the  "dens"  that  had  been  "dens  of  thieves." 
The  gospel  service  was  held  in  the  waiting- 
room.  'Trained  nurses  visited  in  the  homes, 
ministering  to  their  inmates;  and  Christian 
doctors  gave  their  services.  A  marvellous 
change  was  wrought  in  a  few  years.  The 
number  of  workers  was  constantly  increased, 
and  twenty-four  stations  were  established  in 
the  worst  parts  of  London,  managed  by  the 
Mildmay  workers.  When  Miss  Cooke  went 
there  in  1890,  these  women  were  ministering 
to  one  hundred  thousand  of  London's  poor. 
They  had  several  well-equipped  hospitals,  four 
medical  missions,  convalescent,  women's,  and 
orphans'  asylums. 

In  such  a  practical  school  of  methods  Miss 
Cooke  took  her  three  years'  course,  in  1892 
having  charge  of  the  night  study  classes.  Work- 
ing in  every  department,  she  learned  lessons 
that  are  now  bearing  fruit.  In  the  spring  of 
1893  she  accepted  an  invitation  to  enter  the 
Hull  Street  settlement,  Boston,  which  had 
iieen  started  the  preceding  January  by  students 
of  Boston  University,  among  them  the  Rev. 
Rollin  H.  Walker  and  the  Rev.  Edgar  Helms 


LYDIA    GROUT   WELLINGTON 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


177 


and  his  sainti'd  wife,  who  brought  to  this 
work  a  consecration  which  has  left  an  impress 
for  permanent  good.  Another  member  of 
the  settlement  was  Miranda  Croucher,  who 
showed  such  heroic  courage  during  the  Boxer 
massacres  in  China. 

Miss  Cooke  took  an  interest  in  the  entire 
work  of  the  settlement,  which  is  of  an  all-round 
character;  but  the  part  that  owes  its  origin 
to  her  is  the  medical  mission,  which  was  her 
special  charge  under  difficulties  that  would 
have  discouraged  a  less  experienced  worker. 
This  work — the  founding  of  the  medical  mission 
in  connection  with  the  university  settlement 
at  36  Hull  Street — is  the  crowning  work  of 
Miss  Cooke's  long  and  busy  life.  It  is  the 
first  medical  mission  established  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  the  settlement  is  the  only  one,  so 
far  as  we  know,  which  has  this  ilepartment 
connectetl  with  it.  It  may  here  be  best  de- 
seribeil  in  Miss  Cooke's  own  words :  "  Its  aim 
is  far  different  from  a  free  dispensary.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  New  England  Ls  rapidly 
becoming  foreign  missionary  ground.  It  is 
therefore  fitting  that  the  best  agencies  should 
be  usetl  to  bring  this  foreign  population  into 
sympathy  antl  in  touch  with  American  civiliza- 
tion and  American  ideas  of  education. 

"  Through  ministry  to  suffering,  as  well  as 
by  educational  efforts,  an  effectual  door  was 
opened  to  the  hearts  and  homes  of  these  stran- 
gers, who  are  coming  in  such  numbers  to 
stay  with  us.  Many  of  them  are  exposed  to 
imposition  and  neglect,  and  are  helpless  to 
meet  these  conditions.  By  helping  them  when 
sick  and  unable  to  get  work,  they  are  ready 
to  adopt  better  methods  of  living,  and  the 
children  offer  the  best  opportunity  for  making 
these  people  American.  These  little  ones  are 
bright  and  alert,  and,  taken  into  new  environ- 
ments, they  readily  adapt  themselves  to  new 
conditions.  Thousands  of  these  chiklren  are 
crowded  together  in  the  tenements  of  our  cities, 
and  if  we  neglect  them  we  shall  bring  upon 
ourselves  the  blame  of  the  bad  government  of 
our  cities,  which  these  children  will  surely  rule 
in  a  few  years.  By  all  means  in  our  power, 
now  is  the  time  to  make  good  Americans  of 
them  and  then  good  loyal  citizens,  whose 
right  to  vote  can  neither  be  bought  nor  sold. 


To  do  this  we  nmst  get  into  close  touch  with 
the  home  life,  and  so  get  a  firm  hold  upon 
these  children  and  young  i)eople.  Ten  years 
of  this  close  work  in  the  homes  of  these  people, 
in  sympathetic  and  friendly  association,  is 
already  showing  the  very  best  results.  A 
large  class  of  young  people  are  already  taking 
an  intelligent  interest  in  everything  that  per- 
tains to  the  public  interest  of  the  North  End. 
Young  men  and  young  women  are  seeking  to 
do  for  the  neighborhood  what  will  be  a  powerful 
influence  in  the  right  direction.  Many  are 
studying  to  etjuip  themselves  for  a  useful  and 
helpful  life. 

"The  work  brings  its  own  reward;  and,  if 
any  doubt  that  such  methods  are  practical, 
let  them  spend  a  few  days  at  36  HuH  Street, 
and  see  the  varied  plans  and  the  all-round 
efforts  to  win  the  young  people  to  adopt  the 
best  and  become  the  best.  There  is  a  hearty 
co-operation  among  the  many  workers  of  this 
important  part  of  the  city  with  the  excellent 
public  schools  and  different  institutions  to 
make  this  the  centre  of  a  new  and  a  renewed 
life  for  Boston." 


LYDIA  GROUT  WELLINGTON,  a  mem- 
ber of  .the  Ladies'  Aid  Association  of . 
_^  the   Massachusetts  Soldiers'    Home   in 
Chelsea,    is    a   resilient   of   Worcester. 
She  was  born  December  1,   1844,  daughter  of 
Edw-in   and   Lydia   Pierce    (Barton)   Grout,  of 
Millbury,  Mass. 

On  the  paternal  side  she  is  a  direct  descend- 
ant in  the  seventh  generation  of  John'  Grout, 
one  of  the  early  proprietors  of  Watertown. 
About  the  year  1643  John'  Grout  removed  to 
Sudbury,  lie  served  as  Captain  of  a  military 
company  and  as  a  chirurgeon. 

Jonathan^  Grout,  born  in  Sudbury  in  1658 
(son  of  Captain  John  by  his  second  wife,  Sarah, 
daughter  oj'  Nicholas  Busby  and  widow  of 
Captain  Thomas  Cakcbread),  married  Abigail, 
daughter  of  John  Dix. 

Jonathan,'  their  son,  born  in  1702,  married 
Hannah  Hurd.  He  bought  a  farm  in  Worces- 
ter about  1744,  and  died  there  in  1748.  Jona- 
than,^ born  in  Sudbury,  1744,  also  resided  in 
Worcester. 


178 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


Jonathan,'^  born  1772,  son  of  Jonathan^  and 
his  wife  Anna,  married  Sally  DeWolf,  of  Lyme, 
Conn.,  doubtless  a  descendant  of  Balthasar  De 
Wolf,  an  early  settler  of  the  town.  Jonathan 
Grout,  known  as  Master  Grout,  long  a  success- 
ful teacher  of  district  schools,  was  also  a  book- 
binder and  bookseller,  and  publisher  of  several 
small  devotional  books. 

His  son  Edwin,"  born  in  1812,  died  in  1846. 
He  married  in  1836  Lydia  P.  Barton.  Their 
daughter,  Lydia  Ann  (now  Mrs.  Wellington), 
whose  birth  date  is  given  above,  was  educated 
at  the  Wheaton  Seminary,  Norton,  Mass.  On 
September  18,  1866,  she  was  married  to  Gen- 
eral Arthur  Augustus  Goodell,  of  Worcester,  a 
veteran  of  the  Civil  War.  She  became  the 
mother  of  four  children:  Harry  Barton,  born 
August  13,  1867;  Edwin  Wilder,  born  March 
15,  1869,  who  died  February  4,  1890;  Alice 
May,  born  May  1,  1871;  and  Edwin  Howe,  born 
February  8,  1873,  who  died  in  infancy.  Gen- 
eral Goodell  died  June  30,  1882,  on  the  forty- 
third  anniversary  of  his  birth.  The  following 
is  his  military  record:  "Sergeant  Major,  Third 
Battalion  Rifles,  M.  V.  M.,  April  19,  1861;  Ad- 
jutant, July  1, 1861 ;  Captain  Company  C,  Thirty- 
sixth  Massachusetts  Volunteers,  August  16,  1862; 
Major,  January  29,  1863;  Lieutenant  Colonel, 
July  31,  1863,  commanding  regiment  from 
that  date  until  October  10,  1863,  when  severely 
wounded  at  Blue  Springs,  Tenn. ;  returned  to 
regiment  April  1,  1864;  resigned  May  5  in  con- 
.sequence  of  disability  resulting  from  wounds. 
Brevetted  Brigadier-general,  United  States 
Volunteers,  for  'gallant  and  meritorious  con- 
duct in  the  field  during  the  war.'  " 

On  September  4,  1883,  Mrs.  Goodell  became 
the  wife  of  Fred  Williams  Wellington,  who  in 
former  years  had  been  connected  in  business 
with  General  Goodell.  Mr.  Wellington  was 
born  in  Shirley,  Mass.,  May  31,  1851,  son  of 
Timothy  W.  and  Augusta  (Fiske)  Wellington 
and  a  lineal  descendant  in  the  eighth  genera- 
tion of  Roger  Wellington,  one  of  the  early 
proprietors  of  Watertown,  Mass.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools  of  Worcester  (his 
parents  having  removed  to  that  city  in  1855) 
and  in  schools  in  Germany  and  France,  where 
he  spent  two  years.  One  year  after  his  return 
from  Europe  he  was  clerk  in  the  First  National 


Bank,  Worcester,  and  later  he  was  in  his 
father's  coal  office.  The  year  1871  he  passed 
in  California.  He  embarked  in  the  coal  busi- 
ness in  1872,  anil  is  still  in  the  trade,  having 
been  since  1889  president  and  general  manager 
of  the  Austin  C.  Wellington  Coal  Company. 
Commissioned  Second  Lieutenant  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Volunteer  Militia  in  1882,  he  was  suc- 
cessively promoted  to  First  Lieutenant,  Captain, 
and  Assistant  Inspector-general  on  the  staff  of 
Governor  Ames,  with  rank  of  Colonel.  He 
served  on  the  staff  of  Governors  Greenhalge, 
Wolcott,  and  Crane,  and  is  now  (1903)  on  the 
staff  of  Governor  Bates  with  rank  of  Brigadier- 
general. 

Greatly  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Civil 
War  veterans,  comrades  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  Mrs.  Wellington  has  long 
been  an  earnest  worker  in  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in  Chelsea.  She 
is  also  an  active  and  esteemed  :ii  mber  of  the 
Woman's  Club  of  Worcester. 


A  NN  MARIA  MILES  SPRAGUE,  edu- 
/  \  cator  and  philanthropist,  is  a  sister 
X  ^  of  General  Nelson  A.  Miles  and  a 
descendant  of  the  Rev.  John  Myles, 
who  came  to  New  England  about  the  year 
1663  from  Swansea,  Wales,  and  settled  in 
Swansea,  Mass.,  so  named  at  the  incorpora- 
tion of  the  town  a  few  years  later.  His 
death  is  thus  recorded:  "Mr.  John  Myles, 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Swanzy,  deceased 
February  3,  1682-3."  His  son,  John  Myles, 
Jr.,  who  also  resided  in  Swansea,  Mass.,  was 
elected  to  the  office  of  Town  Clerk  in  May, 
1670.  Nathaniel,  son  of  John  Myles,  Jr., 
was  born,  as  recorded  in  the  Swansea  town 
register,  26th  day,  8  mo.,  1671;  and  James, 
son  of  John  the  younger  and  Mary,  his  wife, 
in  April,  1674.  Daniel  Miles,  a  native  of 
Pomfret,  Conn.,  thought  to  have  been  of  the 
fourth  generation  of  this  family,  and  son 
of  a  Samuel  Miles,  removed  to  Petersham, 
Mass.,  where  he  died  early  in  1777,  his  will 
being  probated  April  9.  His  .son,  Joab  Miles, 
died  in  Petersham  in  1835  at  the  age  of  ninety- 
one  years.  Joab  married  Elizabeth  Fitch, 
a  descendant,  it  is  said,  of  John  Fitch,  who 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


179 


was  captured  by  the  Indians  at  Fitchburg, 
and  from  whom  that  city  derived  its  name. 
A  tablet  to  the  memory  of  John  Fitch  may 
now  be  seen  in  Fitciiburg.  Daniel  Miles, 
born  in  Petersham  in  1799,  son  of  Joab,  married 
Mary  Curtis,  of  ^^'estminster,  who  was  born 
in  1802.  Both  died  in  1875.  Daniel  and 
Mary  (Curtis)  Miles  had  four  children — namely, 
Daniel  Curtis,  Mary  Jane,  Ann  Maria,  and 
Nelson  Appleton.  The  last  named,  in  his 
interesting  book,  "  Personal  Recollections  of 
General  Nelson  A.  Miles,"  refers  to  his  parents 
and  ancestors  as  follows: — 

"  Physical  and  mental  advantages  were  not 
the  only  ones  for  which  1  feel  it  a  very  pleasant 
iluty  to  render  thanks  to  my  honored  parents. 
Simplicity  of  life,  purity  of  thought  and  action, 
and  high  moral  standartls  were  as  character- 
istic of  them  as  of  their  ancestors  through 
many  generations.  My  father,  Daniel  Miles, 
excelled  in  strength,  resolution,  boldness,  antl 
the  highest  sense  of  honor.  To  the  example 
of  his  sterling  integrity,  spotless  character, 
and  loyalty  to  country  I  owe  whatever  of 
aptitude  I  have  possessed  in  meeting  the 
stern  realities  of  a  somewhat  tumultuous 
life  in  an  exacting  profession.  My  father's 
high  qualities  had  been  transmitted  through 
five  generations  from  the  Rev.  John  Miles, 
a  Welsh  clergyman,  who  hail  not  only  been 
a  soldier  of  the  Cross,  but  also  a  soldier  of 
approved  valor  and  conduct  in  the  Indian 
wars. 

"  For  many  years  he  carried  on  a  school 
'for  the  teaching  of  granmiar  and  arithmetic, 
and  the  tongues  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew, 
also  how  to  read  English  and  to  write.'  This 
ancestor's  residence  was  strongly  built,  and 
when  King  Philip's  War  broke  out,  in  1675, 
it  was  fortified  and  became  known  as  Myles's 
Garrison.  There  the  colonial  forces  gathered 
at  the  first  outbreak  of  Indian  hostilities,  anil 
the  pastor  became  foremost  in  the  defence  of 
the  settlement  anil  was  chosen  Captain.  Having 
done  valiant  service  in  the  war,  he  at  the 
close  resumed  the  duties  of  a  country  clergy- 
man. 

"His  son  Samuel  graduated  from  Harvard 
College  in  1684,  and  went  to  England  soon 
after,   where   he   took   orders   in    the   English 


church.  Returning  to  Boston,  Samuel  Mdes 
became  rector  of  King's  Chapel  in  1689,  con- 
tinuing in  this  position  for  twenty-nine  years. 
Oxfoid  L'niversity  conferred  upon  him  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1693. 

"  My  ancestors  moved  from  Massachusetts 
to  Pomfret,  Conn.  Thence  they  made  a  settle- 
ment at  what  is  now  the  town  of  Petersham, 
in  Central  Massachusetts,  when  that  was  the 
extreme  frontier.  This  settlement  was  at 
once  abandoned  because  of  the  depredations 
of  the  Indians. 

"  My  paternal  grandfather,  Joab,  and  great- 
grandfather, Daniel,  were  both  soldiers  of  the 
Revolution. 

[In  "  Massachusetts  Soldiers  and  Sailors 
of  the  Revolutionary  War,"  vol.  x.,  the  record 
of  Joab  Miles  is  as  follows:  "Sergeant,  Capt. 
Wing  Spooner's  Co.,  Col.  Nathan  Sparhawk's 
regt.;  engaged  Aug.  21,  1777,  travel  to  camp 
and  home  180  miles;  service  at  twenty  miles 
per  day,  9  days;  company  marched  from 
Petersham  to  Bennington,  Aug.  21,  1777, 
to  reinforce  army  under  General  Stark;  also, 
1st  Sergeant,  Capt.  Josiah  AVilder's  company. 
Col.  Nathan  Sparhawk's  regt.,  commanded 
by  Maj.  Daniel  Clap,  entereil  service  July  4, 
1778:  discharged  July  15,  1778;  service  13  days 
at  Rutland  Barracks,  company  raised  for  20 
days'  service;  roll  dated  Templeton." 

■The  records  of  Daniel  Miles  in  the  same 
volume,  beginning  with  service  from  August  3, 
1776,  and  ending  with  discharge  in  December, 
1780,  cannot  all  refer  to  Joab's  father,  who 
died,  as  above  noted,  in   1777.] 

"I  have  often  heard  my  father  tell  of  the 
experiences  of  his  father  and  grandfather — 
of  their  sudden  departure  for  the  field  and 
of  the  hardships  encountered  by  them  and 
their  comrades. 

"My  father,  Daniel  Miles,  was  born  in  Peters- 
ham, but  moved  in  early  life  to  Westminster, 
in  the  same  county  [Worcester],  in  the  State 
of  Massachusetts,  where  he  engaged  in  farming 
and  in  the  lumber  business." 

In  referring  to  their  mother  General  Miles 
says:  "My  mother,  Mary  Curtis,  possessed 
traits  of  character  similar  to  those  of  my 
father,  and  excelled  in  those  which  most  adorn 
womanhood.     It  is  not  possible  adequately  to 


180 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


express  my  sense  of  obligation  for  lier  devotion. 
She  was  a  true  Christian.  Never  was  one 
more  earnestly  prayed  for  during  childhood 
and  manhood,  during  peace  and  war,  than 
myself.  It  was  her  loftiest  ambition  to  guide 
her  children,  by  good  example,  jjure  thoughts, 
upright  and  praiseworthy  life,  to  honorable 
and  noble  purpose.  To  her  unselfish  de- 
votion, her  gentle  and  loving  admonitions, 
am  I  greatly  indebted  for  whatever  there 
may  be  in  me  that  is  conmiendable.  My 
mother  was  a  direct  tlescendant  of  William 
Curtis,  who  arrived  in  Boston  on  the  ship 
'Lyon,'  September  16,  1632." 

Mrs.  Lydia  (Jilbert  Curtis,  the  mother  of 
Mary  Curtis,  married  for  her  second  husband 
Mr.  Hastings,  of  Princeton,  Mass.,  the  great- 
grantlfather  of  the  late  ex-Governor  Russell. 
When  seventy  years  old,  she  became  the  bride 
of  Deacon  Timothy  Downes,  of  Fitchburg. 
She  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety. 

Daniel  Curtis  Miles,  the  eldest  child  of  Daniel, 
Sr.,  and  Mary  Curtis  Miles,  was  born  in  West- 
minster, June,  1828.  He  married  Lucy  Ann 
PufTer.  Their  children  are:  Mary  Josephine, 
George  Melville,  Herbert  Judson,  Arthur 
Wellington,  and  Martha  Gertrude.  Daniel  C. 
Miles  was  for  many  years  a  popular  teacher. 
He  afterward  engaged  in  the  lumber  trade 
and  in  manufacturing.  He  founfled  the  West- 
minster National  Bank,  and  was  its  president 
twenty  years.  He  is  the  present  l)ank  ex- 
aminer of  Massachusetts,  and  his  son,  Herbert 
Jud.son,   is  his  assistant. 

The  second  child  of  Daniel  and  Mary  (Curtis) 
Miles  is  Mary  Jane,  who  was  born  in  West- 
minster in  June,  1832.  She  was  a  successful 
teacher,  interested  in  educational  matters  and 
in  church  work.  She  has  been  a  liberal  con- 
tributor to  the  Baptist  society,  and  has  accom- 
plished much  good  in  her  quiet  way.  After 
her  marriage  to  Gardner  Merriam,  of  Princeton, 
she  .settled  in  Leominster,  Mass.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Merriam  have  four  children — Nelson 
Curtis,  Nellie  Gracie,  Mary  Anna,  and  Sadie 
Jane. 

Ann  Maria  Miles,  the  direct  subject  of  this 
.sketch,  was  born  April  15,  1837,  in  Westminster, 
Mass.  She  received  a  good  education,  and  as 
a   teacher   had    a   large    experience    in   school 


work.  Interested  in  the  welfare  of  her  pupils, 
she  not  only  guided  them  in  the  paths  of  learn- 
ing, but  also  trained  them  in  those  principles 
of  integrity  and  sound  morality  without 
which  no  man  or  woman  can  achieve  a  perfect 
success.  An  instance  of  the  manner  in  which 
she  impressed  upon  her  pupils  the  importance 
of  punctuality  is  found  in  the  fact  that  her 
youngest  chikl  attended  school  for  fifteen 
years  without  receiving  an  absent  or  tardy 
mark. 

Mrs.  Sprague  is  a  woman  of  excellent  busi- 
ness capacity,  successfully  managing  large 
affairs  requiring  tact,  sound  judgment,  ex- 
ecutive ability,  and  thorough  knowledge  of 
business  methods.  For  .seven  years  she  held 
a  government  post-office  position.  She  is 
actively  interested  in  philanthropic  work,  being 
a  liberal  contriliutor  to  various  charities  and 
a  helpful  and  freijuent  visitor  to  the  homes 
of  the  poor  and  unfortunate.  She  has  been 
closely  identi'ied  with  the  work  of  the  Little 
Wanderers'  Home  and  in  placing  children 
in  country  homes,  where  they  could  be  taught 
u.seful  occupations  and  learn  to  be  self-sup- 
porting. 

Married  in  1856  to  Samuel  Hazen  Sprague, 
she  has  since  resided  in  Westminster,  Mass. 
She  is  the  mother  of  five  children — Lovvie 
Maria,  Samuel  Nelson,  Hattie  Sophia,  Theo- 
docia  Miles,  and  Lydia  Gertrude. 

Mrs.  Sprague  possesses  in  a  high  degree 
the  art  of  -freeable  conversation.  She  has 
travelled  ex.  iisively  in  ''s  and  foreign  coun- 
tries, has  been  an  inteuigent  and  accurate 
ob.server,  and  is  well  versed  in  the  leading 
topics  of  the  day.  A  patriotic  American, 
she  is  prou(i  of  her  country,  and  clo.sely  fol- 
lows every  event  that  concerns  our  nation's 
welfare. 

Mrs.  Sprague  takes  an  especial  pride  in  the 
career  of  her  distinguished  brother,  General 
Nelson  Appleton  Miles,  who  was  born  in 
Westminster,  and  name<l  by  his  mother  in 
honor  of  Appleton  Monse,  a  devoted  Baptist 
clergyman.  As  Lieutenant  of  a  company  of 
volunteers,  which  he  organized  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Civil  War,  as  Colonel  of  a  regiment 
and  commander  of  a  brigade  in  that  conflict, 
and  later  as  a  victorious  leader  against  hostile 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


181 


Indians,  he  rendered  services  that  have  added 
to  the  glory  and  stability  of  our  country, 
and  made  his  name  a  househokl  word  in  our 
land.  Later,  as  Lieutenant  Generajl  of  the 
army,  he  attained  the  highest  military  rank 
in  the  United  States,  and  during  his  tour 
around  the  world  was  tendered  receptions 
by  kings,  emperors,  and  other  rulers.  He 
is  honored  in  civil  life  as  an  eminent  patriot 
and  citizen.  General  Miles  married  Mary 
Hoyt  Sherman,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  antl  has 
two  children— Mary  Cecelia  Sherman  and 
Daniel  Sherman.  Mrs.  Miles  accompanied  her 
husband  in  his  tour  around  the  world,  and 
was  received  with  distinguishetl  honors. 

Mrs.  Sprague  takes  an  interest  in  the 
soldiers  who  have  served  with  her  brother 
and  with  other  leaders,  and  also  in  the  army 
nurses  of  the  Civil  War,  being  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  Army  Nurse 
Association. 


HELEN    C.    MULFORD,    Superintend- 
ent for  nine  years  of  the  iFranchise 
'Department  oif  the  Woman's  Chris- 
tian   Temperance    Union,  of    Barn- 
stable County  Mass.,  is  a  native   of  Chatham, 
Mass.,    where    she    now    resides    tluring    the 
greater  part  of  the  year. 

She  was  born  August  3,  1S45,  daughter  of 
Isaac  Bea  and  Maria  J.  (Marston)  Young. 
She  is  a  grand-daughter  of  Joseph.  Jr.,  and 
Bethia  (Bea)  Yovmg.  ojreat-grancf  ughter  of 
Joseph  and  Anna  ickerson)  \oung,  and 
great-great-grand-daughter  of  Hiatt  and  Mercy 
(Hinckley)  Young. 

Two  of  these  ancestors,  nanicly,  Hiatt 
Young,  of  Chatham  (born  about  1739),  and 
his  son  Joseph,  fought  in  the  war  for  American 
independence,  Hiatt  Young  appearing  with 
the  rank  of  Sergeant  on  the  Revolutionary 
rolls  of  the  State.  For  a  number  of  years  he 
was  in  Captain  Webb's,  later  in  Captain  Hol- 
brook's  company,  Colonel  William  Shepard's 
regiment.  It  is  related  of  him  that  upon  reach- 
ing his  little  home  after  his  discharge  from 
the  army,  without  a  cent,  weary  and  footsore, 
having  suffered  many  privations  and  hard- 
ships, he  left  his  footprints  in  blood  upon  the 


newly  scrubbed  floor,  and  that  they  never 
could  be  erased  while  the  house  remained 
standing.  An  old  memorandum  records  the 
fact  that  the  town  refused  to  pay  him  the 
bounty  which  was  his  due,  amounting  to  thirty 
pounds.     His  actual  grave  remains  unknown. 

The  following  is  the  inscription  on  a  monu- 
ment standing  on  a  lot  in  the  Universalist 
cemetery,  now  owned  by  Isaac  B.  Young, 
inscribed  many  years  ago  under  the  direction 
of  his  eldest  son,  Joseph: — 

:n  memory  of 
HIATT  YOUNG 

WHO   DIED   OCT.    10,    1810,    AGED   71    YEARS.       IN 
THE  FRENCH  WAR  HE  SERVED  IN  MAJOR    ROGERRS'  RAN- 
GERS  AND   WAS  TAKEN   CAPTIVE    BY    THE   INDIANS.      HE 
ALSO  SERVED  SIX  YEARS  IN  THE  WAR    OF  THE  REVOLU- 
TION, AND  WAS  ENGAGED  IN  SEVERAL  BATTLES:    l.ST    AT 
THE   SIEGE  OF  BOSTON;    21)  IN  THE   BATTLE   OF    LONG 
island;    3D    AT    PRINCETON;    4TH,   TRENTON;    5TH, 
TAKING   OF  BURGOYNE;  6TH,    MONMOUTH;   7TH, 
RHODE    island;  8TH,    CORNWALLIS.      MERCY    YOUNG, 
HIS    WIDOW,    DIED    OCT.    4TH,    18L'4,    AGED   84    YEARS. 

Joseph  Young  was  so  anxious  that  this 
inscription  should  be  executed  correctly  before 
his  death,  which  he  felt  was  approaching,  that 
he  had  the  stone  brought  to  his  front  yard, 
and  the  work  done  where  he  could  look  upon 
it  from  his  sick-bed  and  see  that  no  mistake 
was  made. 

Joseph  Young  was  born  September  25,  1762, 
in  Liverpool,  N.S.,  antl  died  July  31,  1848, 
about  one  week  after  the  completion  of  the 
monument.  At  the  age  of  thirteen,  in  his 
father's  absence,  he  had  nominal  charge  of 
the  support  of  the  family.  That  his  mother 
could  spare  him  a  few  years  later  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  he  himself  enlisted  before  he  was 
sixteen. 

The  following  was  recorded  by  him  in  later 
years : — 

"  I  was  so  very  small  and  short  of  stature 
that  I  had  to  resort  to  stratagem  to  pass  the 
very  yielding  eye  of  an  enlisting  officer.  I 
put  on  a  pair  of  my  father's  big  cowhide  boots, 
and  filled  under  my  feet  all  that  I  could  to  raise 
me  up.  Then  I  put  on  all  the  clothes  I  could 
to  make  me  stout.     When  I  went  before  the 


182 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


examining  officer,  I  stretched  myself  all  I 
could,  and  was  accepted.  I  was  nine  months 
in  Jackson's  regiment,  six  months  at  Provi- 
dence under  Captain  Job  Crocker,  nine  months 
in  Shepard's  regiment  under  Captain  Grifhths, 
of  Yarmouth,  in  my  father's  name,  and  in  the 
last  twenty-four  months  of  the  war  under 
Shepard,  a  part  of  the  time  in  my  father's 
name  and  a  part  in  my  own,  serving  in  all  four 
years,  eight  months. 

"I  stayed  until  peace  was  declared,  and  was 
discharged  back  of  Newburg  before  General 
Washington  took  possession  of  New  York, 
without  a  cent  to  pay  my  expenses  home, 
which  I  reached  after  suffering  many  privations, 
to  find  my  father  and  family  in  distressed 
circumstances,  as  neither  of  us  had  received 
any  compensation  for  our  services.  At  this 
time  the  Continental  script  was  of  such  depre- 
ciation in  value  that  a  month's  wages  would 
not  buy  a  bushel  of  corn. 

"  I  travelled  to  Boston  to  secure  our  wages, 
which  the  government  was  paying  by  issuing 
notes,  and  fount!  that  Lieutenant  Hamblin  of 
the  Fourth  Regiment,  who  was  paymaster, 
had  disposed  of  our  notes  and  run  away  to 
Canada  with  the  proceeds,  so  that  was  the  last 
that  I  ever  heard  of  our  wages.  I  was  in  the 
battle  of  Rhode  Island  under  General  Sullivan 
and  in  many  other  scrimmages,  one  at  Moriseny, 
another  near  Redden  between  Valley  Forge  and 
Philadelphia,  and  many  others,  in  which  we 
stood  our  ground  bravely  and  were  not  daunted 
to  see  a  redcoat." 

After  the  war  Jo.'ieph  Young  married  an  esti- 
mable young  woman,  Anna  Nickerson,  daughter 
of  Moses  Nickerson.  As  he  had  no  property 
to  speak  of,  her  family,  who  were  Tories,  ob- 
jected to  the  match,  but  in  vain.  He  succeeded 
in  surmounting  all  difficulties,  and  in  later 
years  assisted  in  the  support  of  the  Tory 
family  and  many  of  their  relations. 

Joseph  Young  displayed  the  same  courage 
and  determination  in  business  that  he  had 
shown  as  a  soldier,  and  rose  from  fi.sherman  to 
master  and  owner  of  vessels.  But  tlie  embargo 
came,  and  his  vessels  lay  idle,  causing  him 
heavy  losses.  In  the  War  of  1812  one  of  his 
vessels,  within  twenty-four  hours  of  home,  was 
Captured,  and  two  of  his  sons,  Joseph,  Jr.,  and 


Reuben,    who    were    on    board,    were   sent    to 
Dartmoor  Prison,  being  afterward  released. 

After  the  war  was  over,  Joseph  Young 
succeeded  in  retrieving  his  losses.  It  is  re- 
lated of  him  that  he  accumulated  a  handsome 
property  for  his  time.  He  reared  a  large 
family,  six  daughters  and  three  sons,  and  was 
a  very  prominent  citizen  of  Chatham,  holding 
all  the  highest  othces  in  the  town  and  serving 
several  years  in  the  Legislature.  He  built  a 
cotton  factory  in  Harwich  and  a  woollen  fac- 
tory m  Chatham,  and  was,  in  fact,  a  leader  in 
any  enterprise  that  would  help  the  community. 
He  was  very  public-spirited,  and  was  liberal 
in  his  benefactions  to  the  poor.  No  one  was 
ever  turned  away  from  his  (loor  empty-handed. 

A  firm  believer  in  the  tloctrine  of  universal 
salvation,  he  contributed  largely  to  the  building 
of  the  first  L^niversalist  meeting-house  on 
Cape  Cod.  Joseph  Young,  Jr.,  was  born 
February  20,  1796,  and  died  November  27, 
1869.  Isaac  B.  Young,  his  son,  who  is  now 
(1904)  eighty-six  yeais  old  and  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  his  branch  of  the  family,  is  an  honored 
citizen  of  Chatham.  His  youngest  brother, 
George  W.  Young,  died  August  5,  1903.  Maria 
J.  Marston  Young,  wife  of  Isaac  B.,  died 
January  3,  1894.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
Arthur  B.  and  Hannah  J.  (Jones)  Marston, 
of  West  Barnstable,  Cape  Cod,  Mass. 

Helen  C.  Mulford  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Chatham,  and  before  sixteen  years 
of  age  began  a  successful  career  as  a  teacher. 
Siie  liad  tlie  love  and  respect  of  all  her  pupils, 
and  li(M'  poiiuiarity  among  them  was  an  evi- 
dence of  her  kindness,  lier  good  judgment, 
and  ability  in  dealing  with  tho.se  under  her 
charge.  She  was  engaged  in  this  profession 
for  several  years,  and  among  her  most  devoted 
friends  are  some  of  her  former  pupils. 

On  July  14,  1864,  she  married  Joseph  W. 
Mulford,  an  Acting  Ensign  in  the  United  States 
navy.  Since  her  marriage  Mrs.  Mulford  has 
resided  in  Boston  and  Taunton,  Mass.  (where 
she  conducted  a  millinery  and  fancy  goods 
business),  and  Bridgewater,  and  for  several 
years  has  lived  at  her  father's  home  in  Chat- 
ham, Mass. 

Mrs.  Mulford  is  interested  in  the  Univer- 
salist  church  in  Chatham,  of  which  her  great- 


KATHERINE   L.  HOVLE 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


183 


grandfather  was  one  of  the  founders.  She 
early  became  interested  ui  the  woman  suffrage 
movement  and  in  temperance  work,  and  for 
the  past  nine  years  has  been  County  Super- 
intentlent  of  the  Franchise  Department  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 
She  has  supplied  tliirteen  towns  with  litera- 
ture upon  the  subject,  has  conducted  an  ex- 
tensive correspondence,  and  aided  the  cause 
in  many  other  ways.  Mrs.  Mulford  not 
only  takes  an  active  interest  in  every  move- 
ment for  the  atlvancement  of  women,  but  also 
in  the  efforts  for  good  government  and  for 
the  public  schools.  A  local  paper,  referring 
to  the  campaign  of  1891,  said:  "The  women 
of  Chatham  have  been  carrying  on  a  vigorous 
campaign  under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Helen 
Mulford.  The  town  was  districted  in  Septem- 
ber, over  seventy  were  assessed  and  i-egis- 
tered,  and  nearly  all  voted.  A  correspontl- 
ent  writes:  'Mrs.  Mulford  deserves  unbovmded 
credit  for  her  work,  for  the  campaign  was  a 
perfect  success,  and  is  so  acknowledged  by  the 
men,  notwithstanding  that  nothing  whatever 
was  done  in  the  matter  until  the  mitldle  of 
September.  The  women  took  hold  with  zeal, 
and,  though  quiet  and  womanly  in  their  work, 
were  determinetl  to  carry  it  through.  The 
best  and  most  iafiuential  women,  younger  and 
older,  cast  their  votes.  The  interest  in  town 
meeting  was  never  so  intense,  as  shown  from 
the  fact  that  more  men  voted  than  for  four 
years.  We  shall  do  still  lietter  next  year. 
All  honor  to  the  women  of  Chatham.'" 

In  1889  Mrs.  Mulford  joined  Frank  D.  Ham- 
mond Woman's  Relief  Corps,  No.  141,  of  South 
Chatham,  auxiliary  to  the  Grand  Army  post 
of  that  town,  and  entered  upon  its  work  with 
enthusiasm.  She  was  elected  to  fill  various 
offices,  and  was  choseri  president  the  second 
year,  but  declined  until'  1901.  In  that  year 
and  in  1902  she  was  president  of  the  corps, 
performing  her  official  duties  in  a  dignified 
and  thorough  manner.  She  was  treasurer  of 
the  corps  six  years,  and  is  at  present  corps 
patriotic  instructor,  ha^^ng  charge  of  the  work 
of  inculcating  in  the  schools  the  spirit  of  love 
and  devotion  to  country.  She  has  been  a 
participant  in  many  department  conventions, 
and    has    served    on    important    committees 


in  the  State  body,  representing  fourteen  thou- 
santl  women.  Mrs.  Mulford  has  been  a  Na- 
tional Aide  antl  special  Aide  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
and  is  a  delegate  to  the  National  Convention 
to  be  held  in  Boston  in  August,  1904.  This 
will  be  a  gathering  representing  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  loyal  women  of  the  countrj'. 

Proud  of  her  Revolutionary  ancestry,  she 
Has  taken  an  interegt  in  the  history  of  that 
great  conflict  anil  in  perpetuating  the  memory 
of  its  heroes,  and  enjoys  membership  in  Sarah 
Bradlee  Fulton  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
Anierican  Revolution,  the  headquarters  of 
which  are  at  the  Royall  House,  Medford. 

In  matters  of  business  Mrs.  Mulford  shows 
executive  ability  and  a  knowledge  of  financial 
questions;  in  social  life,  those  cjualities  that 
win  and  retain  friends.  Faithful  to  the  highest 
duties  of  life,  loving  the  principles  of  right  and 
justice,  and  loyal  to  the  cause  of  patriotism 
and  humanity,  she  enjoys  being  identified 
with  the  [progressive  work  of  the  world. 


KATHERINE  LAWRENCE  HOYLE, 
for  many  years  one  of  the  best 
known  and  most  highly  respected 
women  of  Maiden,  wafi  born  in 
Medford,  Mass.,  January  10,  1825,  daughter 
of  Captain  Martin  and  Eliza  (Withington) 
Burrage. 

Her  paternal  ancestry  has  been  traced  back 
to  Robert  Burrage,  of  Seething,  Norfolk 
County,  England,  whose  will  was  proved  in 
the  Bishop's  Court  at  Norfolk,  May  13,  1559, 
his  death  having  occurred  in  that  year.  His 
wife's  given  name'  was  Rose.  Mrs.  Hoyle's 
line  of  descent  is  through  his  son  Richard, 
the  date  of  whose  birth  is  not  known,  but 
who  resided  in  Norton  Subcourse,  Norfolk 
County,  England.  Thomas  Burrage,  born 
February  28,  1581,  son  of  Richard,  married 
Frances  Dey,  August  19,  1606.  He  died 
March  2,  1632-3. 

John'  Burrage,  son  of  Thomas  and  his 
wife  Frances,  was  baptized  in  Norton  Sub- 
course,  April  10,  1616.  He  was  the  founder 
of  this  branch  of  the  family  in  America.  Com- 
ing to  Massachusetts  and  settling  m  Charles- 


184 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


town,  his  name  tx-ing  on  the  records  in  1637, 
he  took  the  freeman's  oath  May  18,  1642. 
About  1639  he  married  his  first  wife,  Mary, 
whose  maitlen  surname  is  not  known.  His 
second  wife  was  Joanna  Stowers.  He  dieil 
October  19,  16S5. 

William^  Burrage,  the  elder  of  the  two  sons 
of  John'  who  survived  their  father,  was  born 
June  10,  1657.  In  the  county  records  between 
the  years  1677  and  1690  he  is  called  "  a  mariner." 
His  name  appears  in  a  list  prej^ared  by  Con- 
stable Greenwood  for  the  use  of  the  assessors 
of  taxes  in  Boston  in  1674,  and  also  in  a  list 
of  inhabitants  of  Boston  in  1695.  He  died 
in  1720. 

John^  Burrage,  born  in  Boston,  February  11, 
1693,  son  of  William  and  his  wife  Sarah,  died 
January  24,  1765.  He  married  first,  October 
9,  171S,  Lydia  Ward,  who  tlied  in  1724.  He 
married  January  17,  1725,  Sarah  Smith.  He 
was  a  farmer  and  lived  in  Newton,  Mass. 
William'  Burrage,  son  of  John'  and  Lydia 
(Ward)  Burrage,  married  December  13,  1744, 
Hannah  Osland.  He  moved  to  Concord,  Mass., 
about  1756,  and  died  in  October,  1763. 
John*  Burrage,  born  August  29,  1755,  married 
May  10,  1781,  Lois  Barthrick,  of  Lunenburg. 
He  died  July  2,  1822. 

Captain  Martin"  Burrage,  son  of  John'^  and 
his  wife  Lois,  was  born  July  27,  1793.  He 
became  a  prominent  citizen  of  Medford,  active 
in  town  affairs,  and  was  Captain  of  the  crack 
militia  company  of  the  town.  In  this  capacity 
he  had  the  honor  of  escorting  Cieneral  La- 
fayette in  his  last  visit  to  this  country  and 
of  being  personally  complimented  by  him  on 
the  fine  military  bearing  of  the  company. 
His  sword  is  preserved  in  the  family  as  a 
valuable  souvenir.  His  first  wife,  Eliza 
Withington,  was  a  woman  of  sterling  qualities. 
Her  father  established  the  old  bakery  that  is 
still  standing  in  Medford  and  is  probably  th(> 
oldest  in  New  England.  After  her  death 
Captain  Burrage  married  for  his  second  wife, 
May  12,  1840,  Hannah  Pratt. 

Katherine  Lawrence  Burrage  was  educated 
in  the  public  schools  of  Medford,  and  became 
a  teacher.  When  she  was  sixteen  years  old, 
her  parents  sold  their  Medford  farm  and 
bought    one    in     Maiden,    where    the    family 


lived  for  many  years.  Here,  long  after,  her 
father  died  when  in  his  eighty-sixth  year. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-five  Miss  Burrage 
was  married  to  Charles  Frederick  Syffernian, 
a  manufacturer  of  carriage  and  upholstery 
trimmings  in  Maiden,  witli  a  store  on  Otis 
Street,  Boston.  Of  this  union  there  were 
four  children,  two  of  whom  did  not  survive 
the  period  of  infancy.  The  others,  William 
and  Frederick,  liveil  but  to  reach  the  thresh- 
old of  a  promising  manhood,  the  former  dying 
at  the  age  of  eighteen  and  the  latter  at  nine- 
teen. Their  memory  is  preserved  in  a  gift 
of  eight  thousand  dollars  left  by  Mrs.  Hoyle 
to  the  Maiden  Public  Library  for  the  purchase 
of  books  for  the  use  of  the  young  people  of 
the  city.  Mr.  Syffernian  flied  in  1876,  and 
after  some  three  years  of  comparative  seclusion 
his  widow  married  for  her  second  husband 
Josiah  Talbot,  a  lumber  dealer  of  Maklen,  a 
member  of  the  firm  of  Talbot  Brothers.  He 
died  in  1881.  In  1882  Mrs.  Talbot  marriwl 
Royal  Teele  of  Medford.  Mr.  Teele  died  in 
February,  1892,  and  on  November  23,  1892, 
his  widow  became  the  wife  of  Irving  Julius 
Hoyle,  a  native  of  Thompson,  Conn.  Mr. 
Hoyle  was  born  in  1850,  son  of  Moses  antl 
Caroline  (Joslin)  Hoyle.  Through  his  mother, 
a  daughter  of  Jesse  and  Sibyl  (Bates)  Joslin 
an<l  grand-daughter  of  Jolui  Bates  and  his 
wife,  Chloe  Fuller,  Mr.  Hoyle  is  a  descentlant 
of  Isaac  AUerton,  one  of  the  ''Mayflower" 
Pilgrims,  ns  thus  sliown-  Mary^  AUerton, 
daughter  of  Isaac,'  mari'ied  Elder  Thoma.s^ 
Cushman.  Their  son  Thomas'  married  Abi- 
gail Fuller,  and  was  the  father  of  Samuel" 
Cushman,  who  married  F'ear  Corser.  Mary* 
Cushman,  tlaughter  of  Sanuiel,*  married 
Noah  Fuller,  ami  was  the  mother  of  Chloe" 
P'uller,  wife  of  John  Bates  and  great-grand- 
mother of  Mr.  Hoyle.  One  of  Mr.  Hoyle's 
ancestors  on  the  paternal  side  was  Chad  Brown, 
founder  of  the  Rhode  Island  family  for  whom 
lirown  L^niversity  was  named. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hoyle  enjoyed  some  ten  years 
of  happy  home  life,  which  was  terminated 
by  her  death  on  December  20,  1902,  as  the 
result  of  pneumonia.     She  left  no  children. 

Mrs.  Hoyle  was  a  woman  of  philanthropic 
nature    and    broad    sympathies,    which    found 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


185 


characteristic  expression,  through  her  ample 
means,  in  various  benefactions  and  chari- 
table works.  To  lend  a  helping  hand  to 
every  worthy  cause,  not  grudging  either 
money  or  personal  service,  to  extend  to  the 
poor  and  unfortunate  both  helpful  atlvice 
and  pecuniary  aid,  to  do  all  that  lay  in  her 
power  to  make  the  world  Ijetter  and  brighter 
— this  was  the  self-inijiosed  mission  wliich 
she  nobly  fulfilled.  She  was  an  incorporator 
and  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Maiden  Hos- 
pital; one  of  the  original  incorporators  in 
Maiden  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.;  and  a  trustee  and 
at  the  time  of  her  death  one  of  the  board  of 
managers  of  the  Home  for  Aged  People  in 
Maiden.  To  each  of  these  institutions  she 
made  generous  bequests — one  thousand  dol- 
lars to  the  hospital,  two  thousand  dollars 
to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  a  .similar  amount  to 
the  Home  for  Ageil  People.  She  also  l(>ft  three 
hunilred  dollars  to  the  city  of  Medford  to  main- 
tahi  perpetually  a  drinking  fountain,  erected 
by  her  at  the  corner  of  Spring  and  Salem 
.Streets,  also  the  same  amount  to  the  city  of 
Maiden  for  the  permanent  care  of  a  drinking 
fountain  previously  erected  by  her  in  Jud.son 
Square,  Maiden.  She  left  the  cities  of  Med- 
ford and  Maiden  several  similar  amounts 
for  the  care  of  her  lot  in  Salem  Street  Cemetery ; 
Maiden,  the  care  of  her  father's  lot  in  Oak 
Grove  Cemetery,  Medford,  and  for  the  care 
of  the  lot  of  her  former  husliand,  Mr.  Teele, 
in  Medford.  To  the  Society  for  the  Prevention 
of  Cruelty  to  Animals  she  left  two  thousand 
dollars.  Wilbraham  Academy  received  from 
her  the  gift  of  one  thousand  dollars.  Her 
memory  is  perjjetuated  in  the  Centre  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Malilen  by  her  gift  of  a  silver 
communion  service.  The  residue  of  her 
fortune,  excepting  some  i)rivate  bequests, 
was  left  to  Mr.  Hoyle. 

Mrs.  Hoyle  was  a  constant  attendant  at 
the  First  Congregational  Church,  the  pastor 
of  which,  the  Rev.  H.  H.  French,  officiated 
a4  her  funeral,  assisted  by  the  pastor  of 
the  Centre  Methotlist  Church,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Hughes.  A  womanly  woman  and  a  practical 
Christian,  she  left  behind  a  fragrant  memory 
of  her  life  and  character  that  shall  long 
endure. 


HELEN  N.  PACKARD,  widely  known 
as  a  newspaper  correspondent,  a 
writer  of  poems,  and  an  enthusias- 
tic worker  in  patriotic  societies,  is 
one  of  the  recent  accessions  from  New  England 
to  the  journalistic  ranks  of  the  Pacific  coast, 
having  removed  from  Springfield,  Ma.ss.,  to 
Portlantl,  Ore.,  in  1901.  This  was  three 
years  ago,  eight  years  after  the  death  of  her 
husband,  John  A.  Packard,  a  veteran  of  the 
Civil  War. 

Mrs.  Packard  is  a  native  of  Maine.  Her 
maiden  name  was  Clark.  She  was  born  in 
\Mnterport,  Waldo  County,  being  one  of  the 
ten  children  of  Lemuel  and  Harriet  (Brown) 
Clark. 

The  Clark  family  of  Winterport  is  one  of 
the  very  oldest  and  most  respected  of  the  town, 
Lemuel  Clark,  Sr.,  having  come  there  from 
Kittery  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago.  The  original  farm  of  the  progenitor  of 
the  family  is  now  owned  and  occupied  by  his 
great-grandson. 

]\Irs.  Packard's  father  was  a  sea-captain, 
engaged  mostly  in  the  West  India  trade,  but 
also  visiting  foreign  ports.  Two  of  his  brothers 
served  in  the  War  of  1812.  Mrs.  Packard's 
mother,  born  in  1812,  was  daughter  of  .John,  Jr., 
and  Sally  (Crosby)  Brown,  of  Belfast,  Me. 
John  Brown,  Sr.,  removed  from  Londonderry, 
N.H.,  in  1773.  He  had  been  an  officer  in  the 
Provincial  army  in  the  French  antl  Indian  War. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  board  of  selectmen 
of  Belfast,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of 
"great  vigor,  energy,  and  honesty."  He  died 
in  LS17,  aged  eighty-two  years.  His  son, 
John,  Jr.,  born  in  1763,  died  in  1824  (History 
of  Belfast).  Both  father  and  son  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee  of  Inspection  and  Safety 
during  the  struggle  for  Ainerican  independence, 
and  both  rendered  valuable  service  to  the 
infant  country.  John  Brown,  Sr.,  was  one  of 
three  men  who  alone  of  all  the  settlement  re- 
fused to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Great 
Britain  when  the  British  fleet  appeared  in 
Penobscot  Bay  in  1779,  preferring  to  sacrifice 
all  his  possessions,  which  he  did,  but  they  were 
restored  to  him  in  1783. 

Sally  Crosby,  described  by  one  who  had  seen 
her  as  a  "remarkably  sedate,  sensible,  goilly 


186 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


woman,"  was  born  in  1774,  the  daughter  of 
Simon  and  Sarah  (Sewall)  Crosby.  Her  mother, 
great-grandmother  of  Mrs.  Packard,  was  daugh- 
ter of  Nicholas  antl  Mehitable  (Storer)  Sewall, 
of  York,  Me.,  and  sister  of  Stephen  Sewall,  the 
learned  professor  of  Hebrew  at  Harvard  Uni- 
versity in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteentli 
century.  Nicholas  Sewall  was  son  of  Johii^ 
(Henry' ')  and  nephew  of  SamueP  Sewall, 
the  distinguished  Judge  Sewall  of  colonial 
times. 

Lemuel  Clark  was  a  man  of  intense  loyalty 
to  his  country,  but  was  too  old  to  enlist  in  the 
Civil  War  of  1861-65.  He  sent  two  of  his  sons 
to  the  front,  one  of  whom  returned,  the  other 
being  killed  at  Antietam. 

His  daughter  Helen  was  reared  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  patriotism,  and  was  but  a  school-girl 
when  she  began  to  work  for  the  soldiers.  vShe 
scraped  lint,  knitted  socks,  packed  bo.xes  of 
comforts,  and  after  the  war  was  over  raised 
money  from  various  entertainments  for  the 
benefit  of  the  soldiers.  When  only  fifteen 
years  old  she  went  about  the  outlying  dis- 
tricts of  Winterport,  canvassing  for  provisions 
for  the  soldiers'  fair  to  be  held  in  her  native 
town.  After  her  graduation  from  the  high 
school  she  continued  her  studies  for  a  time  at 
a  boarding-school  for  girls. 

John  Alvin  A.  Packard,  to  whom  she  was 
married  in  1867,  served  as  a  Lieutenant  in  the 
Fifth  Maine  Regiment  in  the  Civil  War,  and  had 
an  honorable  record  as  a  brave  soldier.  He 
participated  in  all  the  battles  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  from  Bull  Hmi  to  Gettysburg. 
One  week  after  Gettysbiu-g,  while  leading  his 
company  in  an  engagement,  he  was  wounded 
by  a  bullet,  which  passed  through  his  body 
and  lodged  in  a  tree.  He  resigned  the  fol- 
lowing November,  but  it  was  thirteen  months 
before  the  wound  was  healetl.  For  a  few  years 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Packard  made  their  home  in 
Portland,  Me.  In  1874  they  removed  to  Spring- 
field, Mass.  They  became  the  parents  of  three 
sons:  Walter  Alvin,  born  December  17,  1877; 
Arthur  Howard,  born  November  17,  1879;  and 
Raymond  Clark,  born  July  11,  1881.  Mr. 
Packard  died  in  Springfield,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
eight  years,  May  1, 1893,  from  disease  contracted 
in  the  service  thirty  years  before. 


While  living  in  Portland,  Me.,  Mrs.  Packard 
joined  the  AVoman's  Auxiliary  to  the  Portland 
Army  and  Navy  Union.  For  many  years  slie 
contributed  letters  and  articles  to  the  press 
in  behalf  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War,  en- 
deavoring to  awaken  an  interest  in  their  needs. 
She  has  received  hundreds  of  letters  of  appre- 
ciation from  soldiers  in  all  sections  of  the 
country  and  many  official  votes  of  thanks  from 
posts  and  regimjjntal  associations,  also  lettefs 
from  Dr.  Olivei'  Wendell  Holmes,  John  J.  In- 
galls,  and  many  distinguished  generals  of  the 
Civil  War. 

Invitations  ha\e  been  extended  to  Mrs. 
Packard  to  write  for  Grand  Army  gather- 
ings from  Maine  to  Texas.  In  October,  1889, 
at  the  dedication  of  the  Maine  monuments, 
she  read  an  original  poem  at  the  sunmiit  of 
Little  Round  Top,  Gettysburg,  entitled  "The 
Voice  of  Maine."  Among  the  many  popular 
poems  she  has  written  are  "Decoration  Day," 
"The  Old  Guard."  "In  Memoriam,"  and  "Me- 
morial Day."  \\'hen  tlie  memorial  building 
of  the  Fifth  Maine  Regiment  was  dedicated 
at  Peak's  Island,  Portland,  Me.,  Mrs.  Packard 
by  special  invitation  read  original  verses. 

The  Magazine  of  Poelrij  and  lAterary  Revieir, 
in  its  issue  of  October,  1895,  referred  to  her 
work  as  follows:  "All  of  Mrs.  Packard's  poems, 
whether  |)atriotic,  descrijttive,  psychical,  in- 
trospective, or  in  lighter  vein,  evince  a  deep  and 
original  mind,  a  keen  insight  into  nature,  a 
sincere  faith,  and  a  graceful  and  concise  mode 
of  expression.  Several  of  her  poems  have  been 
arranged  as  songs,  a  setting  for  which  they  are 
particularly  well  adapted." 

Among  the  publications  in  which  Mrs.  Pack- 
ard's writings  have  appeared  are  the  Spring- 
field R.ej)ul)liran,  Homestead  and  Vniun,  the 
Repidtlican  Joiirnal  uf  Maine,  Ladies'  Home 
Journal,  Good  Housekee/pinq,  Youth's  Compan- 
ion, Boston  Transcript,  and  various  Western 
papers;  among  the  magazines,  the  Twentieth 
Ceniury,  New  Natiort,  and  New  Idea. 

During  more  than  twenty-five  years'  resi- 
dence in  Springfield,  Mass.,  Mrs.  Packard  was 
a  friend  to  l).  K.  Wilcox  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  of  that 
city,  of  which  her  husband  was  an  active  mem- 
ber. She  joined  the  Relief  Corps  auxiliary  to 
this  post  in  188.1,  and  was  vice-president  three 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN-  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


187 


years  and  chairman  of  its  executive  committee 
six  years.  She  helped  to  earn  thousands  of 
dollars  for  the  memorial  building  of  E.  K. 
Wilcox  Post,  and  is  held  in  grateful  remem- 
brance by  the  post  and  corps,  her  work  for 
the  Grand  Army  being  well  known  throughout 
the  State.  She  participatetl  as  a  delegate  in 
several  conventions  of  the  Department  of 
Massachusetts,  A\'omau's  Relief  Corps.  At  the 
time  of  the  Spanish-American  War  she  was  one 
of  the  organizers,  and  was  corres])on(iing  sec- 
retary and  a  director,  of  the  Springfield  Aux- 
iliary to  the  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Aid 
Association.  Her  two  elder  sons  enlisted  for 
service  in  Cuba,  and  Arthur  fell  on  the  firing 
line  at  El  Caney,  July  1,  189S,  pierceil  by  a 
Mauser  bullet.  The  death  of  this  young  patriot, 
only  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  the  frantic  grief 
of  the  ekler  brother  over  his  dead  body  was  a 
fruitful  theme  for  the  newspajter  correspondents 
in  Cuba,  from  Richard  Harding  Davis  down 
to  the  humblest  wielder  of  the  pen;  and  the 
ti'agic  circumstance  was  the  original  of  the 
statue  at  the  I^uffalo  I'ixposition  entitled  "  l']l 
Caney." 

Her  eldest  son,  Walter,  returned  from  Cuba 
broken  in  health  from  yellow  fever,  and 
was  obliged  to  leave  the  bleak  climate  of  New 
England  for  the  Far  West.  For  this  reason 
Mrs.  Packard  in  1901  resigned  her  position  as 
literary  editor  of  the  Springfield  Daily  News, 
and  moved  to  Portland,  Ore. 

In  her  new  home  she  is  still  actively  engaged  in 
public  work  She  has  been  patriotic  instructor 
and  also  ])ress  corresj)oiKlent  of  George  ^^  right 
Relief  Corps  of  Portland,  Ore.,  and  in  190;i  was 
elected  a  national  delegate  to  the  Woman's 
Relief  Corps  convention  in  San  Francisco. 
Her  interest  in  the  old  soldiers  is  as  strong  as 
ever.  She  is  correspondent  for  several  liast- 
ern  papers.  After  the  close  of  the  National 
Pmcampment  at  Buffalo  the  Tmies  of  that  city 
said,  "  Of  all  the  hundreds  of  press  con-espond- 
ents  who  sent  out  letters  describing  the  en- 
campment, none  equalled  in  graphic  descrip- 
tion those  sent  by  'H.  N.  P.'  to  the  Spring- 
field Republican."  Mrs.  Packard  represented 
the  same  paper  in  1903  at  the  Frisco  encamp- 
ment, where  she  received  a  cordial  greeting 
from  a  host  of  Grand  Army  comrades.     Mrs. 


Packartl  has  held  several  offices  in  the  United 
Order  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  including  that 
of  Governor  of  the  Colony  in  Springfield.  She 
is  also  a  member  of  Mercy  Warren  Chapter, 
of  Springfield,  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution.  When  a  resident  of  Massachu- 
setts she  was  identified  with  the  New  England 
Woman's  Press  A.ssociation.  As  her  works 
testify,  she  is  a  woman  of  talent  ami  of  much 
executive  ability. 

Mrs.  Packard  has  had  rather  more  than  the 
ordinary  share  of  troubles  which  fall  to  the  lot 
of  mortals,  but  has  borne  all  her  many  trials 
with  fortitutle  and  cheerfulness,  always  hold- 
ing the  faith  that  some  good  purpose  underlies 
all  the  worries  of  humanity.  Her  New  Eng- 
land birth  and  training,  and  inheritance  of 
courage  from  a  long  line  of  ancestors,  have 
doubtless  ujihcld  her  where  others  would  have 
failed. 

Mrs.  Packard  now  receives  the  pension  of 
a  Ijieutenant's  widow,  secured  to  her  by  special 
act  of  Congress  through  the  efforts  of  the  Hon. 
Malcolm  A.  Moody,  Representative  from  the 
Second  Congressional  District  of  Oregon. 


MARY  E.  ALLEN.— At  the  time  of  the 
French  Revolution  it  is  related  that 
two  young  brothers  were  sent  away 
from  France,  and  sailed  from  their 
native  town  of  Brest,  in  two  different  vessels, 
for  America.  One  of  them  was  never  heard 
from  more.  The  other,  as  he  told  the  story, 
was  shipwrecked  off  the  coast  of  Massachu- 
setts, reacheil  the  shore  with  some  difficulty, 
in  scanty  clothing,  and  sought  refuge  at  the 
nearest  farmhouse,  where  he  was  taken  in 
and  given  work.  He  could  speak  no  English, 
and,  as  the  people  he  came  among  were  equally 
ignorant  of  his  language,  the  farmer  sought 
the  nearest  equivalent  in  soimd  to  the  name 
given  by  the  stranger,  and  called  him  Cornelius 
Allen.  This  name  he  afterward  bore,  re- 
maining a  resilient  of  Massachusetts,  where 
he  married  and  had  a  large  family.  His  son 
Joseph  married  Mary  Nowell,  of  York,  Me. 
She  was  of  Scotch  and  English  descent.  The 
youngest  of  their  six  children  was  Mary  E. 
Allen,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who  was  born 


188 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  1844  in  Barre,  Mass.  She  remembers  once 
seeing  this  old  grandfather,  who  made  a  strange 
impression  upon  her  childish  imagination,  with 
his  broken  English  and  his  velvet  coat,  an  ele- 
gance not  affected  by  the  fanning  population 
among  whom  he  lived.  He  ilied  when  she  was 
quite  a  child,  and  all  subseciuent  attempts  to 
trace  her  true  name  and  French  ancestry  have 
proved  imavailing.  Her  early  years  were  spent 
in  a  country  village  until  the  death  of  her  par- 
ents, when,  at  the  age  of  eight,  she  was  adopted 
by  her  uncle,  Mr.  James  Nowell,  of  Ports- 
mouth, N,.H. 

In  1859  the  family  that  had  now  become 
hers  moved  to  Cambridge,  Mass.  She  entered 
the  Cambridge  High  School,  from  which  she 
was  graduated  in  1862.  The  profession  of 
teacher  seemed  best  adapted  to  her,  and 
events  have  proved  that  she  chose  wisely. 
Her  work  began  in  Montpelier,  Vt.,  and,  be- 
fore her  first  year  was  over,  she  received  a 
cell  to  the  Williams  School,  a  large  school  for 
boys  in  Chelsea,  Mass.  At  the  end  of  her  first 
year  she  was  given  the  position  of  master's 
assistant,  which  she  occupied  for  two  years, 
resigning  in  the  spring  of  1868,  to  accept  the 
position  of  assistant  gymnastic  teacher  in 
Vassar  College.  Through  some  misunderstand- 
ing among  the  faculty  this  plan  was  not  car- 
ried out,  and  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year  she 
accepted  the  position  of  master's  assistant 
in  the  Chapman  School  in  East  Boston,  a 
mixed  school  of  girls  and  boys. 

Miss  Allen  was  always  a  popular  teacher, 
nmch  beloved  by  her  pupils  and  appreciated 
by  their  parents,  and  she  thoroughly  enjoyed 
the  work;  but  she  rebelled  at  the  mass  of  use- 
less cramming  imposed  upon  the  public  school 
teacher,  and  found  herself  opposed  in  principle 
to  spending  so  much  time  in  fitting  for  exami- 
nations, when  she  would  gladly  have  devoted 
herself  to  teaching  in  its  broader  sense.  Full 
of  energy  and  ambition,  she  chafed  at  the  re- 
straints of  her  position,  realizing  also  that, 
however  great  the  eminence  to  which  she  might 
attain  as  a  teacher,  .she  could  not,  being  a 
woman,  aspire  to  the  only  two  positions  above 
her  in  the  grammar  school,  those  of  submaster 
and  master. 

All   this,   added  to  the  excessive  strain  of 


the  daily  routine  upon  an  organization  not  over 
robust,  forced  her  to  look  about  for  some  other 
field  of  work  in  which  to  e.xercise  her  unusual 
powers,  before  they  s"hould  begin  to  wane. 
For  a  long  time  she  had  been  interested  in 
physical  training,  and  during  the  last  tlozen 
years  she  had  aroused  much  enthusiasm  for 
gymnastics  in  her  classes  at  school. 

Miss  Allen's  interest  in  this  subject  led  her 
into  a  field  which  she  found  was  almost  un- 
explored. Nowhere  in  Boston  could  a  woman 
or  child  secure  any  regular  ])hysical  training. 
Further  investigation  revealed  the  same  lack 
of  opportunity  in  this  direction  throughout 
the  country.  Classes  in  gynmastics  had  been 
opened  in  Boston  and  elsewhere,  both  before 
and  after  Dr.  Dio  Lewis's  day;  but  nothing 
had  proved  permanent,  and  Dr.  Lewis's  phe- 
nomenal work  had  been  practically  dead  for 
a  dozen  years  or  more. 

Allured  by  this  untried  path,  she  soon  se- 
cured the  hearty  support  and  co-operation  of 
many  of  the  most  prominent  Boston  physi- 
cians of  the  day.  Not  only  did  they  semi  their 
patients  to  her,  but  their  wives  and  children 
also  joined  her  classes.  The  enterprise,  begun 
quietly  in  1878  in  a  meagrely  equipped  room 
in  E.ssex  Street,  under  the  name  of  "The 
Ladies'  Gymnasium,"  was  popular  from  the 
start. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  year  Miss  Allen  real- 
ized that  her  pupils  who  returnerl  to  her  must 
have  more  advanced  work.  Then  began  her 
scheme  for  progressive  physical  development, 
which  she  has  been  greatly  interested  in  per- 
fecting, as  the  years  have  gone  on. 

She  was  the  first  to  introduce  the  sensible 
gynmastic  costume  (consisting  of  blouse  and 
Turkish  trousers,  with  no  skirt),  allowing  per- 
fect freedom  of  motion,  which  is  now  adopted, 
in  similar  form,  in  all  gynmasiums.  A  promi- 
nent Boston  physician,  on  visiting  her  classes, 
remarked  that  it  would  be  worth  while  for  the 
women  simply  to  put  on  this  healthful  dress 
and  play  about  in  the  gymnasium  a  while, 
even  if  they  did  not  ]ierform  any  of  the  exer- 
cises. It  is  probable  that  the  physical  train- 
ing for  women,  of  which  Miss  Allen  was  the 
pioneer,  has  been  one  of  the  potent  factors  in 
diminishing  the  evils  of  tight  lacing,  which  in 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


189 


those  days  was  much  more  the  rule  than  at 
present. 

Growing  interest  and  enthusiasm  for  the 
work  of  the  gymnasium  necessitated  a  change 
at  the  end  of  the  second  year  to  more  com- 
modious quarters  in  Amory  Hall,  on  the  corner 
of  Washington  and  West  Streets.  The  pro- 
spective need  of  teachers  in  this  fiell  led  to 
the  intioduction  of  a  normal  cdurse  for  their 
education,  which  has  remained  a  permanent 
department  of  tlie  gymnasium.  Constantly 
increasing  numbers,  and  an  interest  that  con- 
tinued to  grow,  finally  culminated  in  a  demand 
for  a  larger  hall  and  better  eriuipment.  A 
stock  company  was  formed,  which  within  two 
months  raised  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  during  the  summer  of  1SS6  a  build- 
ing was  constructed  on  St.  Botolph  and  Gar- 
rison Streets,  known  thereafter  as  the  Allen 
Gymnasium.  This  contained  one  of  the  larg- 
est and  best  equipped  gymnasiums  in  the  coun- 
try, with  a  large  nuMiber  of  private  ilressing- 
rooms,  lavatories,  and  lockers,  and  in  the  base- 
ment six  fine  bowling  alleys. 

During  the  next  few  years  the  numbers 
greatly  increased,  and  hundreds  of  pupils  at- 
tended yearly,  so  that  in  1891  still  larger  ac- 
commodations seemed  necessary,  especially  a 
properly  constructed  room  for  the  deep- 
breathing  exercises,  which  have  always 
formed  an  essential  part  of  the  plan  of  work. 
An  annex  was  accordingly  built,  with  a  room 
arranged  for  respiratory  M'ork,  with  special 
mechanical  means  for  insuring  pure  air,  over 
another  gymnasium  hall,  while  below  were 
exquisitely  finished  Turkish  and  Russian  baths, 
and  a  beautiful  swimming-pool.  The  two 
buildings  occupied  a  lot  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  by  ninety  feet,  and  the  city  of  Boston 
may  well  have  been  proud  of  possessing  an 
institution  which,  devoted  as  it  was  to  the  in- 
terests of  women  and  children  exclusively, 
was  unique  in  the  annals  of  the  country. 

As  the  years  went  by,  other  schools  of  phys- 
ical training  were^  established,  bicycle-riding 
and  athletics  became  the  fashion  for  women 
as  well  as  men,  and  many  other  causes  con- 
spired to  render  the  classes  somewhat  smaller 
than  heretofore,  although  the  enthusiasm  of 
those   who   came   was  undiminished.     Accord- 


ingly it  was  finally  decidetl  to  transfer  the 
gymnasium  to  the  beautifully  eejuipped  smaller 
hall  over  the  Turkish  baths,  where  the  work 
has  been  successfully  carrietl  on  for  the  past 
four  years,  and  still  continues  with  unabated 
interest. 

It  is  not  simply  as  an  admirable  teacher  of 
gymnastics  that  Miss  Allen  is  entitled  to  the 
gratitude  of  the  comnmnity.  In  her  carefully 
worked- out  system  of  physical  training,  where 
brain  and  nuiscles  play  an  equal  part,  she  has 
made  a  lasting  contribution  to  educational 
science.  A  pioneer,  and  for  a  time  almost  the 
ordy  woman  engaged  in  this  line  of  work,  she 
entered  the  field  just  at  the  time  when  it  was 
beginning  to  be  felt  that  order  might  be  brought 
out  of  the  chaos  which  had  hitherto  prevailed 
in  the  gymnasium.  Prior  to  this  period  the 
comparatively  few  gymnasiums  that  existed 
had  been  largely  usetl  liy  professionals  and 
those  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  exag- 
gerated development  of  certain  sets  of  muscles, 
in  order  to  accomplish  feats  of  strength,  agil- 
ity, or  endurance.  No  all-around  develop- 
ment had  yet  been  attempted.  She  now  threw 
herself  with  ardor  into  the  task  of  organizing 
some  scheme  of  symmetrical  training,  and 
later,  as  the  way  opened  before  her,  she  ear- 
nestly strove  to  lift  gymnastics  into  the  domain 
of  education. 

At  that  time  the  only  plea  for  gymnastics 
was  in  the  interest  of  health.  While  fully  con- 
vinced of  the  importance  of  this  aim.  Miss 
Allen  felt  that  there  was  another  side  of  the 
subject  to  be  brought  out,  in  which  the  field 
of  investigation  was  as  yet  untrotlden.  She 
developed  a  scheme  of  progressive  gymnastics 
which  would  gradvially  bring  every  part  of 
the  body  under  the  control  of  the  will.  The 
discovery  made  a  few  years  later,  in  the  realm 
of  physiological  research,  of  the  "motor  tracts" 
in  the  brain — i.e.,  definite  nerve  centres  initi- 
ating and  controlling  motion  in  every  part  of 
the  body — gave  the  physical  trainer  a  place 
in  the  educational  field.  This  cleared  the  way 
not  only  for  her,  but  for  others  whowere  work- 
ing along  similar  lines  of  thought. 

The  educational  value  of  her  work  lies  in 
the  progressive  nature  of  her  scheme  of  train- 
ing, in  which  she  has  sought  to  develop  the 


190 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


natural  sequence  of  brain  action  in  co-ordi- 
nated movements.  Such  education  not  only 
results  in  ph_ysical  development,  but  in  the 
acquisition  of  courage,  alertness,  self-possession, 
nervous  control  in  many  ways,  general  con- 
centration of  thought,  and  other  expansion 
of  the  higher  nature.  "If,"  to  use  her  own 
words,  "the  aim  of  education  is  to  stimulate 
thought,  and  its  end  to  equip  one  for  living, 
then  harmonious  brain  development  is  essen- 
tial. It  is  now  universally  conceded  that  the 
cultivated  brain  is  not  the  largest  nor  the  heav- 
iest, but  the  one  in  which  the  most  brain  cells 
are  vital,  and  where  the  connections  between 
cells  are  must  numerous  and  intimate:  these 
are  the  conditions  upon  which  mental  vigor 
depends.  No  part  of  the  physical  brain,  there- 
fore, should  be  deprived  of  its  fair  share  in 
development,  and  our  educators  must  sooner 
or  later  recognize  the  fatal  mistake,  found  in 
all  our  school  and  college  curriculums,  of  ex- 
cluding to  so  great  a  degree  the  education  of 
those  nerve  centres  whose  ])rimary  expression 
is  in  motion,  but  whose  vitality  reacts  in  many 
directions." 

The  attempt  to  bring  about  a  wiser  attitude 
toward  this  department  of  education,  and  to 
give  her  pupils  a  clear  sense  of  the  culpabil- 
ity of  sickness,  which  is  largely  the  result  of 
ignorance  and  self-indulgence,  has  been  the 
inspiration  of  her  work. 

This  brief  sketch  would  be  quite  incom))lete 
without  a  few  words  regarding  the  personality 
of  its  subject.  Miss  Allen  is  small,  slentler, 
and  graceful,  with  great  personal  charm,  and 
an  unusual  amount  of  that  indefinable  quality 
which  we  call  magnetism.  She  is  radical  in 
matters  of  religion  and  politics,  and  takes  an 
active  interest  in  the  principal  reforms  of  the 
day,  especially  the  Woman  Suffrage  movement. 
Although  her  sincerity  is  uncompromising,  and 
might  be  called  the  keynote  of  her  character, 
yet  her  sweetness  and  grace  of  manner  always 
charm  even  tho.se  of  widely  differing  views. 
She  is  an  indefatigable  worker,  never  sparing 
herself  in  her  conscientious  devotion  to  her 
life  work  in  all  its  details. 

As  a  teacher,  she  is  most  illuminating,  always 
making  her  pupils  think  in  connection  with 
their  work,  so  as  to  understand  just  what  they 


are  trying  to  do;  and  she  detects  with  unerring 
wisdom  the  precise  cause  of  their  failures. 
The.se  usually  arise  from  a  lack  of  co-ordina- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  pupil:  the  physical 
task  demanded  has  not  been  sufficiently  im- 
pressed upon  the  brain  at  the  outset,  or  the 
muscular  forces  are  sluggish  in  obeying  its 
behest.  Often,  in  the  case  of  adult  pupils, 
it  is  .sufficient  to  call  attention  to  this  deficient 
co-ordination  of  brain  and  muscle,  in  oriler 
to  remedy  the  trouble  completely,  whereas 
a  teacher  ignorant  of  this  subtle  truth  might 
drill  a  class  on  the  same  exercise  for  hours, 
without  removing  the  difficulty.  This  method 
of  true  scientific  instruction  is  not  only  a  great 
economy  of  time,  but  also  awakens  and  re- 
tains the  interest  of  her  pupils,  who  are  con- 
scious that  they  are  always  learning  something 
new. 

Another  source  of  the  unflagging  interest 
aroused  by  this  truly  wonderful  teacher  is 
her  constant  introduction  of  new  and  vary- 
ing exercises,  without  destroying  the  progres- 
sive character  of  the  work  as  a  whole.  She 
realizes  that  human  nature  loves  variety,  and 
that  the  repetition  of  one  set  of  movements 
or  one  species  of  activity  cannot  fail  to  pall 
upon  the  pupil  after  a  time.  Accordingly, 
with  inexhaustible  fertility  of  resources,  she 
is  continually  inventing  fresh  and  interesting 
work,  so  that  even  pupils  who  have  been  in 
her  classes  for  twelve  or  fifteen  years  can  never 
sigh  for  novelty  or  change. 

Miss  Allen's  strong  and  attractive  pensonality 
has  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  suc- 
cess of  her  work  by  winning  friends  for  her 
on  every  side,  and  enlisting  the  hearty  co-opera- 
tion of  her  pupils.  Certainly  no  teacher  in 
any  field  has  gained  a  more .  loyal  following 
than  hers. 

The  above  gives  but  a  very  imperfect  idea 
of  the  remarkable  woman  who  for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  has  contributed,  perhaps 
more  than  any  other  one  person,  toward  the 
vigor  and  well-being  of  our  women.  Her 
work  will  surely  live  after  her,  both  in  its  con- 
tribution to  educational  science  and  in  the 
increased  efficiency  of  hundreds  of  human 
lives. 

E.  c. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


191 


LUCY  STONE  was  born  August  13,  ISIS, 
on  a  rocky  farm  on  Coy's  Hill,  about 
_^  three  miles  from  West  Brookfield, 
Mass.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Francis 
Stone  and  his  wife,  Hannah  Matthews,  and 
was  the  eighth  of  nine  children.  She  came  of 
good  New  England  stock.  Her  great-grand- 
father, Francis  Stone,  first,  fought  in  the  P'rench 
and  Indian  War.  Her  grandfather,  Francis 
Stone,  second,  was  an  officer  in  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  and  afterward  Captain  of  four 
Jiundred  men  in  Shays's  Rebellion.  Pier  father, 
the  third  Francis  Stone,  was  a  man  of  uncom- 
mon force  and  ability,  as  well  as  of  much  nat- 
ural wit  and  brightness.  He  had  been  a  suc- 
cessful teacher  and  afterward  an  exceptionally 
skilful  tanner  in  North  I^rookfield.  But  the 
moral  surroundings  of  the  tan-yard  were  so 
bad  for  the  chiklren  that  his  wife,  a  beautiful, 
pious,  and  submissive  woman,  ro.se  in  rebellion 
against  them,  and  insisted  that,  for  the  chil- 
dren's sake,  the  family  must  move  away.  Her 
husband  j'ielded  to  her  appeal.  He  nKJved  to 
Coy's  Hill,  and  took  up  farming  with  his  usual 
energy.  It  is  said  that,  as  he  called  the  cows 
in  the  early  morning,  his  fine,  .sonorous  voice 
used  to  be  heard  by  the  other  farmers  for  a  mile 
around,  and  .served  as  a  sort 'of  rising  bell  to 
the  whole  neighborhood.  Mr.  Stone  was  kind 
to  -the  poor,  and  was  much  respected  in  the 
connnunity;  but  he  was  fully  inibueil  with  the 
idea  of  the  right  of  husbands  to  rule  over  their 
wives,  as  were  most  men  of  his  gen(>ration. 
His  wife  obeyed  him  implicitly,  as  a  religious 
duty.  Lucy  was  born  about  a  year  after  her 
mother  had  made,  in  behalf  of  her  childi-en, 
almost  the  only  deterniined  stand  in  all  her 
gentle  life;  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  this 
fact,  through  heredity,  may  have  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  Lucy's  remarkable  character. 

Every  one  on  the  farm  worked.  The  mother 
milked  eight  cows  the  night  before  Lucy  was 
born,  a  sudden  thunder-shower  having  called 
all  tlie  men  into  the  hay-field.  She  said  re- 
gretfully, when  informed  of  the  sex  of  the  new 
baby,  "Oh,  dear!  I  am  sorry  it  is  a  girl.  A 
woman's  life  is  so  hard!" 

Little  Lucy  gicw  up  a  healthy,  vigorous 
child,  noted  for  fearlessness  and  truthfulness, 
a  good  scholar,  and  a  hard  worker  in  the  house 


and  on  the  farm,  sometimes  driving  the  cows 
by  starlight,  before  the  sun  was  up,  when  the 
dew  on  the  grass  was  so  cold  that  she  would 
stop  on  a  flat  stone  and  curl  one  small  bare 
foot  \i\)  against  the  other  leg  to  warm  it.  There 
was  no  task  about  the  house  or  farm  so  hard 
but  she  would  grapple  with  it  with  cheerful 
resolution,  if  it  needed  to  be  done. 

In  the  same  resolute  way  she  set  herself  to 
subtlue  the  faults  of  her  own  character.  She 
had  a  fiery  temper.  One  day  when  she  was 
about  twelve  years  old  her  younger  sister 
Sarah  had  angered  her,  and  Lucy  chased  her 
through  the  house  to  inflict  condign  punish- 
ment. Hajjpening  to  catch  sight  of  her  own 
face  in  a  looking-glass,  she  was  .shocked  by  its 
whiteness  and  wrath.  She  said  to  herself, 
"That  is  the  face  of  a  murderer!"  She  went 
out  and  sat  on  a  rock  behind  the  barn,  holding 
one  bare  foot  in  her  hand  and  rocking  to  and 
fro,  thinking  what  she  could  do  to  get  the 
better  of  such  a  temper.  She  sat  there  till  it 
was  after  dark,  and  her  mother  came  to  the 
door  and  called  her  in.  From  that  time  on 
she  made  a  determined  fight  for  self-control, 
and  in  her  later  life  the  serene  gentleness  of 
her  face  and  of  her  whole  aspect  made  it  hard 
for  people  to  realize  that  she  had  e^■er  had 
such  a  temper.  The  little  girl  early  became 
indignant  at  the  way  she  saw  her  mother  ami 
other  women  treated  by  their  husbands  and 
by  the  laws,  and  she  made  up  her  childish 
mind  that  those  laws  must  be  changed.  Read- 
ing the  Bible  one  day,  while  still  a  child,  she 
came  upon  the  text,  "Thy  tlesire  shall  be  to 
thy  husband,  and  he  shall  rule  over  thee." 
At  first  she  wanted  to  die.  Then  she  resolved 
to  go  to  college,  study  Greek  and  Hebrew,  read 
the  Bible  in  the  original,  ami  satisfy  herself 
whether  such  texts  were  correctly  translated. 

Her  father  saw  nothing  strange  about  it 
when  his  sons  decided  to  go  to  college,  but, 
when  his  daughter  wanteil  to  go,  he  said  to 
his  wife,  "Is  the  child  crazy?"  He  would  not 
help  her.  The  young  girl  had  to  earn  the 
money  herself.  She  picked  berries  and  chest- 
nuts, and  sold  them  to  buy  hooks.  For  years 
she  taught  district  schools,  studying  and  teach- 
ing alternately.  At  first  she  was  paid  a  dollar 
a  week,  and  "boarded  around."     She  soon  be- 


192 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


came  known  as  a  successful  teacher,  and  grad- 
ually received  a  higher  salary,  but  could  never 
rise  above  sixteen  dollars  per  month,  which 
was  considered  "very  good  pay  for  a  woman." 
Once  she  was  engaged  to  teach  a  winter  school 
which  had  been  broken  up,  the  big  boys  throw- 
ing the  master  head  foremost  out  of  the  window 
into  a  deep  snowdrift.  As  a  rule,  women  were 
not  thought  competent  to  teach  the  winter 
term  of  school,  because  then  the  big  boys  were 
released  from  farm  work  and  were  able  to  at- 
tend. In  a  few  days  she  had  this  difficult 
school  in  perfect  order,  and  the  big  boys  who 
had  made  the  trouble  became  her  most  de- 
voted lieutenants;  yet  she  received  only  a  frac- 
tion of  the  salary  paid  to  her  unsuccessful  pred- 
ecessor. 

She  studied  for  a  time  at  the  Monson,  Qua- 
boag,  and  Wilbraham  Academies.  Generally, 
she  and  her  sister  Sarah  did  not  board  at  the 
academy,  but  for  economy's  sake  took  a  room 
and  cooked  their  own  food,  bruiging  most  of 
their  provisions  from  home. 

An  old  schoolmate  recalls  the  fact  that  she 
was  already  dee])ly  interested  in  the  abolition 
movement,  and  her  compositions  were  always 
about  slavery.  About  1838  Lucy  went  to 
Mount  Holyoke  Seminary.  Years  before  .she 
had  heard  Mary  Lyon  make  an  appeal  for 
funds  for  this  effort  in  behalf  of  higher  educa- 
tion for  women.  The  sewing-circle  with  which 
Lucy  was  connected  was  at  that  time  working 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  a  young  man  prc])aring 
for  the  ministry,  and  Lucy  was  making  a  shirt. 
She  was  nmch  stirred  by  Mary  Lyon's  presenta- 
tion of  the  need  of  better  educational  opportuni- 
ties for  women,  and  by  the  thought  of  how  much 
easier  it  was  for  any  young  man  to  earn  his 
education  than  for  a  young  woman  to  do  so 
at  a  woman's  low  pay:  and  she  ceased  sewing 
upon  that  shirt,  and  felt  in  her  heart  the  hope 
that  no  one  would  ever  finish  it.  She  spent 
less  than  a  year  at  Mount  Holyoke,  being  called 
home  by  the  death  of  an  older  sister;  but  she 
always  retained  an  affection  for  the  institu- 
tion. 

Instead  of  the  mite-boxes  for  foreign  missions 
that  were  the  fashion  among  the  Mount  Holyoke 
students,  Lucy  kept  in  her  room  one  of  the 
little  yellow  collection  boxes  of  the  Anti-slavery 


Society,  which  bore  the  picture  of  a  kneeling 
slave  holding  up  manacled  hands,  with  the 
motto,  "Am  I  not  a  man  and  a  brother?" 
Into  this  she  put  all  the  pennies  she  could 
spare.  She  also  placed  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son's paper,  the  Liberator,  in  the  reading-room 
of  the  seminary.  For  some  time  they  could 
not  find  out  who  did  it;  but  they  suspected 
Lucy,  because  of  her  anti-slavery  principles, 
and,  when  they  asked  her,  she  acknowledged 
it  at  once.  Even  the  saintly  Mary  Lyon  was 
doubtful  about  the  wisdom  of  allowing  it.  She 
said  to  Lucy,  "You  nuist  remember  that  the 
slavery  question  is  a  very  grave  question,  and 
a  question  u)«)n  which  the  best  people  are  di- 
vided." 

At  about  the  age  of  nineteen  Lucy  joined 
the  Orthodox  Congregational  church  in  W^est 
Brookfield.  Soon  after,  Deacon  Henshaw  was 
brought  to  trial  before  the  church  for  having 
entertained  anti-slavery  speakers  at  his  house 
and  otherwise  aided  and  abetted  the  abolition 
movement.  When  the  first  vote  was  taken, 
Lucy,  who  did  not  know  that  women  could 
not  vote  in  church  meetings,  held  up  her  hand 
with  the  rest.  The  minister,  a  tall,  dark  man, 
pointed  fner  to  her,  and  said  to  the  man  who  was 
counting  the  votes.  "Don't  you  count  her." 
The  man  said,  "Why,  isn't  she  a  member?" 
"Yes,"  answered  the  minister,  "she  is  a  mem- 
ber, but  not  a  voting  member."  His  accent  of 
scorn  stirred  her  indignation.  "Six  votes  were 
taken  at  that  meeting,  and  I  held  up  my  hand 
every  time,"  she  said  to  her  daughter,  raising 
her  hand  above  her  head,  with  a  flash  in  her 
eye,  as  she  recalled  the  incident,  while  lying 
on  her  death-bed.  Deacon  Henshaw,  Lucy, 
and  a  number  of  other  members  were  later 
drojiped  from  the  rolls  of  the  church  for  their 
activity  in  the  anti-slavery  cause. 

On  June  27,  1837,  the  General  Association 
of  the  Orthodox  Congregational  Churches  of 
Massachusetts  met  at  Brookfield.  There  had 
been  a  great  outcry  against  the  anti-slavery 
speaking  of  Abby  Kelley  and  the  Grimke 
sisters;  and  a  pastoral  letter  from  the  Asso- 
ciation to  the  churches  under  its  charge  had 
been  prepared,  to  be  read  at  this  meeting.  The 
object  of  the  letter  was  to  close  the  churches 
against    anti-slavery    lectures,    and    especially 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


193 


to  silence  the  women.  It  calleil  attentujn  to 
dangers  now  seeming  "  to  threaten  the  female 
character  with  wide-spread  and  permanent 
injury."  It  claimed  that  the  New  Testament 
clearly  defined  "the  appropriate  duties  and 
influence  of  women.  Tlie  power  of  woman 
is  in  her  dependence.  When  she  assumes  the 
place  and  tone  of  a  man  as  a  public  reformer, 
our  care  and  protection  of  her  seem  unneces- 
sary: we  put  ourselves  in  self-defence  against 
her.  She  yields  the  power  which  Cod  has  given 
her  for  protection,  and  her  character  becomes 
unnatural."  The  letter  especially  cf)ndenined 
those  "who  encourage  females  to  bear  an  ob- 
trusive and  ostentatious  })art  in  measures  of 
reform,  and  countenance  any  of  that  sex  who 
so  far  forget  themselves  as  to  itinerate  in  the 
character  of  public  lecturers  and  teachers."  This 
was  the  letter  which  Whittier  called  the  "  Brook- 
fiekl  Bull,"  and  of  which  he  wrote: — 

"  So  this  is  all  —  the  utmost  reach 

Of  priestly  power  the  mind  to  fetter! 
VVlieii  laymen  tliink,  when  women  preach, — 
A  war  of  words —  a  '  Pastoral  Letter '!  " 

Lucy  went  to  the  meeting.  The  body  of  the 
church  was  black  with  ministers,  and  the  gal- 
lery was  tilled  with  women  and  laymen.  While 
the  famous  letter  was  being  read,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Blagden  marched  up  and  down  the  aisle, 
turning  his  head  from  side  to  side  and  looking 
at  the  women  in  the  gallery,  as  nuich  as  to 
say,  "Now  we  have  silenced  you."  Lucy  lis- 
tened in  great  indignation,  and  at  each  aggra- 
vating sentence  she  nudged  her  cousin,  who 
said  afterward  that  her  side  was  black  antl 
blue.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  she  told  her 
cousin  that,  if  she  ever  had  anything  to  say 
in  public,  she  would  say  it,  and  all  the  more 
because  of  that  pastoral  letter. 

At  the  low  wages  received  by  women  teachers 
it  took  Lucy  until  she  was  twenty-five  to  earn 
the  money  to  carry  her  to  Oberlin,  then  the 
only  college  in  the  country  that  admitted 
women  and  colored  men.  Among  most  New 
Englanders  Oberlin  was  unpopular,  partly  be- 
cause of  its  radicalism  on  the  negro  (juestion 
and  the  woman  ciuestion,  Ijut  chiefly  because 
the  authorities  of  the  college  believed  in  the 
doctrine  of  "entire  sanctification."     It  was  re- 


garded as  a  highly  heretical  place,  ami  the  feel- 
ing against  it  was  strong.  Deacon  White,  of 
West  Brookfield,  took  the  Oberlin  Emmjelist, 
but  his  wife  would  not  touch  the  paper,  and 
used  to  hand  it  to  him  with  the  tongs.  Here 
or  nowhere,  however,  Lucy  had  to  get  her  col- 
legiate education. 

She  set  out  on  the  long  journey  to  Ohio  with 
only  seventy  dollars  in  her  jnirse  toward  the 
expenses  of  the  four  years'  course,  but  with 
her  heart  full  of  courage  and  her  head  of  good 
conmion  sense.  Crossing  Lake  Erie  from  Buf- 
falo to  Cleveland,  she  could  not  afford  a  state- 
room, l)ut  slept  on  deck  on  a  pile  of  grain  sacks, 
among  horses  and  freight,  with  a  few  other 
women  who,  like  herself,  could  only  pay  for 
a  "tleck  passage."  At  Oberlin  she  earned  her 
way  by  teaching  in  the  preparatory  depart- 
ment of  the  college,  antl  by  doing  housework 
in  the  Ladies'  Boarding  Hall  at  three  cents  an 
horn-.  Most  of  the  students  were  poor,  and 
the  college  furnished  them  board  at  a  dollar  a 
week.  But  she  could  not  afford  even  this 
small  sum,  ami  during  most  of  her  course  she 
cooked  her  food  in  her  own  room,  boarding 
herself  at  a  cost  of  less  than  fifty  cents  a  week. 
Her  father's  disapproval  of  a  collegiate  educa- 
tion for  girls  finally  gave  way  before  his  ad- 
miration of  her  sturdy  perseverance,  in  which 
he  perhaps  felt  something  akin  to  his  own 
character;  and  he  wrote  offering  to  lend  her 
the  money  to  carry  her  through  the  rest  of  her 
course,  and  urging  her  not  to  hurt  her  health 
by  overwork.  She  would  accept  only  a  small 
sum,  how(;ver,  preferring  to  earn  her  own  way 
as  far  as  jiossible.  She  taught  country  schools 
during  the  vacations,  and  had  some  hard  ex- 
periences, anmsing  to  look  back  upon,  in  the 
rough  and  primitive  neighboi'hoods  of  the  new 
West.  Throughout  her  college  course  she  wore 
cheap  calico  tlresses  with  white  collars,  launder- 
ing them  herself,  and  being  always  so  clean  and 
trim  that  she  used  to  be  held  up  to  the  other 
young  women  by  the  members  of  the  Laiiies' 
Board  as  an  examjjle  of  how  exquisite  neatne.ss 
could  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  closest  economy. 
She  had  only  one  or  two  new  dresses  while  at 
Oberlin,  and  she  did  not  go  home  once  during 
the  four  years;  but  she  thoroughly  enjoyed 
college  life,  and  found  time  also  for  good  works. 


194 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Ol)orlin  was  a  station  on  the  "underground 
railway,"  a  town  of  strong  anti-slavery  sym- 
pathies, and  many  fugitive  slaves  settled  there. 
A  school  was  started  to  teach  them  to  read, 
and  Lucy  was  asked  to  take  charge  of  it.  The 
colored  men,  fresh  from  slavery  and  densely 
ignorant,  still  felt  it  beneath  their  dignity  to 
be  taught  by  a  woman.  Without  letting  her 
know  this,  the  committee  took  her  to  the  school 
and  introduced  her  to  them  as  their  teacher, 
thinking  they  would  not  like  to  express  their 
objections  in  her  presence.  But  there  was  a 
murmur  of  dissatisfaction,  and  presently  a  tall 
man,  very  black,  stood  up  and  said  he  hail 
nothing  against  Miss  Stone  personally,  but  he 
was  free  to  confess  that  he  did  not  like  the  idea 
of  being  taught  by  a  woman.  She  persuaded 
them  that  it  would  be  for  their  advantage  to 
learn  from  anybody  who  could  teacli  them  to 
read;  and  her  dusky  pupils  soon  became  nivich 
attached  to  her.  When  the  Ladies'  Boarding 
Hall  took  fire,  during  her  temporary  absence, 
many  members  of  her  colored  class  rushed  to 
the  fire,  bent  on  saving  her  effects.  She  was 
told  on  her  return  that  a  whole  string  of  colored 
men  had  arrived  upon  the  scene  one  after  an- 
other, each  demanding  breathlessly,  "Where  is 
Miss  Stone's  trunk?" 

Her  first  public  speech  was  made  during 
her  college  course.  The  colored  people  got 
up  a  celebration  of  the  anniversary  of  West 
Indian  emancipation,  and  invited  her  to  be 
one  of  the  speakers.  The  president  of  the  col- 
lege and  some  of  the  professors  were  also  in- 
vited. She  gave  licr  address  among  the  rest, 
and  thought  nothing  of  it.  The  next  day  she 
was  sunmioned  before  the  Ladies'  Board  (a 
sort  of  advisory  boartl,  composed  of  the  pro- 
fessors' wives,  who  supervised  the  young 
women  of  the  college).  They  represented  to 
her  that  it  was  unwomanly  and  unscriptural 
for  her  to  speak  in  public.  The  president's 
wife  said:  "Did  you  not  feel  yourself  very  nmch 
out  of  place  up  there  on  the  platform  among 
all  those  men?  Were  you  not  embarrassed 
and  frightened?"  "Why,  no,  Mrs.  Mahan," 
she  answered.  "'Those  men'  were  President 
Mahan  and  my  professors,  whom  I  meet  every 
day  in  the  class-room.  I  was  not  afraid  of 
them  at  all!"     She  was  allowed  to  go,  with  an 


admonition.  She  was  repeatedly  called  before 
the  Ladies'  Board  to  answer  for  some  departure 
from  custom,  but  she  always  defended  herself 
with  modesty  and  finnness,  and  she  generally 
came  off  victorious. 

She  was  always  ready  to  lend  a  helping  hand 
to  any  fellow-student  who  needed  it.  She 
darned  the  young  men's  stockings,  mended 
their  clothes,  and  gave  them  sisterlj'  sympathy 
and  good  counsel.  Old  men  still  living  speak 
with  gratitude  of  her  defending  them  from 
ridicule  anfl  taking  them  comfortingly  under 
her  wing  when  they  were  uncouth  country 
boys,  new  to  the  college  and  its  ways.  I\Iany 
yellow  old  letters  from  her  classmates,  both 
men  and  women,  testify  to  the  deep  impres- 
sion her  character  made  upon  them,  and  the 
respect  and  warm  affection  that  she  inspired. 

She  was  small  and  slender,  with  gray  eyes, 
a  lovely  rosy  comjjlexion,  and  dark  brown 
hair.  Her  fine  health  made  her  always  look 
younger  than  her  age.  When  between  thirty 
and  forty,  she  was  sometimes  taken  for  a  girl  of 
eighteen. 

While  Lucy  was  at  Oberlin,  a  beautiful  and 
gifted  girl,  named  Antoinette  Brown,  entered  the 
college,  with  the  purpose,  up  to  that  time  un- 
precedented for  a  woman,  of  studying  theology 
and  becoming  a  minister.  In  the  stage-coach 
on  her  way  to  Oberlin  she  was  cautioned  against 
a  singular  and  dangerous  young  woman  named 
Lucy  Stone,  whose  radical  ideas  were  the  talk 
of  the  college.  In  spite  of  this  warning,  An- 
toinette and  Lucy  contracted  a  friendship 
which  was  cemented  in  later  life  by  their  marry- 
ing brothers.  These  two  girls  and  a  few  of  the 
others  wished  to  pi'actise  themselves  in  discus- 
sion, and  asked  leave  to  speak  in  the  college 
debates.  These  debates  were  a  regular  part 
of  the  course,  and  the  yoiuig  women  were  re- 
quired to  attend  them,  in  order  to  furnish  an 
audience  for  the  young  men,  but  were  not 
allowed  themselves  to  take  part.  After  a 
good  deal  of  hesitation,  permission  was  given 
for  the  girls  to  have  one  debate.  They  ac- 
quitted themselves  finely;  but  the  faculty  felt 
that  any  i)ublic  speaking  by  women  was  un- 
scriptural and  improper,  and  they  refused  to 
let  it  be  continued.  The  young  women  then 
determined  to  have  a  debatmg  society  of  their 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW   ENGLAND 


195 


own.  There  liveil  in  the  village  an  old  colored 
woman  whose  master  had  manumitted  her  and 
given  her  money  enouf^h  to  buy  a  small  house. 
Lucy  had  taught  her  to  read.  The  girls  asked 
her  if  they  might  have  the  vise  of  hei-  jiarlor 
occasionally  for  a  debating  soeiety.  At  first 
she  was  'doul:)tful,  fearing  that  the  society 
might  be  a  cover  for  flirtation:  but,  \\hen  she 
found  it  was  to  consist  of  j'oung  women  exclu- 
sively, she  thought  it  nmst  be  an  innocent  affair, 
and  gave  her  consent.  So  on  the  appointed 
afternoons  the  girls  would  assemble,  coming 
by  different  routes  and  in  ones  and  twos  at  a 
time,  that  the  faculty  might  suspect  nothing; 
and  then,  shut  u])  in  the  little  parlor,  they 
"reasoned  high"  on  all  sorts  of  profound  and 
lofty  subjects.  Sometimes  they  held  their 
meetings  in  the  woods.  This  was  the  first  de- 
bating society  ever  formed  among  girls.  Later 
Antoinette  Brown  became  the  first  ordained 
woman  minister.  At  the  end  of  her  course 
Lucy  was  appointed  to  write  an  essay  to  be 
read  at  the  connnencement,  but  was  notified 
that  one  of  the  professors  would  have  to  read 
it  for  her,  as  it  woukl  not  be  proper  for  a  woman 
to  read  her  own  essay  in  public.  Rather  than 
not  read  it  herself,  she  declined  to  write  it. 
Nearly  forty  years  afterward,  when  Uberlin 
celebrated  its  semi-centennial,  she  was  invited, 
to  be  one  of  the  speakers  at  that  great  gather- 
ing.    So  the  world  moves. 

Lucy  had  an  enthusiastic  admiration  and  re- 
spect for  the  leatling  abolitionists,  and  heljied 
to  get  up  meetings  for  Abby  Kelley,  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  and  others,  when  they  lectured 
at  Oberlin.  Mr.  Garrison  wrote  fi'oni  (Jberlin 
to  his  wife,  August  28,  1847:  "Among  others 
with  whom  I  have  become  acquainted  is  Mi.ss 
Lucy  Stone,  who  has  just  graduatetl,  and  yes- 
terday left  for  her  home  in  Brookfield,  Mass. 
She  is  a  very  superior  young  woman,  and  has 
a  soul  as  free  as  the  air,  and  is  preparing  to  go 
forth  as  a  lecturer,  ]>articularly  in  vindication 
of  the  rights  of  women.  Her  coiu-se  here  has 
been  very  firm  and  independent,  and  she  has 
caused  no  small  uneasiness  to  the  sjiirit  of  sec- 
tarianism in  the  institution."  Yet,  in  spite  of 
all  the  uneasiness  her  progressive  ideas  caused 
them,  she  was  a  favorite  with  both  faculty  and 
students.     As  one  of  the  professors  said  to  her. 


vears  after,  "  You  know  we  alwavs  liked  you, 
Lucy." 

Lucy  Stone  was  the  first  woman  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  take  a  college  degree.  She  gave 
her  first  woman's  rights  lecture  the  same  year, 
in  the  pulpit  of  her  brothei''s  church  at  Gard- 
ner, Mass.  Soon  after,  she  was  engaged  to 
lecture  regularly  for  the  Anti-slavery  Society. 
Public  sentiment  in  New  England  at  that  time 
was  intensely  pro-slavery,  and  the  idea  of  equal 
rights  for  women  was  even  more  unpopular 
than  that  of  freedom  for  the  slaves.  Lucy 
shared  the  hard  campaign  experiences  of  all 
the  other  early  apostles.  Once  she  went  to 
lecture  at  Hinsdale,  away  up  among  the  hills. 
Samuel  May,  the  agent  of  the  Anti-slaver>' 
Society,  who  made  the  arrangements  for  her 
meetings,  had  written  to  the  Unitarian  minis- 
ter, a.sking  him  to  give  notice  of  the  lecture. 
When  Lucy  got  there,  she  found  that  he  was 
strongly  opposed.  He  had  not  given  the  no- 
tice, and  would  not  give  it.  So  Lucy  put  up 
her  own  posters,  as  she  often  had  to  do,  with 
a  little  package  of  tacks  and  a  stone  picked  up 
from  the  street.  Then  she  went  from  house  to 
house,  telling  everybody  about  the  meeting 
and  asking  them  to  come.  She  worked  all  day 
without  food,  not  having  time  to  stop  to  eat; 
and  then,  toward  evening,  toiled  up  the  long 
hill  to  the  tavern.  The  tavern-keeper's  wife 
was  tired  ami  overworked,  with  two  or  three 
little  children  clinging  to  her  skirts.  Lucy  said 
to  her:  "I  nuist  have  some  supper  before  my 
lecture.  Get  me  whatever  you  can  get  most 
easily,  for  I  am  hungiy  enough  to  eat  anything; 
and  I  will  take  care  of  the  children  for  you 
meanwhile."  The  children  were  delighted  to 
come  to  her,  and  she  told  them  stories  all  the 
while  that  supper  was  jneparing.  The  tavern- 
keeper's  wife  chopped  up  meat  and  potatoes, 
and  made  hash;  but  in  her  hurry  she  forgot  to 
take  out  of  the  chopping-bowl  the  dish-cloth 
with  which  she  had  wiped  it,  and  she  chopped 
u\)  the  cloth  with  the  hash.  At  the  first  mouth- 
ful that  Lucy  took,  she  found  pieces  of  .the 
dish-towef  in  it.  This  took  away  her  appetite, 
and  she  could  not  eat  any  more;  so  she  went 
to  her  lecture  fasting.  "The  boys  threw  pajier 
wads  at  first,"  she  said,  "but  it  was  a  good 
meeting,  and  I  got  some  subscribers  for  the 


196 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Anti-slavery  Standard  there,  who  kept  on  taking 
it  as  long  as  it  was  published." 

The  next  day  she  went  on  to  tlie  next  little 
town,  Dalton,  and  here  again  she  had  to  jnit 
up  her  own  posters.  As  she  was  preparing  to 
post  some  of  them  on  the  bridge,  she  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  lot  of  boys,  who  thought  it  a  great 
"lark."  They  regarded  it  as  a  most  irnprojier 
thing  for  a  woman  to  be  lecturing  and  putting 
up  hand-bills;  and,  like  the  Unitarian  minister 
at  Hinsdale,  they  were  filled  with  the  bitter 
opposition  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  which 
then  pervaded  almost  the  whole  of  New  Eng- 
land. So  the  boys  came  after  her,  intending 
to  tear  her  posters  down.  But  she  turned 
around  and  told  them  what  slavery  was — mak- 
ing men  work  without  paying  them  for  it,  and 
selling  boys  like  them  on  the  auction  block — 
till  she  got  them  all  on  her  side,  and  they  \vt 
her  posters  alone.  The  meeting  that  night 
was  in  a  dirty  and  disagreeable  town  hall,  with 
a  great  yawning  fireplace,  paper  strewn  about 
the  floor,  boys  throwing  wads,  and  men  swear- 
ing. Rows  of  jeering  faces  confronted  her 
when  the  meeting  began;  but,  as  usual,  aftei' 
she  hail  spoken  a  few  moments,  she  saw  the 
mockery  die  out  of  them  and  attention  take 
its  place. 

The  history  of  these  two  days  may  serve  as 
a  sample  of  the  work  she  did  for  years.  Once 
a  hymn-book  was  thrown  at  her  head  with 
stunning  force.  Once  in  winter  a  pane  of  glass 
was  removed  from  the  window  behind  her,  a 
hose  was  put  througli,  and  she  was  suddenly 
deluged  with  ice-cold  water  while  speaking. 
She  put  on  her  shawl,  and  continued  her  lect- 
ure. Pepper  was  burned,  and  recourse  was 
had  to  all  sorts  of  devices  in  order  to  break  up 
the  meetings,  but  generally  without  success. 

The  work  had  also  its  pleasant  side.  There 
was  cordial  hospitality  in  anti-slavery  homes, 
where  all  the  children  loved  and  welcometl  her; 
and  there  was  rich  and  inspiring  comnuuiion 
with  her  fellow-reformers,  the  noblest  spirits 
of  that  stormy  time.  When  she  visiter!  the 
old  home  farm,  in  the  intervals  between  her 
lecturing  tri])s,  it  was  always  a  day  of  rejoicing 
for  her  brother's  children,  who  found  "Aunt 
Lucy"  the  most  delightful  of  playmates.  She 
thoroughly  enjoyed  her  work,  ilespite  its  hard- 


ships. Looking  back  ujjon  it  in  after  years, 
she  said,  "  I  never  minded  those  hard  old  tunes 
a  bit." 

She  mixed  a  great  deal  of  woman's  righlswith 
her  anti-slavery  lectures.  One  night,  after  her 
heart  had  been  jxarticularly  stirred  on  the 
woman  tjuestion,  she  put  into  her  lecture  so 
much  of  woman's  rights  and  so  little  of  abo- 
lition that  the  Rev.  Samuel  May  felt  obliged 
to  tell  her,  in  the  most  friendly  way,  that  on 
the  anti-slavery  platform  this  would  not  do. 
She  answered:  "I  know  it,  but  I  could  not  help 
it.  I  was  a  woman  before  I  was  an  abolition- 
ist, and  I  mufit  speak  for  the  women."  She 
resigned  her  ])osition  as  lecturer  for  the  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  intentling  to  devote  herself 
wholly  to  woman's  rights.  They  were  very 
unwilling  to  give  her  up,  however,  as  she  had 
been  one  of  their  most  efTective  speakers;  and 
it  was  finally  arranged  that  she  should  speak 
for  them  Saturday  evenings  and  Sundays — 
times  which  were  regarded  as  too  sacred  for 
any  church  or  hall  to  be  opened  for  a  woman's 
rights  meeting — and  during  the  rest  of  the 
week  she  should  lecture  for  woman's  rights  on 
her  own  responsibility. 

Her  adventures  during  the  next  few  years 
would  fill  a  volume.  No  suffrage  association 
was  organized  until  long  after  this  time.  She 
had  no  co-operation  and  no  backing,  and 
started  out  absolutely  alone.  So  far  as  she 
knew,  there  were  only  a  few  persons  in  the 
whole  countrj^  who  had  any  sympathy  with 
the  idea  of  e(|ual  rights  for  women. 

She  travelled  over  a  large  {lart  of  the  Ihiited 
States.  In  most  of  the  towns  where  she  lect- 
ured, no  woman  had  ever  spoken  in  public 
before,  and  curiosity  attracted  immense  audi- 
ences. The  speaker  was  a  great  surprise  to 
them.  The  general  idea  of  a  woman's  rights 
advocate,  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  never 
seen  one,  was  of  a  tall,  gaunt,  angular  woman, 
with  aggressive  manners,  a  masculine  air,  and 
a  strident  voice,  scolding  at  the  men.  In- 
stead, they  found  a  tiny  woman,  with  quiet, 
unassuming  maimers,  a  winning  presence,  and 
the  sweetest  voice  ever  possessed  by  a  public 
speaker.  This  voice  l^ecame  celebrated.  It 
was  so  musical  and  delicious  that  persons  who 
had  once  heard  her  lecture,  hearing  her  utter 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


197 


a  few  words  years  afterward,  on  a  railroad  car 
or  in  a  stage-coach,  where  it  was  too  dark  to 
recognize  faces,  would  at  once  exclaim  un- 
hesitatingly, "That  is  Lucy  Stone!" 

Old  people  who  remember  those  early  lect- 
ures say  that  she  had  a  wonderful  eloquence. 
There  were  no  tricks  of  oratory,  but  the  trans- 
parent sincerity,  simplicity,  and  intense  earn- 
estness of  the  speaker,  adcled  to  a  singular  per- 
sonal magnetism  and  an  utter  forgetfulness  of 
self,  swayed  those  great  audiences  as  the  wind 
bends  a  field  of  grab's.  (3ften  mobs  would 
listen  to  her  when  they  howled  down  every 
other  speaker.  At  one  woman's  rights  meeting 
in  New  York  the  mob  made  such  a  clamor  that 
it  was  impossible  for  any  sj^eaker  to  be  heard. 
One  after  another  tried  it,  only  to  have  his  or 
'her  voice  drowned  forthwith  by  hoots  and 
howls.  \\'illiam  Henry  Channing  advised  Lu- 
cretia  Mott,  who  was  presiding,  to  atljourn  the 
meeting.  Mrs.  Mott  answ  ered,  "  W  hen  the 
hour  fixed  for  adjournment  comes,  I  will  ad- 
journ the  meeting,  not  before."  At  last  Lucy 
was  introduced.  The  mob  became  as  quiet 
as  a  congregation  of  church-goers:  but,  as  soon 
as  the  next  speaker  began,  the  howling  recom- 
menced, and  it  continued  to  the  end.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  when  the  speakers  went 
into  the  dressing-room  to  get  their  hats  and 
cloaks,  the  mob  surged  in  and  surroundefl 
them ;  and  Lucy,  who  was  brimming  over 
with  indignation,  began  to  reproach  them  for 
their  behavior.  "Oh,  come,"  they  answered, 
"  vou  needn't  say  anything  :  we  kept  still  for 
you!" 

At  an  anti-slavery  meeting  held  on  Cape 
Cod,  in  a  grove,  in  the  open  air,  a  platform 
had  been  erected  for  the  speakers,  and  a  crowd 
assembletl,  but  a  crowd  so  menacing  in  aspect 
and  with  so  evitlent  an  intention  of-  violence 
that  the  speakers  one  by  one  came  down  from 
the  stand  and  slipped  quietly  away,  till  none 
were  left  but  Stephen  Foster  and  I^ucy  Stone. 
She  said,  "You  had  better  run,  Stephen:  they 
are  coming."  He  answered,  "  But  who  will 
take  care  of  you?"  At  that  moment  the  mob 
made  a  rush  for  the  platform,  and  a  big  man 
sprang  up  on  it,  grasping  a  club.  She  turned 
to  him  and  said  without  hesitation,  "  This  gen- 
tleman  will   take   care   of  me."     He   declareil 


that  he  would.  He  tucked  her  under  one  arm, 
and,  holding  his  club  with  the  other,  marched 
her  out  through  the  crowd,  who  were  roughly 
handling  Mr.  Foster  and  such  of  the  other 
speakers  as  they  had  been  able  to  catch.  Her 
representations  finally  so  prevailed  upon  him 
that  he  mounted  her  on  a  stump,  and  stood 
by  her  with  his  club  while  she  addressed  the 
mob.  They  were  so  moved  by  her  speech  that 
they  not  only  desisted  from  further  violence, 
but  took  up  a  collection  of  twenty  dollars  to 
pay  Stephen  Foster  for  his  coat,  which  they 
hail  torn  in  two  from  top  to  bottom. 

When  she  began  to  lecture,  she  would  not 
charge  an  admission  fee,  partly  because  she 
was  anxious  that  as  many  people  as  possible 
should  hear  and  be  converted,  and  she  feared 
that  an  admission  fee  might  keep  some  away, 
and  partly  from  something  of  the  Quaker  feeling 
that  it  was  wrong  to  take  pay  for  preaching  the 
gospel.  She  economized  in  every  way.  When 
she  stayed  in  Boston,  she  used  to  put  up  at  a 
lodging-house  on  H:inover  Street,  where  they 
gave  her  meals  for  twelve  and  a  half  cents  and 
lodging  for  six  and  a  quarter  cents,  on  condi- 
tion of  her  sleeping  in  the  garret  with  the  daugh- 
ters of  the  house,  three  in  a  bed. 

Once,  when  she  was  in  great  need  of  a  new 
cloak,  she  came  to  Salem,  Mass.,  where  she  was? 
to  lecture,  and  found  that  the  Hutchinson 
family  of  singers  were  to  give  a  concert  the 
same  evening.  They  proposed  to  her  to  unite 
the  entertainments  and  divide  the  proceeds. 
She  consented,  and  bought  a  cloak  with  the 
money.  She  was  also  badly  in  want  of  other 
clothing.  Her  frienils  assured  her  that  the 
autliences  would  be  just  as  large  despite  an 
admission  fee.  She  tried  it,  and,  finding  that 
the  audiences  continued  to  be  as  large  as  the 
halls  would  hold,  she  continued  to  charge  a 
door  fee,  and  was  no  longer  reduced  to  such 
straits. 

She  had  three  lectures,  on  "The  Social  and 
Industrial  Disabilities  of  Women,"  "The  Legal 
and  Political  Disabilities  of  Women,"  and  "The 
Religious  Disabilities  of  Women."  In  the 
early  fifties  she  gave  these  three  lectures  at 
Louisville,  Ky.,  to  innnen.se  auiliences,  thereby 
clearing  six  hundred  dollars,  and  was  in- 
vited to  stay  and  give  another  on  temperance. 


198 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


From  these  four  lectures  in  St.  Louis  she  cleared 
seven  hundred  tlollars. 

She  headed  the  call  for  the  first  National 
Woman's  Rights  Convention,  held  in  A\'orces- 
ter,  Mass.,  October  23  and  24,  1850,  and  took 
a  leading  part  in  getting  uj)  tlie  meeting.  The 
report  of  this  convention  in  the  New  York 
Tribune  converted  Susan  B.  Anthony  to  woman 
suffrage,  and  led  John  Stuart  Mill's  wife  to 
write  for  the  Westminster  Rcrieir  an  article 
which  was  the  starting-point  of  the  equai  rights 
movement  in  England.  This  convention  was 
also  the  first  that  called  wide  public  attention 
to  the  question  in  this  coimtry,  although  the 
attention  was  mostly  in  the  way  of  ridicule. 
Year  after  year  Lucy  took  the  laboring  oar  in 
getting  up  conventions  and  in  printing  and 
selling  the  woman's  lights  tracts  at  the  meet- 
ings. She  was  "such  a  good  little  auctioneer," 
said  one  who  remembei'ed  her  well. 

On  May  1,  1855,  Lucy  married  Henry  B. 
Blackwell,  a  yovmg  hardware  merchant  of  Cin- 
cinnati. His  father,  a  sugar  refiner  of  Bristol, 
England,  highly  respected  for  his  integrity, 
had  come  to  this  country  in  1S32,  and  in  1837 
had  gone  out  to  Ohio,  with  the  hope  of  event- 
ually introtlucing  the  manufacture  of  beet 
sugar  and  thus  dealing  a  severe  blow  at  slaveiy 
by  making  the  slave-grown  cane  sugar  un- 
profitable. Before  he  could  carry  out  this 
plan,  he  died  suddenly  in  Cincinnati,  leaving 
his  wife  and  large  family  of  young  chiUlren 
dependent  on  their  own  exertions.  The  mother 
and  elder  daughters  opened  a  school.  One  of 
them  studied  medicine  and  became  the  first 
woman  physician.  Dr.  Elizabeth  Blackwell. 
The  boys  went  into  business.  Henry  had 
marked  talent  and  energy,  great  eloiiuence,  a 
kind  heart,  antl  an  unparalleled  gift  of  wit  and 
fun.  He  was  a  woman's  rights  man  and  a 
strong  abolitionist.  In  consecjuence  of  th(> 
active  part  he  had  taken  in  rescuing  a  little 
colored  girl  from  slavery,  a  reward  of  ten  thou- 
sand <1611ars  had  been  offered  for  his  head  at  a 
l)ublic  meeting  at  Memphis,  Tenn.  In  1853 
he  hiid  attended  the  Massachusetts  Constitu- 
tional Convention  at  the  State  Hou.se  in  Bos- 
ton, when  Wendell  Philliixs,  Theodore  Parker, 
T.  W.  Higginson,  and  lAicy  Stone  s])oke  in 
behalf  of  a  woman  suffrage  petition  headed  b} 


Loui.sa  Alcott's  mother:  and  he  had  made  up 
his  mind  at  that  tune  to  marry  JiUcy  if  he 
could.  Armed  with  a  letter  of  introduction 
from  Mr.  (larrison,  he  sought  her  out  at  her 
home  in  West  Brookfield,  where  he  fomid  her 
staiuUng  on  the  kitchen  table,  whitewashing 
the  ceiling.  He  had  a  long  and  arduous  court- 
ship. Lucy  had  meant  never  to  marry,  but 
to  devote  herself  wholly  to  her  work.  But  he 
])roniised  to  devote  himself  to  the  same  work, 
and  persuaded  her  that  together  they  could 
do  more  for  it  than  she  could  alone.  The 
wedding  took  place  at  the  home  of  the  bride's 
])arents  at  West  Brookfield,  Mass.  The  cere- 
mony was  performed  by  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Went  worth  Higginson,  who  afterward  left  the 
ministry  for  refoim  work  and  the  army,  and 
is  now  better  known  as  Colonel  Higginson.-. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  they  issued 
a  protest  against  the  inequalities  then  existing 
in  the  marriage  laws.  It  was  widely  pub- 
lished, and  helped  to  get  the  laws  amended. 
Mr.  Higginson  sent  it  to  the  Worcester  S])}/, 
with  the  following  letter- — 

"  It  was  my  privilege  to  celebrate  May-day 
liy  officiating  at  a  wedding  in  a  farm-house 
among  the  hills  of  West  Brookfield.  The 
bridegroom  was  a  man  of  tried  worth,  a  leader 
in  the  Western  anti-slavery  movement;  and 
the  bride  is  (^ne  whose  fair  name  is  known 
throughout  the  nation,  one  whose  rare  intel- 
lect\ial  qualities  are  excelled  l)y  the  private 
beauty  of  her  heart  and  lif(\ 

"I  never  perform  the  marriage  ceremony 
without  a  renewed  sense  of  the  iniquity  of  our 
present  system  of  laws  in  respect  to  marriage — 
a  system  by  which  'man  and  wife  are  one,  and 
that  one  is  the  husband.'  It  was  with  my 
hearty  concurrence,  therefore,  that  the  follow- 
ing protest  was  read  and  signed,  as  a  part  of 
the  nuptial  ceremony:  and  I  send  it  to  you, 
that  others  may  be  induced  to  do  likewi.'^e." 

The  protest  was  as  follows : — 

"While  acknowledging  our  nuitual  affection 
by  ]nil>licly  assvuning  the  relation.ship  of  hus- 
band and  wife,  yet,  in  justice  to  ourselves  and 
a  great  principle,  we  deem  it  our  duty  to  de- 
clare that  this  act  on  our  ])art  im]:)lies  no  sanc- 
tion of  nor  promise  of  voluntary  obedience  to 
such  of  the  present  laws  of  marriage  as  refuse 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


199 


to  recognize  the  wife  as  an  independent,  rational 
being,  while  they  confer  upon  the  husband  an 
injurious  and  unnatural  suiHM'iority,  investing 
liiin  with  legal  powers  which  no  honorable  man 
would  exercise,  and  which  no  man  should 
possess.  We  protest  especially  against  tlie 
laws  which  give  the  husband: — 

"1.  The  custody  of  the  wife's  person. 

"2.  The  exclusive  control  and  guardianship 
of  their  children. 

"3.  The  sole  ownership  of  her  personal  and 
use  of  her  real  estate,  unless  previously  set- 
tled upon  her  or  placed  in  the  hand  of  trustees, 
as  in  the  case  of  minors,  idiots,  and  lunatics. 

"4.  The  absolute  right  to  the  jiroduct  of 
her  industry. 

"5.  Also  against  laws  which  give  to  the 
widower  so  much  larger  and  more  permanent 
an  interest  in  the  property  of  his  deceased  wife 
than  they  give  to  the  widow  in  that  of  her 
deceased  husband. 

"6.  Finally,  against  the  whole  system  b}' 
which  'the  legal  existence  of  the  wife  is  sus- 
pended during  marriage,'  so  that,  in  most 
States,  she  neither  has  a  legal  part  in  the  choice 
of  her  residence,  nor  can  she  make  a  will,  nor 
sue  or  be  sued  in  her  own  name,  nor  inhei'it 
property. 

"AVe  believe  that  personal  independence  antl 
equal  human  rights  can  never  be  forfeited,  ex- 
cept for  crime;  that  marriage  shoukl  lie  an  ecpial 
and  permanent  partnership,  and  so  recognized 
by  law;  that,  until  it  is  .so  recognized,  married 
partners  should  provide  against  the  radical 
injustice  of  present  laws  by  every  means  in 
their  power. 

"We  believe  that,  where  domestic  difficul- 
ties arise,  no  aj^peal  should  be  matle  to  legal 
tribunals  under  existing  laws,  but  that  all 
difficulties  should  be  sulimitted  to  the  equi- 
table adjustment  of  arbitrators  nmtually  chosen. 

"Thus,  reverencing  law,  we  enter  oui  pro- 
test against  rules  and  customs  which  are  un- 
worthy of  the  name,  .since  they  violate  justice, 
the  essence  of  law." 

(Signed)         Henry  B.  Bl.\ckwell. 
bucY  Stone. 
Wkst  Rrookfield,  M.^ss.,  May  1,  IS55. 

Lucy  regarded  the  loss  of  a  wife's  name  at 


marriage  as  a  symbol  of  the  lo.ss  of  her  individ- 
uality. Eminent  lawyers,  including  Ellis  Gray 
Loring  and  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  told  her  there 
was  no  law  requiring  a  wife  to  take  her  hus- 
band's name,  that  it  was  only  a  custom  and 
not  obligatory;  und  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States  (Salmon  P.  Cha.se)  gave  her  his 
unofficial  opinion  to  the  same  effect.  Accord- 
ingly, with  her  husband's  full  approval,  .she 
kept  her  own  name,  and  continued  to  be  called 
by  it  during  thirty-six  years  of  faithful  and 
affectionate  married  life. 

The  account  of  her  later  years  nmst  be  con- 
densed into  a  few  lines.  She  and  her  husband 
lectureil  together  in  many  States,  took  part 
in  most  of  the  campaigns  when  suffrage  amend- 
ments were  submitted  to  popular  vote,  addressed 
legislatures,  published  articles,  held  meet- 
ings far  and  wide,  were  instrumental  in  .se- 
curing many  improvements  in  the  laws  of  many 
States,  and  togetfier  did  an  unrecorded  and  in- 
calculable amount  of  work  in  behalf  of  equal 
rights.  A  few  years  after  her  marriage,  while 
they  were  living  in  Orange,  N.J.,  Mrs.  Stone 
let  her  goods  be  seized  and  sold  for  taxes. 
Among  the  things  seized  was  the  baby's  cradle; 
and  she  wrote  a  j)rotest  against  taxation  with- 
out representation,  with  her  baby  on  her  knee. 
In  1806  she  helped  to  organize  the  American 
Equal  Rights  A.ssociation,  which  was  formed 
to  work  for  both  negroes  and  women,  and  she 
was  chairman  of  its  executive  committee.  In 
1869,  with  William  Llojxl  Garrison,  George 
William  Curtis,  Colonel  Higgin.son,  Mrs.  Julia 
Ward  Howe,  .Mrs.  .Mary  A.  I^ivermore,  and 
others,  she  organized  the  American  Woman 
Suffrage  Association,  and  was  chairman  of  its 
executive  committee  for  nearly  twenty  years. 
She  always  cravetl,  not  the  post  of  prominence, 
but  the  post  of  work.  Most  of  the  money  with 
which  the  Woman' b  -Journal  was  started  in 
Boston,  in  1870,  was  raised  by  her  efforts. 
When  Mrs.  Livermore,  who.se  time  was  uiuler 
increasing  demand  in  the  lecture  field,  resigned 
the  etlitorship  in  1872,  Mrs.  Stone  and  her  hus- 
band took  cliarge  of  the  paper,  and  ediletl  it 
from  that  time  forth.  Since  her  deatli  it  has 
been  edited  by  her  husband  and  daughter.  In 
her  latter  years  she  was  nmch  continetl  at  home 
by  rheumatism,  but  worked  for  suffrage  at  her 


200 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


desk  as  diligently  as  she  usetl  to  do  upon  the 
platform.  To  the  end  of  her  life,  despite  her 
infirmities,  she  did  more  jnihlic  speaking  than 
most  younger  women.  Her  sweet,  motherly 
face,  under  its  white  cap,  wa.s  dear  to  the 
eyes  of  audiences  at  sufTrage  gatherings,  and 
it  was  said  of  her  that  she  looked  like  "the 
grandmother  of  all  the  good  children." 

She  was  an  excellent  housekeeper,  of  the 
old  New  England  type.  She  dri^d  all  the 
herbs,  and  put  up  all  tlie  fruits  in  their  season. 
She  prepared  her  own  dried  beef,  made  her 
own  yeast,  her  own  butter,  even  her  own  soap. 
She  always  thought  the  home-made  soap  was 
better  than  any  she  could  buy.  She  was  an 
accomplished  cook,  and  her  family  were  never 
better  fed  than  during  the  occasional  interreg- 
nums between  servants. 

All  the  purely  womanly  instincts  were  strong 
in  her.  Even  in  her  old  age  her  ideas  about 
love  were  what  most  peojile  would  regard  as 
romantic.  She  was  as  fond  of  a  love  story  as 
any  girl  of  sixteen,  provided  it  were  a  simple 
and  innocent  love  story.  She  was  attracted 
by  all  children,  dirty  or  clean,  pretty  or  ugly. 
Her  face  always  beamed  at  the  sight  of  a  baby ; 
and  on  countless  occasions  on  boat  or  train, 
during  her  lecture  trips,  she  helped  worried 
and  anxious  young  mothers  to  care  for  and 
cpiiet  a  crying  child.  All  children  loveil  her. 
What  she  was  to  her  own  daughter  no  words 
can  tell. 

A  friend  writes: — 

"No  one  who  was  privileged  to  partake  of 
Mrs.  Stone's  hospitality  could  fail  U)  note  her 
kindly  concern  for  every  one  beneath  her  roof 
and  for  all  the  ilumb  creatures  belonging  to 
the  household.  But  few  knew  jiow  far-reach- 
ing was  that  spirit  of  kindliness,  how  many 
her  motherliness  brooded  over.  Flowers  and 
fruits  were  sent  from  her  garden,  boxes  of 
clothing  went  ^^'est,  North,  and  South,  a  host 
of  wonien  who  came  to  her  in  distress  were 
helped  to  work  or  tidetl  over  hard  places.  She 
gave  freely,  and  every  gift  was  accompanied 
by  thoughtful  care  and  heart-warmtli.  She 
was  never  too  busy  to  gladden  the  hearts  of 
the  children  who  came  into  her  presence  by 
gift  of  flower  or  fruit  or  picture,  or  by  the  telling 
of  a  story." 


She  took  keen  delight  in  all  the  beauties  of 
nature.  As  a  child,  her  favorite  reward,  when 
she  had  done  well  at  i^chool,  was  to  be  allowed 
l)y  the  teacher  to  sit  on  the  floor,  where  she 
could  look  up  through  the  window  into  the 
shinunering  foliage  of  a  grove  of  wliite  birches. 

She  was  \\w  most  perfectly  fearless  lunnan 
being  I  ever"knew.  J  have  heard  her  say  that 
in  the  mobs  and  manifold  clangers  of  the  anti- 
slavery  times  she  was  never  conscious  of  a 
(juickened  heart-beat.  In  all  the  emergencies 
of  a  long  life,  in  accidents,  alarms  of  fire,  of 
burglars,  etc.,  we  never  saw  her  fluttered. 
"The  gentlest  and  most  heroic  of  women," 
was  her  husband's  description  of  her.  When, 
in  1S93,  her  strength  failed,  and  she  found  that 
she  was  suffering  from  an  illness  from  which 
she  could  not  recover,  she  was  perfectly  serene 
and  fearless,  and  made  all  her  preparations  to 
go,  as  quietly  as  if  she  wei'e  only  going  into  the 
next  room.  As  long  as  she  was  able  to  think 
and  plan  at  all,  she  thought  for  others,  and 
planned  for  their  comfort.  As  she  lay  in  bed, 
too  weak  to  move,  she  still  tried  to  save  every- 
bodv  steps,  to  spare  the  servants,  to  see  that 
guests  should  be  made  comfortable,  and  that 
a  favorite  dish  shoukl  be  prejiared  for  the  niece 
who  had  come  to  nurse  her. 

The  beyond  had  no  terrors  for  her.  She 
said  to  her  tlaughter,  with  her  accent  of  simple 
antl  complete  conviction:  "I  have  not  the 
smallest  ajiprehension.  I  know  the  Eternal 
Order,  and  I  believe  in  it."  Something  being 
s;dd  by  a  friend,  v.ho  was  a  Spiritualist,  aliout 
her  possibly  coming  back  to  connnunicate  with 
those  she  had  left,  she  answered,  "I  expect  to 
be  too  busy  to  come  back."  To  another  friend 
she  said,  "I  look  forward  to  the  other  side  as 
the  brighter  side,  and  I  expect  to  be  busy  for 
good  things."  To  still  another,  who  expressed 
grief  that  she  should  not  live  to  see  women 
vote,  she  answered:  "Perhajis  I  shall  know  it 
where  I  am;  and,  if  not,  I  shall  be  doing  some- 
thing better.  I  have  not  a  fear,  nor  a  dread, 
nor  a  doubt." 

When  a  letter  from  the  Women's  Press  Asso- 
ciation was  read  to  her,  speaking  warndy  ot 
her  work,  she  said  slowly :  "  I  think  I  have  done 
what  I  could:  I  certainly  have  tried.  With 
one  hand  I  made  my  family  comfortable;  with 


ALICE    W.  EMEKSON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


201 


tlie  other" —  Here  her  voice  failed  through 
weakness.  Uncloubtedly  she  meant  that  with 
the  other  hand  she  had  worked  to  get  the 
women  their  rights. 

To  tlie  hist  she  went  on  with  the  same  two- 
fokl  hne  of  thought,  pkmning  for  the  comfort 
of  her  family  and  the  carrying  on  of  the  house- 
hold after  she  should  be  gone,  and  also  ])ianning 
for  the  carrying  on  of  the  suflVage  work  and 
of  the  Woman's  Journal,  "the  dear  little  old 
Woman's  Journal,'"  as  she  called  the  paper 
into  which  she  had  put  so  nmch  of  her  heart 
and  life. 

The  last  letter  but  one  that  she  wrote  was 
to  a  prominent  Colorado  woman,  commending 
Mrs.  Carrie  Chapman  Catt  to  her,  and  earnestly 
asking  her  to  heli)  the  passage  of  the  pending 
suffrage  amendment.  The  last  letter  of  all 
was  written  to  her  only  surviving  brother, 
twelve  3'ears  her  senior.  When  he  came  to 
see  her  tluring  her  last  illness,  he  said  to  her 
with  tears,  "  You  have  always  been  more  like 
a  mother  than  a  sister  to  me." 

On  October  IS  she  passed  quietly  away.  On 
the  last  afternoon  she  looked  at  me  and  seeniet_l 
to  wish  to  say  something.  J  put  my  ear  to 
her  lips.  She  said  distinctly,  "Make  the  world 
better."  They  were  almost  her  last  articulate 
words. 

Always  very  modest  in  her  estimate  of  her- 
self, she  had  told  her  family  that  it  would  not 
be  worth  while  to  have  the'  fvmeral  in  a  cliurch: 
there  would  not  be  enough  people  who  would 
care  to  come.  A  silent  and  sorrowing  crowd 
filled  the  street  before  tlie  Church  of  the  Dis- 
ciples long  before  the  iloors  were  opened,  and 
eleven  hundred  people  listened  to  the  tributes 
paid  her  by  some  of  the  noblest  men  and  women 
of  America.  By  her  own  wish  there  was  nothing 
lugubrious  about  the  funeral:  everything  was 
cheerful  and  simple.  By  her  own  request, 
also,  the  service  included  the  reading  of  two 
poems  of  Whittier's,  containing  the  lines: — 

"  Not  on  a  blind  and  ainiluss  way 
The  spirit  goetli," 


and 


I  know  not  whure  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 

I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care." 


Even  the  newspapers,  those  that  had  always 
opposed  equal  rights  for  women,  heaped  praises 
upon  her;  and  a  lifelf)ng  adversary  of  hers  said, 
"The  death  of  no  woman  in  America  has  ever 
called  out  so  widespread  a  tribute  of  affection 
and  esteem." 

She  had  not  the  smallest  thirst  for  fame.  It 
has  l)een  hard  to  compile  any  adequate  ac- 
count of  her  life,  because  she  kept  no  record 
of  her  work,  never  cared  to  preserve  her  press 
notices,  and  refused,  almost  with  horror,  all 
recjuests  from  publishers  of  books  about  "fa- 
mous women"  to  furnish  material  for  a  bio- 
graphical sketch  of  herself.  She  thought  it 
hardly  worth  while  that  any  account  of  her 
should  ever  be  written.  Yet  this  very  fact, 
while  it  greatly  increases  the  difficulties  of  her 
biographer,  is  perhaps  in  itself  the  strongest 
testimony  to  the  spirit  in  which  she  did  her 
work.  During  her  last  illness  she  took  pleas- 
ure in  the  following  lines,  which  she  had  clipped 
from  some  newspaper: — 

"  Up  and  away  like  the  dew  of  the  morning 

That  soais  fi-oni  the  earth  to  its  home  in  the  sun, 
So  let  me  steal  away,  gently  and  lovingly, 
(Jnly  remembered  by  what  I  have  done. 

"  My  name  and  my  place  and  my  tomb  all  forgotten, 
The  brief  race  of  time  well  and  jiatiently  run, 
•So  let  me  pass  away,  peacefully,  silently. 
Only  remembered  by  what  I  have  done. 

■•  Xeeds  there  the  praise  of  the  love-written  record, 
The  name  and  the  epitaph  graved  on  the  stone  ? 
The  things  we  have  lived  for,  let  them  be  our  story; 
We  ourselves  but  remembered  by  what  we  have 
done." 

Alice  Stone  Bl.\ckwell. 


ALICE  WAKEFIELD  EMERSON, 
/\  teacher,  was  born  in  Oakham,  Mass., 
I  V  May  19,  1840,  daughter  of  Horace 
Poole  antl  Abigail  (Pratt)  Wakefield. 
She  comes  of  good  New  England  ancestry. 
Her  paternal  grandfather,  Deacon  Caleb  Wake- 
field, son  of  Timothy  and  Susanna  (Bancroft) 
Wakefield,  was  born  April  18,  1785,  at  Read- 
ing, Mass.,  and  died  in  that  town,  March  4, 
1876.  He  married,  first,  Matilda,  tlaughtcr  of 
Jonathan  and  Ann  (Bancroft)  Poole,  who  was 


202 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


born  in  Reading,  Mas.s.,  June  2,  1786,  and  died 
December  21,  1822.  Her  mother,  Mrs.  Ann  Ban- 
croft Poole,  was  sister  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Aaron 
Bancroft,  father  of  George  Bancroft  the  his- 
torian. Deacon  Caleb  AVakefieUl  married,  sec- 
ondly, November  8,  1S23,  Nancy  Temple,  who 
was  born  in  Reading,  October  21,  1794,  and 
died  there  November  18,  1873.  Caleb  Wake- 
field was  Captain  of  the  military  comi)any; 
Selectman,  1830-40;  Representative,  1833-36; 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  1845-51  and  in  1865:  and 
was  chosen  Deacon  of  the  Okl  South  Church, 
Reading,  August  23,  1821.  A  man  of  inde- 
pendent thought,  persistent  in  his  positions 
when  once  taken,  he  was  pn^gressive,  ready  to 
receive  information,  and  endowed  with  strong 
moral  force.  His  firmness  of  attitude  on  most 
questions  was  due  to  the  care  with  which  he 
had  formed  his  opinions;  once  convinced  of 
their  error,  no  man  knew  better  how  to  give 
up  or  when  to  drop  the  old  and  take  on  the 
new.  It  is  said  that  probably  for  fifty  years 
no  one  man  did  more  than  he  to  shape  the  in- 
terests of  the  connnunity  and  aid  and  lead  in 
the  financial,  educational,  moral,  and  religious 
growth  of  the  town.  A  good  neighbor,  wise  in 
counsel,  he  was  often  called  to  be  the  adviser 
of  orphans,  young  men,  and  widows;  and  as 
the  executor  of  sacred  trusts  he  often  stood 
between  the  living  and  the  dead,  well  earning 
the  affectionate  remembrance  in  which  his 
name  is  held. 

Horace  Poole  Wakefield,  M.D.,  son  of  Deacon 
Caleb  Wakefield  by  his  first  wife  and  father  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  ])orn  in  Reading, 
January  4,  1809.  He  was  graduated  at  Am- 
herst College  in  1832.  Receiving  his  medical 
degree  at  Dartmouth  in  1836,  he  first  prac- 
tised medicine  at  Oakham,  Mass.,  where  he 
was  Selectman  and  Town  Clerk,  and  was  twice 
elected  to  the  Legislature  as  Representative. 
In  1844  he  returned  to  Reading.  He  was  chosen 
State  Senator  in  1862;  held  the  offices  of  Cor- 
oner, Justice  of  the  Peace,  Inspector  of  Alms- 
houses at  Tewksbury,  where  also  he  was  phy- 
sician; was  Superintendent  of  the  State  Primary 
School  at  Monson,  Mass.,  for  several  years; 
and  chairman  of  the  Reading  War  Committee 
in  the  Civil  War.  In  1833  he  was  a  member  of 
the  convention  in  Philadelphia  at  which  the 


American  Anti-slavery  Society  was  formed, 
and  he  placed  his  name  on  the  "Declaration 
of  Sentiments"  next  to  John  G.  Whittier.  He 
was  a  tlefender  of  woman's  rights  and  woman 
suffrage  at  the  outset  of  that  movement.  He 
was  a  councillor  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical 
Society,  president  of  the  Middlesex  East  Dis- 
trict Medical  Society,  and  ex  ofjirio  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  be- 
fore which  he  delivered  the  annual  address  in 
1867,  an  honor  given  but  once  in  the  life  of 
an  individual. 

Dr.  Wakefield  was  also  president  of  the  East 
Hamptlen  Agricultural  Society,  and  a  member 
of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  from  1873 
to  1882;  president  of  the  Palmer  Savings  Bank 
and  director  of  the  Palmer  First  National  Bank. 
It  was  said  of  him  that  he  had  the  ability  to 
s?rve  the  public,  was  active,  energetic,  positive, 
progressive,  with  great  mental  and  physical 
strength,  rare  wisdom  and  foresight  in  planning, 
and  persistency  in  carrying  out  whatever  he 
undertook.  The  bluff  manner  and  blunt  speech 
which  he  sometimes  assumed  covered  but 
never  concealed  his  genuine  kindliness  of 
heart.  In  A])ril,  1879,  he  bought  the  notetl 
"Stonewall  Farm"  in  Leicester,  Mass.,  and 
remained  there  till,  his  death,  which  occurred 
August  23,  1883.  Dr.  Wakefield  married,  first, 
March  1,  1838,  Abigail  Pratt,  of  Reading, 
daughter  of  Thaddeus  B.  and  Susan  (Parker) 
Pratt,  and,  secondly,  Mary  B.  Christy,  of 
Johnson,  \'t. 

Alice  Wakefield  (Mrs.  Emerson)  was  edu- 
cated at  tlie  Reading  High  School,  Mount  Hol- 
yoke  Seminary,  and  Abbot  Academy,  Andover, 
Mass.,  from  which  last  named  institution  she 
was  graduated  in  1862.  On  Sejitember  30, 
1863,  she  was  married  to  the  Rev.  Rufus  Emer- 
son, a  Congregational  clergyman  of  Haver- 
hill, Mass.  Their  first  home  was  in  Grafton, 
^'t.,  where  their  only  child,  Mary  Alice,  was 
born. 

Mr.  Emerson  was  educated  at  Bradford 
Academy,  Bradford,  Mass.,  and  at  Amherst 
College  and  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 
Aft(>r  leaving  V'ermont  his  pastorates  were  in 
Massachusetts,  sometimes  in  the  city  and  some- 
times in  the  country.  He  was  a  practical 
idealist,  and, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


203 


"  As  a  bird  each  fond  endearment  tries 
To  tempt  its  new-tiedged  offspring  to  the  skies, 
He  tried  each  art,  reproved  each  dull  delay, 
Allured  to  brighter  worlds  and  led  the  way." 

In  perfect  sympathy  with  her  husliaiul,  Mrs. 
p]merson  was  of  invaluable  lielp  to  him  in  all 
his  intellectual  ami  spiritual  work.  After  his 
death,  in  1S85,  she  taught  school  for  several 
years  in  Reading,  Monson,  Somerville,  and  in 
the  day  and  evening  schools  of  lioston-.  In 
1897  she  was  graduated  from  the  Emerson 
College  of  Oratory,  Boston,  and  in  1900  she 
accepted  her  present  position  as  prece])tress  of 
Emerson  College. 

Mrs.  Emerson's  character  is  marked  by  high 
ideals  and  quiet  but  persistent  aspiration. 
From  her  father  and  grandfather  she  inherits 
that  faculty  of  judgment  which  enables  her 
([uickly  to  read  individual  character,  a  calm 
manner  and  firm  will,  with  executive  ability, 
througii  which  slie  has  handled  many  a  diffi- 
cult situation  without  friction  or  injustice,  as 
plainly  shown  in  her  tliscipline  in  the  granmiar 
schools  in  which  she  taught.  In  her  present 
position  she  has  made  herself  both  respected 
and  loved,  and  is  consistently  known  for  the 
tonic  quality  of  her  sympathy,  which  holds  the 
young  people  always  to  fheir  best.  Two  other 
characteristics  have  helped  to  make  her  the 
confidante  of  young  and  okl — the  ability  tf)  keep 
a  secret  and  her  care  not  to  give  unsought 
advice.  While  she  never  fails  to  speak  to  the 
point  when  she  does  speak,  it  is  often  laugh- 
ingly said  of  her  that  "she  knows  how  to  keep 
silent  in  seven  languages."  Like  many  other 
reserved  people,  she  writes  more  easily  than 
she  talks.  When  time  jjermits,  she  lectures 
on  subjects  connected  with  elocution  and 
I)hysical  culture,  and  writes  short  stories. 

Mrs.  Emerson's  modest  reserve,  coupled  with 
a  natural  tlignity,  might  give  a  stranger  the 
impression  that  she  is  possessed  of  a  cold 
and  indifferent  nature,  but  this  impression  is 
dissipated  by  a  glance  at  the  merry  eye  and 
kindly  mouth,  even  before  one  comes  to  note 
her  many  kindnesses. 

Physically  sturdy  and  active,  intellectually 
keen  and  progre.ssive,  and  spiritually  wholesome 
and  sweet,  she  is  a  type  of  the  best  product  of 


New  England   womanhood,   fostered   by   plain 
living  and  high  thinking. 

Mrs.  Emerson  is  a  member  of  the  Congrega- 
tional church,  attending  Berkeley  Temple,  Bos- 
ton. Mrs.  Emerson's  tlaughter,  Mary  Alice, 
born  in  Grafton,  \'t.,  August  3,  1865,  is  now  a 
teacher  in  the  State  Normal  School  at  Bridge- 
water,  Mass. 


SARAH  BROWN  CAPRON  was  born  in 
Lanesboro,  Mass.,  April  24,  1828.  Her 
name  until  her  marriage  was  Sarah 
Brown  Hooker.  Her  paternal  grand- 
father was  Thomas  Hooker,  of  Rutland,  Vt., 
who  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Thomas  Hooker 
of  Connecticut.  Her  grandmother,  Mrs.  Sarah 
Brown  Hooker,  was  a  daughter  of  Lieutenant 
Colonel  John  Brown,  of  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  who 
retired  from  the  army  because  he  distrusted 
Benedict  Arnold,  but  who  afterward  died  in 
service  at  Stone  Arabia,  in  New  York,  in  1780. 
Her  father  was  the  Rev.  Henry  Brown  Hooker, 
D.D.,  a  minister  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  Lanesboro,  afterward  in  Falmouth,  Mass., 
greatly  honored  and  beloved.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  receiving 
his  appointment  from  Governor  George  N. 
Briggs.  His  last  work  was  as  the  secretary  of 
the  Massachusetts  Home  Missionary  Society, 
where  he  was  engaged  up  to  the  close  of  a  useful 
life.  Her  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Martha  Vinal  Chickering,  resided  in  Boston 
before  marriage. 

Miss  Hooker's  education  was  received  in 
W^heaton  Seminary,  Norton,  Mass.,  and  in  the 
State  Normal  School  at  West  Newton.  In  her 
vacations  she  taught  two  sununer  terms  and 
two  winter  terms  in  the  district  schools  of 
Falmouth,  on  Cape  Cod.  The  State  Normal 
School  was  then  in  charge  of  Eben  S.  Stearns, 
the  well-known  and  loved  Electa  N.  Lincoln, 
now  Mrs.  George  A.  Walton,  being  the  able 
assistant.  Nathaniel  T.  Allen,  afterward  long 
identified  with  the  Classical  School  of  West 
Newton,  was  the  principal  of  the  Model  School, 
and  the  pupils  of  those  days  well  remember  his 
generous  estimate  of  their  abilities  as  they 
passed  under  his  three  w-ceks'  training.  Lu- 
cretia  Crocker  was  then  a  student  at  the  Normal 


204 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


School,  giving  promise  of  the  efficiency  which 
afterward  distinguished  her  official  career. 

Graduating  in  November,  1850,  Miss  Hooker 
was  elected  first  assistant  in  the  Oliver  High 
School,  Lawrence,  Mass.,  T.  W.  T.  Curtis  being 
principal  and  George  A.  Walton  master  of  the 
Grammar  school  in  the  same  building.  Miss 
Hooker  afterward  became  an  assistant  in  the 
Hartford  High  School,  remaining  until  April, 
1854. 

She  was  married  October  1,  1856,  to  the  Rev. 
William  Banfield  Capron,  of  Uxbridge,  Mass. 
They  were  appointed  as  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  to  Madura,  South  India,  and 
sailed  in  an  ice  ship  for  Madras,  November  21, 
the  .voyage  taking  one  hundred  days.  On  ar- 
riving in  Madura  Mrs.  Capron,  was  put  in 
charge  of  the  Madura  Girls'  Boarding  School, 
now  well  known  in  the  Madras  Pre.sidency  as 
the  Madura  Girls'  Training  and  High  School. 
Mr.  Capron  during  this  time  was  building  a 
house  in  Mana  Madura,  thirty  miles  ilistant, 
to  which  they  removed  in  1864,  the  lady  in 
charge  of  the  Girls'  School  having  returned 
from  her  furlough  in  America.  Mrs.  Capron's 
previous  service  was  the  prehule  to  the  various 
forms  of  educational  work  of  which  she 
had  charge  until  1886,  with  the  exception 
of  one  furlough  of  two  years,  from  1872  to 
1874. 

The  work  of  a  foreign  miss'onary  naturally 
resolves  itself  into  two  lines.  There  is  the  care 
for  the  planting,  growth,  and  development  of 
the  Christian  community.  This  should  be 
self-propagating  and  self-sustaining,  and  to  this 
end  should  all  training  be  directed.  There  is 
also  the  endeavor  to  uplift  all  those  within  one's 
sphere  of  influence.  The  first  step  in  the  for- 
mer lies  in  the  little  day  schools  in  the  villages, 
planned  to  give  instruction  to  the  children  of 
Christians;  but  these  in  all  cases  will  include 
many  more  who  are  drawn  by  the  attractive- 
ness of  a  school  so  differently  conducted  from 
the  sing-song  drone  of  the  ordinary  school- 
master of  India.  When  it  is  considered  that 
each  station  in  charge  of  a  resident  missionary 
comprises  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  villages,  in 
which  are  these  schools,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
missionary  becomes  a  superintendent  of  schools. 
It  is  a  gala  day,  indeed,  when  the  missionary 


lady  comes  to  inspect  the  school.  On  such 
occasions  there  is  the  selection  of  the  clever  boy 
or  bright  girl,  whether  from  a  Christian  family 
or  not,  to  come  to  the  next  stage  in  this  etluca- 
tional  scheme. 

Station  boarding-schools  are  at  the  station 
of  the  resident  missionary,  and  his  wife  is  in 
charge.  Here  are  the  best  pupils  from  all  the 
villages,  numbering  sometimes  even  a  hundred. 
Selections  from  these  pass  on  to  the  girls'  high 
and  training-school  at  the  central  station,  and 
also  to  the  high  school  and  normal  school,  or 
college  for  the  boys.  The  theological  school 
completes  the  equipment. 

Not  included  in  the  above,  we  find  the  Hindu 
girls'  day  schools  and  the  Anglo-vernacular  day 
schools  for  boys,  both  of  which  receive  pupils 
who  are  shut  out  from  the  boarding-schools  on 
account  of  caste,  yet  are  eager  for  education. 
Attachments  formed  in  these  schools  have 
proved  in  after  years  helpful  and  delightful. 
Many  of  the  boys  pass  on  into  government 
colleges,  and  later,  becoming  officials  under  the 
English  government,  never  forget  the  teaching 
and  influence  of  the  missionary  lady  who 
touclu^d  their  lives  in  younger  tlays. 

In  October,  1876,  in  the  midst  of  these  ac- 
tivities added  to  all  that  ilevolves  upon  the 
missionary  himself,  Mr.  Capron  was  suddenly 
called  to  higher  service  above.  A  graduate  of 
Yale  College  and  of  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary and  for  a  number  of  years  principal  of  the 
Hopkins  Grammar  School  at  Hartford,  Conn., 
before  its  union  with  the  high  school,  he  was 
well  equipped  for  his  life  work.  Accurate  in 
business  methods,  of  rare  judgment  and  sym- 
pathetic nature,  he  was  greatly  endeared  to 
his  associates.  Won  by  his  unfailing  kindliness 
of  manner,  the  Hindu  comnumity  revered  him. 
He  originated  and  established  the  Madura 
Widows'  Aid  Society,  which  is  a  lasting  monu- 
ment. 

In  1876  Mrs.  Capron  removed  to  the  city  of 
Madura  to  superintend  the  work  for  women 
and  girls.  Here  she  remained  for  ten  years, 
or  until  her  return  to  America.  There  were 
three  day  schools  for  Hindu  girls,  and  another 
was  soon  added.  These  four  schools  provided 
for  nearly  four  hundred  girls  of  the  higher  castes 
a  blessed  retreat  from  the  aimlessness  and  ig- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


205 


norance  of  their  homes.  The  government  of 
India  provides  generously  for  the  education  of 
girls,  as  the  Results  Grants  yearly  examina- 
tions bring  funds  to  be  added  to  the  allowance 
from  America.  Three  masters  and  twelve 
school-mistresses  were  in  charge.  In  place  of 
a  rented,  uncomfortable  room  a  new  building 
was  provided  for  one  of  these  schools  in  the 
midst  of  Bralmiin  homes.  The  famous  temple 
covering  fourteen  and  a  half  acres  with  its 
massive  architecture  and  nine  pagodas  had  its 
band  of  mvisic  for  the  little  goddess  within 
sound  of  the  songs  of  the  girls.  Theirs  was  a 
sweeter  melody,  and  more  stopped  to  listen 
than  ever  gave  heed  to  the  noisy  bang  of  the 
temple  performers.  High,  cool,  antl  airy,  with 
a  court-yard  attractive  with  ferns  and  creepers, 
it  became  a  resting-place  for  the  women,  who 
enjoyed  seeing  the  variety  of  school  life. 
Phillips  Brooks,  on  entering  it  during  his  tour 
in  India,  surveyed  the  lines  of  one  hundred 
girls  in  their  gay  clothing  and  jewels.  With 
a  bright  smile  he  said,  "And  this  is  a  piece  of 
Boston!"  So  foreign  was  it  to  the  sights  in 
that  great  city. 

While  having  the  oversight  of  these  schools, 
Mrs.  Capron  felt  the  claim  of  the  women  upon 
educational  effort  imperative.  No  such  pro- 
vision as  the  Hindu  girls'  day  schools  having 
been  made  for  the  mothers  in  their  girlhood 
days,  they  wished  that  they  too  might  learn 
to  read.  Hence  arose  a  demand  for  teachers 
in  the  homes.  For  a  woman  to  be  seen  going 
about  the  streets  and  entering  houses  of  tho.se 
not  her  relations  was  not  consonant  with  Hindu 
ideals.  There  being  in  those  earlier  days  no 
suitable  women  as  teachers  except  those  trained 
in  mission  schools,  these  were  constrained  by 
the  example  of  the  lady  missionary  to  lay  aside 
custom  and  give  their  services  to  those  who 
were  so  ready  to  receive,  and,  having  taught 
the  primer,  they  next  gave  them  the  Bible. 
Since  in  many  homes  they  read  from  the  Bible 
to  those  who  did  not  care  to  learn,  but  were 
glad  to  listen,  they  were  called  Bible  wonvm. 
There  were  three  of  these  teachers,  or  readers, 
and  thirty  women  under  instruction.  Their 
number  increased  to  twelve,  the  number  learn- 
ing to  read  to  nine  hundred  and  fifty.  The 
superintendence   of   these   added   to   her   own 


visits  in  the  homes  was  a  work  full  of  interest 
to  Mrs.  Capron. 

A  room  in  the  dispensary  was  given  to  Mrs. 
Capron,  where  women  and  children  coming 
for  medical  treatment  might- gather.  Coming 
to  India  before  the  days  of  medical  education 
for  women,  but  having  a  liking  for  the  work, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  enthusiastic  Dr. 
Etlward  Chester,  she  gave  two  hours  each 
morning  to  writing  such  prescriptions  as  were 
within  her  ability.  Desiring  to  add  something 
if  possil:)le  to  render  her  service  in  this  line  more 
valuable,  she  spent  six  weeks  in  1875  in  the 
Government  Hospital  in  Madras,  where  the 
physician  in  charge  kindly  afforded  without 
limitations  such  advantages  as  she  most  de- 
sired. A  woman  physician  is  one  of  the  most 
potent  factors  in  the  emancipation  of  the 
women  of  India  from  the  fetters  of  superstition 
and  cruelty.  "I  do  not  expect  to  be  cured," 
said  a  Brahmin  woman  who  had  walked  three 
miles,  "  but  I  wanted  to  hear  the  kind  words 
and  feel  the  pity." 

During  the  fearful  famine  of  1877-78,  when 
five  millions  of  the  people  in  the  Madras  Presi- 
dency and  the  Deccan  perished,  Mrs.  Capron 
received  for  a  year  and  a  half  a  monthly  grant 
from  the  Mansion  House  fund,  London,  for 
famine  relief.  The  tremendous  demand  upon 
one  in  the  midst  of  such  misery  must  be 
experienced  to  be  understood.  Generous  con- 
tributions from  America  came  as  timely  allevi- 
ation to  those  who  long  gratefully  remembered 
the  ministry. 

One  day,  as  Mrs.  Cilpron  was  threading  her 
way  in  antl  out  among  the  bundles  of  grass 
brought  for  sale  by  the  women  who  were  sitting 
beside  them,  she  overheard  one  say  to  another, 
"Who  is  she?"  "Don't  you  know?"  was  the 
reply,  "she  is  the  mother  "of  the  city."  Her 
conveyance  and  white  bullocks  had  been  in 
every  street,  and  had  stood  at  the  head  of  many 
a  lane.  She  could  always  see,  in  the  crowds 
through  which  she  was  passing,  recognition  if 
not  salutation.  She  had  been  often  told  of 
the  merit  she  was  laying  up,  with  fawning 
flattery  called  a  (jueen,  and  that  it  was  a 
goo(_l  deed  to  bring  one  more  religion  to  add 
to  the  many;  but  the  outspoken  testimony 
of    the    humble    coolie    woman   was   the    un- 


206 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


looked-for  response  to  the  love  for  the  women 
of  India. 

In  1S86,  at  the  railway  station  in  Madura, 
when  she  was  leaving  the  country,  a  Brahmin 
gentleman,  followed  by  a  servant  bearing  a 
large  brass  tray,  made  his  way  through  the 
crowd,  and,  coming  to  the  window  of  the  car 
where  Mrs.  Capron  was  sitting,  asked  her  to 
come  to  the  platform.  Placing  an  enormous 
wreath  of  buds  of  the  white  jessamine  with 
touches  of  pink  oleander  u))on  her  shoulders, 
he  said,  "I  bring  to  you  this  as  a  token  of  the 
regard  of  our  families  for  what  you  have  done 
for  the  women  of  our  city." 

Not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister, 
to  be  enshrined  in  the  lives  of  many,  a  memory 
which  neither  time  nor  distance  can  touch, 
is  ever  the  sphere  attainable  by  all  who  seek  it. 
Arriving  in  America,  Mrs.  Capron  found  her 
time  fully  taken  in  addresses  upon  India  and 
its  people  and  its  needs.  Articles  written  for 
publication  and  Bible  stutly  with  resultant 
class  work  also  had  their  sliare  of  attention. 

In  1889  Mr.  D.  L.  Moody,  about  to  open  in 
Chicago  the  Moody  Bible  Institute,  a  training- 
school  for  home  and  foreign  missions,  asked 
Mrs.  Capron  to  become  superintendent  of  the 
women's  department.  When  she  questioned 
her  fitness  for  the  position,  "  It  is  the  experience 
of  life  that  I  want,"  was  his  reply.  The  re- 
sults from  his  far-sighted  plan  have  verified 
his  expectations:  many  young  men  have  re- 
ceived that  which  was  available  in  no  other 
way.  Young  women  who  were  desiring  to 
enter  church  and  city  work  were  trained  to 
know  how  sympathetically  and  tactfully  to 
find  their  way  into  the  homes  and  hearts  of 
those  who  were  weighted  with  the  burdens  of 
poverty  and  drunkeimess,  and  by  gracious  and 
loving  words  to  •  kindle  hope  and  courage. 
Candidates  for  foreign  missionary  work  and 
ladies  at  home  on  furlough  from  foreign  fields 
found  that  which  was  valuable  for  the  future. 
Grateful  expressions  of  conmiendation  are  com- 
ing from  all  over  the  world  and  from  ministers 
and  superintendents  in  this  country,  where  tlie 
services  of  these  trained  workers  have  proved 
of  value. 

Mrs.  Capron  resigned  her  position  in  Chicago 
in  1894,  and  has  since  resided  in  Boston  with 


her  sister,  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Tufts.  Her  children 
are:  Annie  Hooker  Capron,  now  Mrs.  Lewis 
Kennedy  Morse,  of  Boston,  Mass.;  and  Laura 
Elisabeth  Capron,  now  Mrs.  James  Dyer  Keith, 
of  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morse 
have  two  children:  Anna  Hooker,  born  April 
5,  1899;  and  Arthur  Webster,  born  March  9, 
1900.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Keith  have  two  children: 
•James  Monroe,  born  March  7,  189;?;  and  Annie 
Hooker,  born  June  29,  1895. 


JULIA  HAMILTON,  now,  in  1904,  serv- 
ing in  her  fifth  vear  as  President  of  Wom- 
an's Relief  Corps,  No.  82,  of  Athol,  is 
a  native  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  The  daugh- 
ter of  Jacob  and  Mary  Wilkins,  she  was  born 
at  Knighton,  near  Osborne  Hou.se,  August  25, 
1845.  To  escape  the  shadow  of  financial  mis- 
fortune, her  parents,  in  her  early  childhood, 
came  to  America,  and  settled  in  Westmin- 
ster, Vi.,  where  she  attended  the  public  schools 
and  acaileniy.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  she  be- 
came a  member  of  the  family  of  the  Rev. 
Andrew  B.  Foster,  with  whom  she  lived  until 
iier  marriage,  the  Foster  home  being  succes- 
sively in  Westminster,  \'t.,  and  Bernardston 
and  Orange,  Mass.  Possessing  naturally  a 
considerable  talent  for  music,  it  was  the  great 
desire  of  ,Julia  Wilkins  to  become  an  accom- 
plished singer,  but  her  opportunities  for  in- 
struction were  limited.  Such  as  she  had  were 
well  improved.  For  many  years  her  voice 
was  in  constant  deman<l  for  service  in  the 
church  and  on  social  occasions.  Both  at  West- 
minster and  Bernardston,  Miss  Wilkins  was 
active  in  work  for  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War, 
the  incidents  and  im|)ressions  of  which  fur- 
nished much  inspiration  for  later  years.  Mr. 
P'oster  becoming  pastor  of  a  church  in  Orange 
in  1865,  Miss  Wilkins  at  once  entered  the 
church  and  social  circles  there,  winning,  as 
in  all  her  previous  life,  a  host  of  friends.  In 
( )range  she  assisted  in  the  welcoming  home 
of  the  war  veterans  of  the  town.  On  Octo- 
lM>r  22,  1867,  she  was  married  l>y  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Foster,  at  the  C'ongregational  parsonage 
in  Orange,  to  Andrew  J.  Hamilton,  then  a 
resident  of  Ilin.sdale,  N.H.  After  a  short 
residence  in  Hinsdale,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hamiltonj 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


207 


in  the  spring  of  1869,  chose  Athol,  Mass.,  as 
their  field  for  the  work  of  hfe.  Hero  they 
have  since  matle  their  home,  its  thatches  in- 
separably interwoven  with  local  history  aiul 
traditions.  For  some  time  after  the  removal 
to  Athol,  Mrs.  Hamilton  was  an  invalid,  her 
case  a  hopeless  one,  it  was  thought;  but  a 
strong  constitution  and  never  wav(>ring  covu'- 
age  at  length  prevailed,  and  she  again  entered 
society  after  practically  a  ten  years'  exile. 
She  was  soon  in  demand  in  the  service  of  song 
and  in  a  variety  of  social  activities.  Her 
voice,  through  occasional  service,  b(Tame  fa- 
miliar in  nearly  all  the  churches  of  Athol.  Mrs. 
Hamilton  and  her  husband  are  members  of 
the  Congregational  church,  she  having  joined 
the  church  of  that  faitli  in  \A'estminster,  \'t., 
and  remaining  true,  though  holding  her  de- 
nominational  preference  subordinate  to  a  broail 
recognition  of  the  Christ  spirit  luider  whatever 
name  appearing. 

Mrs.  Hamilton,  in  the  privacy  of  her  home, 
often  recalls  the  numerous  occasions  on  whicli 
she  has  sung  in  houses  of  mourning  in  West- 
minster, Bernardston,  Orange,  and  Athol,  feel- 
ing that  such  was  perhaps  her  most  helpful 
service  of  song. 

In  1888,  becoming  interested  in  the  prin- 
ciples and  aims  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
she  joined  Hubbard  V.  Smith  Corps,  No.  82, 
of  Athol,  and  at  once  entered  actively  into  its 
work,  making  it  a  subject  of  careful  study, 
but  declining  rapid  preferment,  when  sug- 
gested. In  1890  Mrs.  Hamilton  was  assistant 
guard,  in  1891  Senior  A'ice-President,  in  1892 
corps  Secretary,  and  in  1893,  1894,  and  1895 
corps  President,  bringing  to  her  duties  the 
qualification  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
work,  both  as  to  its  spirit,  ritual,  and  methods 
of  exemplication.  Her  natural  executive  abil- 
ity, thus  put  to  test,  contributed  to  three 
years  of  successful  work.  The  flag  salute, 
introduced  in  the  public  schools  during  that 
time  with  flags  presented  by  the  corps,  has 
continued  a  permanent  feature  in  the  schools. 
At  Mrs.  Hamilton's  suggestion,  made  on  oc- 
casion of  her  installation  as  Presitlent  in  1895, 
and  aided  her  by  efforts,  Corps  No.  82  erected 
to  the  "Unknown  Dead"  in  Silver  Lake  Ceme- 
tery a  beautiful  granite  monument,  which  was 


dedicated  at  the  memorial  service.  May  30, 
1895.  The  administration  of  Mrs.  Hamilton 
was  characterized  by  the  loyal  and  enthusi- 
astic support  of  the  corps  and  on  her  part 
by  a  desire  to  rentier  impartial  recognition 
and  justice  to  all.  After  retiring  from  the 
presidency  she  continued  with  unabated  zeal 
to  second  the  efforts  of  her  successors  and  in 
every  way  to  sustain  the  work  of  the  corps. 
Mrs.  Hamilton  was  Department  Aide,  1894- 
1897;  Department  Instructor  and  Installing 
officer  in  1898;  member  of  the  Dejiart- 
ment  Executive  Board  in  1899;  and  in  1900 
serving  on  the  Auditing  Committee.  During 
her  three  consecutive  years  in  the  Depart- 
ment Council  she  was  present  at  every  meet- 
ing, thus  gaining  broader  and  deeper  views 
of  the  merit  and  magnitude  of  the  W.  R.  C. 
work  and  an  appreciation  of  the  noble  women 
under  whose  guidance  it  has  prospered.  This 
experience  she  deems  abundant  compensa- 
tion for  all  that  she  has  been  able  to  put  into 
a  work  that  has  conmianded  a  larger  share  of 
her  time  and  efforts  than  all  other  public  or 
organization  work.  In  1894  Mrs.  Hamilton 
was  a  delegate  to  the  National  W.  R.  C.  Con- 
vention in  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  visited  the 
National  W.  R.  C.  Home  in  Madison,  Ohio. 
In  1902  she  was  a  National  Aide  and  Depart- 
ment Special  Aide.  During  the  emergency 
work  for  the  soldiers  of  the  war  with  Spain, 
Mrs.  Hamilton  was  chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Corps  No.  82,  and  rendereil  ac- 
tive service.  She  has  also  maintained  a  lively 
interest  in  the  Sons  of  \'eterans  work,  espe- 
cially in  the  welfare  of  the  local  General  W.  T. 
Sherman  Camp,  which  she  regards  as  the  lineal 
heir  to  the  spirit  and  traditions  of  Parker  and 
Hubbard  V.  Smith  Posts  of  the  G.  A.  R.  of 
Athol. 

In  connection  with  the  Relief  Corps  work 
Mrs.  Hamilton  has  officiated  many  times  as 
an  instructor  and  ins])ector  of  corps  and  as 
installing  officer,  and  has  spoken  acceptably 
on  many  occasions.  She  representetl  by  de- 
tail the  Department  President  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  Soldiers'  Monument  at  Plainfield, 
Mass.,  in  1900.  In  tlie  Department  conven- 
tion of  1900  Mrs.  Hamilton  received  a  hand- 
some vote  for  the  office  of  Department  Junior 


208 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Vice-President;  and  in  the  convention  of  1901, 
endorsed  by  Hubbiird  V.  Smith  Post,  Corps 
No.  82,  and  many  others,  she  receivctl  a  much 
larger  vote.  In  December,  1901,  Mrs.  Ham- 
ilton was  for  the  fourth  time  elected  Presi- 
dent of  Corps  No.  82,  l)ut  before  the  date  set 
for  her  installation  she  was  stricken  with 
severe  illness,  which  compelled  her  resigna- 
tion. While  in  the  hospital,  slowly  recover- 
ing from  a  successful  surgical  operation,  she 
was  cheered  an<l  comforted  by  official  words 
of  sympathy  from  the  Department  conven- 
tion of  1902  and  by  the  visits  and  offerings 
of  many  friends,  the  remembrance  of  which 
she  will  ever  cherish.  Having  been  again 
elected  President  of  Corps  No.  82  in  January, 
1903,  Mrs.  Hamilton  resumed  active  corps 
work,  contributing  to  a  successful  year  and 
to  her  re-election  and  entrance  upon  her  fifth 
year  as  President  in  January,  1904.  Mrs. 
Hamilton  was  also  elected  a  delegate  to  the 
National  W.  R.  C.  (Convention  of  1903. 

She  is  a  member  of  Banner  Lodge,  No.  89, 
Daughters  of  Rebekah,  and  has  served  two 
terms  as  Chaplain,  but,  while  fully  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  order,  has  given  little  time 
to  its  work  because  of  her  devotion  to  the 
W.  R.  C.  and  to  the  Woman's  Au.xiliary  of 
the  Athol  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Of  that  auxiliary  she  was  President  four  years 
in  succession,  while  the  association  was  strug- 
gling to  live,  the  auxiliary  contributing  its 
full  share  to  the  success  of  the  struggle.  Mrs. 
Hamilton  is  also  a  charter  member  of  tiie 
Athol  Woman's  Club,  organized  in  1900;  and 
at  the  first  meeting  of  the  club  .she  read  an 
original  paper  on  "The  Relation  of  the  Home 
to  the  School,"  which  elicited  favorable  cotu- 
ment. 

In  Athol 's  first  general  observance  of  "  Old 
Home  Week,"  in  1903,  Mrs.  Hamilton  took  an 
active  part,  serving  on  important  conunittees 
and  presiding  over  the  W.  R.  C.  float,  on  which 
the  several  States  and  Territories  of  the  Union 
were  represented  by  children  with  flags  and 
decorations.  On  the  organization  of  the  Athol 
Associated  Charities  Mrs.  Hamilton  was  cho.sen 
vice-president  and  a  member  of  the  connnittee 
to  draft  a  constitution  and  by-laws.  At 
Athol's   union   Memorial    Day   service   in   1904 


Mrs.  Hamilton  read  a  poem  on  Memorial  Day, 
written  by  Mr.  Hamilton.  In  1904  Mrs.  Hamil- 
ton served  the  W.  R.  C.  as  Department  Aide, 
also  as  a  m(>mber  of  the  connnittee  on  enter- 
tainment of  the  National  Convention  in  Boston 
and  of  the  committee  on  finance. 

At  the  Athol  service  of  mourning  for  the 
beloved  President  McKinley  she  read  to  an 
audience  of  one  thousand,  in  the  Academy  of 
Music,  Mr.  Hamilton's  poetic  "Tribute  to 
William  McKinley,"  with  impressive  effect. 
Notwithstanding  all  her  public  work  Mrs. 
Hamilton's  home  has  not  been  neglected. 
A  model  housekeeper  and  home-maker,  she 
has  received  from  lier  husband  most  cheerful 
support  in  all  her  philanthropic  work. 

Their  only  child,  .\ndrew  Foster  Hamilton, 
who  was  graduated  from  Amherst  College 
in  1901,  entered  the  Law  School  of  Harvard 
University  in  1902. 

Mrs.  Hamilton  is  a  registered  voter  on  school 
matters  in  Athol,  though  feeling  that  the  slight 
privilege  thus  accphred  is  little  more  than  a 
farce.  She  was  converted  to  belief  in  equal 
suffrage  by  lier  husl)an(l,  and  is  a  stanch  Re- 
publican in  politics,  but  not  naturally  an  ag- 
gressive suffragist. 

Mr.  Hamilton  was  clerk  for  a  merchant 
who  left  his  business  with  his  employees  to 
serve  in  the  Civil  War.  He  was  impressed 
with  the  spirit  and  lessons  of  the  conflict,  and 
his  a.ssociate  membership  in  Post  No.  140, 
Ci.  A.  R.,  attests  his  desire  to  perpetuate  its 
lessons.  Mr.  Hamilton  has  been  a  director 
of  the  Athol  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion from  its  organization,  having  also  served 
as  president  and  treasurer.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  Pocpiaig  Clul);  a  Past  Orand  of  Tully 
Lodge,  No.  130,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  which  he  has 
served  many  terms  as  Chajilain;  a  Past  High 
Priest  of  Mount  Pleasant  Encampment,  No. 
68;  member  of  Canton  Athol,  P.  M.,  and  of 
Banner  Lodge,  No.  89,  D.  of  R. ;  and  for  thirty 
years  has  taken  an  active  interest  in  local 
public  affairs.  He  has  been  a  fre(]uent  con- 
tributor to  the  local  ])ress,  and  his  letters  to 
the  Sprinyficld  Repuhlimn  in  support  of  the 
administrative  policies  of  Presidents  McKin- 
ley and  Roosevelt  have  elicited  much  com- 
ment and  some  interesting  private  correspond- 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


209 


ence.  He  is  also  an  occusiunal  writer  of  verse, 
his  "Tribute  to  AVilliani  McKinley"  having 
brought  to  hiiu  many  letters  of  appreciation, 
incluiling  acknowleilginents  from  Mrs.  Mc- 
Kinley, President  Roosevelt,  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  State.  Mr.  Hamilton's  motto  govern- 
ing all  writings  for  the  iniblic  eye  is,  "To  do 
somel)ody  or  some  cause  some  good."  In  the 
family  life  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton  inde- 
pendence of  thought  has  been  sacredly  re- 
specteil,  but,  happily,  there  has  been  har- 
mony and  mutual  helpfulness. 


EMMA  HUNTINGTON  NASON,  author 
and  nuisical  composer,  is  a  native 
of  Hallowell,  Me.,  a  pleasant  town 
on  the  Kennebec,  which  is  rich  in  local 
and  historic  interest.  She  was  born  August 
6,  1845,  the  daughter  of  Sanuiel  W.  and  Sally 
(Mayo)  Huntington.  The  Huntington  family 
in  America,  to  which  her  fathe'r  belonged,  was 
first  represented  in  New  England  i)y  the 
widow  Margaret  Huntington,  who  came  from 
England  with  her  children  (her  husband  having 
died  on  the  voyage)  in  1633,  as  certified  by 
the  church  records  of  Roxbury.  This  family 
has  counted  among  its  members  many  dis- 
tinguished men:  one  was  a  signer  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence:  another,  one  of  Gen- 
eral Washington's  staff:  and  in  U\ter  genera- 
tions some  of  them  have  been  well  known  as 
artists,  writers,  lawyers,  and  divines. 

Mrs.  Nason's  maternal  gi-andfathcr  was  a 
lineal  descendant  of  the  Rev.  John  Mayo,  who 
was  ordained  in  1655  as  the  first  pastor  of  the 
Second  Church  of  Boston,  where  he  preached 
for  seventeen  years,  and  who  built  the  old 
historic  Mayo-Mather  house  on  Hanover  Street 
in  1665.  Mrs.  Nason  is  also  descended  in 
several  lines  from  "Mayflower"  Pilgrims  antl 
other  ancestors  who  bore  their  part  in  early 
colonial  history. 

Emma  Huntington  (as  her  name  stands  on 
the  school  catalogues)  was  educated  at  the 
Hallowell  Academy  and  at  the  Maine  Wes- 
leyan  College  at  Kent's  Hill,  where  she  was 
graduated  A.B.  in  1865,  that  institution  lieing 
then  the  only  one  in  New  England  which 
offered  a  regular  college  course  for  women.     In 


187U  she  was  marrietl  to  Mr.  Charles  H. 
Nason,  of  Augusta,  an  enterprising  and  success- 
ful bu.siness  man  of  refined  and  cultivated 
tastes. 

She  began  at  an  early  age  to  write  verses. 
Her  first  publisheil  writings  appeared  in  the 
Portland  Transcript  under  a  pen-name,  and 
consisted  of  short  stories,  translations  from 
the  German,  and  verses,  which  are  still 
favorably  noticed.  In  1875  she  gave  the 
connnencement  poem  before  the  literary 
societies  of  her  Alma  Mater,  and  on  Marcli 
9,  1880,  she  read  an  original  poem  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  beautiful  building,  which  was 
the  gift  of  the  citizens  of  Hallowell  to  its  old 
and  honored  institution,  the  Hallowell  Social 
Library.  This  large  and  well-selected  collec- 
tion of  books,  to  which  Mrs.  Nason  had  access 
from  childhood,  and  to  the  influence  of  which 
may  be  ascribed  the  literary  culture  of  her 
native  town,  she  still  holds  in  grateful  re- 
membrance. The  poem,  with  the  oration 
delivereil  at  the  same  time,  was  published 
in  a  dainty  souvenir  volume. 

Her  first  poem  published  under  her  own 
name  was  "The  Tower,"  which  appeared  in 
the  Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1874,  and  won 
ready  recognition.  Her  pen,  which  since  that 
time  has  seklom  been  idle,  was  busied  chiefly 
for  some  years  with  .songs  of  child  life,  which 
appeannl  at  intervals  in  such  magazines  as 
St.  Nicholas,  Wide  Awake,  antl  Our  Little  Ones. 
In  1888  these  were  collected  in  a  volume 
called  "White  Sails,"  a  title  who.se  tender 
fitness  is  told  in  its  prelude.  These  verses  are 
familiar  in  .scliool-i-ooms  throughout  the 
country.  One  in  particular,  "The  Bravest 
Boy  in  Town,"  tells  an  incident  of  the 
Civil  War,  and  is  everywhere  a  favorite. 
"The  Mission  Tea  Party"  gives  a  pathetic 
incident  in  the  siege  of  Lucknow.  "The 
Bishop's  Visit,"  "A  Little  Girl  Lost,"  "  Unter 
tlen  Linden,"  "Saint  Olga's  Bell,"  and  the 
"Battl(>  Song"  have  been  widely  copied  and 
used  as  recitations.  It  gives  Mrs.  Nason  the 
greatest  pleasure  that  children  have  loved 
and  learned  her  ver.ses. 

■■The  Tower,  with  Legends  and  Lyrics,"  was 
published  in  1895  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co., 
and   the   following  comment   appeared   in   the 


210 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Literary  World:  "  Emma  Huntington  Nason 
is  one  of  those  wlio  write  verses  by  divine 
permission.  Her  poems  are  not 'merely  per- 
sonal outpourings  of  joy  or  sadness,  but  they 
are  thoughtful  with  the  insight  that  looks 
into  others'  experiences  as  her  own.  'The 
Ballad  of  the  Blithe  Quartette,'  with  its 
mingled  nmsic,  the  gently  swinging  'Slumber 
Song,"  the  dignified  'The  Tower,'  which  begins 
the  book,  and  the  reverently  passionate  '  At- 
tainment,' which  closes  it,  are  widely  different 
from  each  other  in  form  as  in  spirit,  but  they 
are  all  gootl  and  true,  and  we  are  glail  they 
are  ours  to  read  and  keep." 

The  verses  "Body  and  Soul"  and  "Two 
Faces"  have  been  pronounced  "two  of  the 
most  remarkable  poems  published  in  this 
country  in  recent  years."  The  former  was 
selected  by  Mr.  Warner  for  his  "World's 
Best  Literature"  and  "A  Child's  Question" 
was  chosen  by  Mr.  Stedman  for  his  Ameri- 
can Anthology.  Mrs.  Nason  has  done  much 
work  for  the  literary  clubs  of  Maine,  having 
prepared  papers  on  "The  Folk-lore  of  Russia," 
"The  Abenaki  Indians,"  "The  Early  Ballad- 
ists  and  Troubadovu's  of  France,"  and  a  course 
of  lectures  on  the  "  Genius  and  Love-life  of 
the  German  Poets."  She  is  an  enthusiastic 
student  of  German  literature,  and  has  pub- 
lished a  number  of  magazine  articles  on  the 
German  poets. 

Her  talents  are  not  limited  to  literature 
alone:  she  is  a  musical  composer,  having  done 
some  excellent  work,  and  is  active  in  the  mu- 
sical circles  of  Augusta.  She  is  also  interested 
in  drawing  and  painting.  Her  studies  in  oil 
have  much  merit,  and  she  sketches  effec- 
tively in  charcoal  from  nature.  She  has  writ- 
ten a  series  of  articles  on  "Ancient  Art  for 
Young  People." 

At  Augusta's  centennial  celebration  in  1897 
she  delivered  a  poem  entitled  "Ancient 
Koussinoc,"  into  which  is  woven  much  of 
the  historical  and  legenrlary  lore  of  the 
valley  of  the  Kennebec. 

Mrs.  Nason  is  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
the  Mayflower  Descendants  and  of  the  Order 
of  the  Descendants  of  Colonial  Governors. 
She  has  been  Regent  of  the  Koussinoc  Chap- 
ter of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 


lution   in    Augusta    and    Vice-Regent    of    the 
Maine  State  Council,  D.  A.  R. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Nason  have  one  .son,  Arthur 
Huntington  Nason,  who  was  graduated  A.B. 
from  Bowdoin  College  in  1899,  and  A.M. 
pro  merito  in  1903.  He  has  been  a  teacher  of 
English  in  secondary  schools,  and,  since  1902, 
a  graduate  student  in  Engli.sh  at  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege and  at  Columbia  University.  He  was  joint 
eclitor  of  Songs  of  Theta  of  Delta  Kappa  Epsi- 
lon,  1899;  and  his  own  publications  include  A 
Yule-tide  Sonq  and  Other  Verse,  1901,  and 
jmmphlets  on  English  literature  and  composition 
1901-2-8.  He  was  appointed  l^niversity  Fellow 
in  English  at  Columl)ia  for  the  year  1904-5. 


EMMA  MYRTICE  WOOLLEY,  M.D.,  was 
born  in  Owasco,  Cayuga  County,  N.Y., 
July  8,  1859,  daughter  of  George  and 
Catherine  (Freese)  WooUey. 
Her  ])arents  were  married  in  the  town  of 
Aurelius,  in  the  same  county,  in  1852.  Her 
grandfather  and  grandmother  Freese  were ' 
of  Dutch  origin,  and  were  among  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  Ulster  County,  New  York.  When 
their  daughter  Catherine  was  a  small  child, 
they  journeyed  to  Indiana  in  a  wagon — a 
remarkable  trip  it  was  considered,  that  State 
being  regarded  in  tho.se  days  as  a  part  of  the 
"Far  West."  After  a  two  years'  battle  with 
fever  and  ague  they  returned  to  the  little  farm 
in  Aurelius  to  spend  the  remaining  days  of 
their  lives. 

George  Woolley,  father  of  Dr.  Woolley,  was 
born  in  Cayuga  Comity  in  1831.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  common  schools  and  the  Auburn 
Academy.  He  followed  farming  until  1873. 
In  that  year  he  sold  his  farm  in  Owasco,  and 
removed  with  his  wife  and  their  three  children 
to  Auburn,  where  he  worked  at  various  trades. 
In  1887,  having  removed  to  the  Freese  home- 
stead in  Aurelius,  he  resumed  his  former  occu- 
pation. He  is  living  in  that  town  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  as  active  as  any  of  his  younger 
neighbors.  Mrs.  Woolley,  the  Doctor's  mother, 
died  May  9,  1900.  She  was  born  in  1830.  For 
several  years  previous  to  her  marriage  she 
taught  school.  Active-minded,  energetic,  and, 
withal,  possessed  of  considerable  literary  abil- 


EMMA    M.  WOOL  LEV 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


211 


ity,  she  was  a  prolific  writer.  Several  of  her 
poems  and  short  stories  were  publislied  in  the 
local  papers.  Many  of  her  sterling  qualities 
were  tran.sniittetl  to  her  daughter. 

Emma  M.  Woolley  enteied  the  Auhm-n  High 
School  in  the  fall  of  1S75,  and  was  graduated 
in  June,  1879.  Her  ambition  at  this  time  was 
to  study  medicine,  hut  women  doctors  were 
not  popular  with  her  friends  and  kinsfolk. 
Their  opposition  anil  the  fact  that  her  financial 
resources  were  limited  caused  her  to  adopt  the 
more  popular  profession  of  teacher.  After  a 
service  of  six  years  in  the  country  and  vil- 
lage schools  of  Cayuga  County  she  accepted 
a  position  in  Americus,  Kan.,  where  she  taught 
two  years.  She  then  continued  her  work  as 
a  teacher  in  Kansas  City.  Although  a  suc- 
cessful teacher,  faithful  in  the  performance  of 
her  iluties,  she  never  accepted  this  occupation 
as  her  life  work,  but  with  unwavering  trust 
looketl  forward  to  the  time  when  she  could  add 
to  her  name  the  title  of  M.D. 

In  the  summer  of  1888  she  returned  to  her 
native  town  and  spent  her  vacation  with  i)ar- 
ents  and  friends.  In  1890,  having  decided, 
after  due  deliberation,  to  carry  out  her  long- 
cherished  plan  of  study,  she  matriculated  at 
the  Boston  University  School  of  Medicine. 
With  only  a  few  hundred  dollars,  which  she 
had  saved  from  her  salary  as  a  teacher,  her 
means  were  limited;  and,  to  eke  them  out 
during  the  four  years  necessary  to  complete 
the  cour.se,  she  worked  as  a  nurse  many  nights 
and  in  vacation.  The  money  thus  .earned, 
with  the  small  sums  furnished  by  a  self-sacri- 
ficing mother,  enabled  her  to  meet  her  neces- 
sary expenses.  In  1894  she  was  graduated, 
and  received  from  the  Boston  University  the 
coveted  medical  diploma. 

She  at  once  located  herself  as  physician 
at  No.  1  Columbus  Square,  Boston,  renting  the 
house  she  occupied  and  doing  whatever  came 
to  her  hands  to  do.  Although  a  career  of  star- 
vation was  predicted  for  her  by  some  of  her 
classmates,  she  set  forth  bravely,  equip|)ed 
with  a  sound  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
nature  and  an  indomitable  will,  l^nboundod 
energy  and  perseverance  are  the  character- 
istics by  which  she  has  achieved  her  well- 
merited  success. 


In  19U1  she  purchased  the  house  at  No.  867 
Beacon  Street,  Boston,  removing  her  office 
to  this  new  home,  where  she  gives  the  best -of 
her  life  to  the  relief  of  suffering  humanity. 


EDNA  A.  FOSTER,  who  is  editorially 
connected  with  the  Youth' t^  Companioii, 
being  associate  editor  of  the  chil- 
dren's page,  was  born  at  Sullivan 
Harbor,  Me.,  opposite  Mount  Desert  hills. 
She  is  the  daughter  of  Charles  W.  and  Sarah 
(Dyer)  Foster.  Her  father  is  an  architect 
and  draftsman,  and  has  been  expert  estimator 
for  leading  granite  companies. 

Her  ])aternal  gramlfather  was  Jabez  Simp- 
son Foster,  of  Sullivan  Harbor;  and  her  great- 
grandfather in  that  line  was  James  Foster, 
who  married  Lydia,  daughter  of  Deacon  Jon- 
athan and  Mary  (Tracy)  Stevens,  early  settlers 
of  Steuben,  Me.  Nancy  Stevens,  a  younger 
sister  of  Lydia,  it  may  be  mentioneil,  married 
William  Nickels  Shaw,  of  Steuben,  brother 
of  Robert  Gould  Shaw,  of  Gouldsboro,  Me. 
(Bangor  Historical  Magazine,  vol.  viii.). 

Miss  Foster's  paternal  grandmother,  the  wife 
of  Jabez  S.  Foster,  married  in  1827,  was  Emma 
Ingalls,  daughter  of  Samuel"  antl  Abigail 
(Wooster)  Ingalls,  of  Sullivan,  Me.,  and  a 
descendant  in  the  seventh  generation  of  Ed- 
mund Ingalls,  an  early  settler  of  Lynn,  Mass., 
who  was  the  founder  of  the  family  of  this  name 
in  New  England.  The  line  from  Ednumd'  con- 
tinued through  his  son  Robert,^  Nathaniel,' 
William,""^  to  Samuel,"  father  of  Mrs.  Emma' 
Ingalls  Foster.  Mi.ss  Foster  has  in  her  posses- 
sion .some  silver  spoons  that  were  part  of  the 
wedding  outfit  of  her  great-great-grantlmother 
Ingalls,  whose  maiden  name  was  Deborah 
Goss.     She  was  the  wife  of  William^  Ingalls. 

Captain  Ezekiel  Dyer,  Miss  Foster's  maternal 
grandfather,  was  a  large  ship-builder  of  Mill- 
bridge,  Me.,  five  miles  from  Steuben,  at  the 
head  of  Dyer's  Bay.  The  bay  was  named  for 
his  ancestor,  Henry  Dyer,  Jr.,  who  came  hither 
from  Cape  Elizabeth,  it  is  statetl,  with  his 
brother  Reuben  in  1768-69.  Henry  Dyer,  Jr., 
was  a  Ca])tain  in  the  Revolution,  stationed  at 
Machias,  Me.,  and  St.  John,  N.B.  {Bangor 
Historical  Magatine). 


212 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Miss  Foster's  school-days  were  spent  in 
Lowell,  Mass.,  where  she  was  graduated  from 
the  high  school.  She  afterward  studied  at 
the  Berlitz  School  of  Languages,  and  spent  sev- 
eral years  in  the  study  of  art  and  outdoor 
sketching. 

In  her  teens  she  sent  sonnets  to  the  Boston 
Transcrijit  and  afterward  to  various  magazines, 
contributing  short  stories  to  the  Youth's  Com- 
panion. In  1896  she  assumed  the  duties  of 
assistant  editor  of  The  Household,  eventually 
becoming  its  editor.  In  1900  she  assumed 
her  present  duties  on  the  Youth's  Companion. 

Her  first  book,  "Hortense,  a  Difficult  Child," 
was  published  by  Lee  &  Shepard  in  1902.  This 
book  had  an  immediate  sale,  and  before  six 
months  had  been  .sent  to  European  countries 
and  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

Miss  Foster's  home  is  now  at  Annisipiam, 
Mass.  She  leads  a  very  quiet  and  retired  life, 
and  is  not  a  member  of  any  club.  Her  chief 
characteristics  are  a  fondness  for  outdoor  life 
and  the  love  of  children.  She  has  a  large  call- 
ing list  of  little  folks,  and  most  of  her  leisure 
hours  are  spent  with  them. 

All  the  agreeable  impressions  gained  in  read- 
ing Miss  Foster's  stories  are  strengthened  by 
a  personal  meeting  with  the  author.  She  is 
wholly  unaffected,  and  her  simplicity  of  man- 
ner, joined  to  a  pleasing  directness  of  speech, 
refreshes  one  like  green  pastures  ancl  still 
waters. 


SALOME  THOMAS  CADE  ("Clayton 
Thomas")  was  born  in  Charlestown, 
Mass.,  in  1867.  She  belongs  to  a  good 
old  Maine  family,  whose  members  have 
been  prominent  factors  in  the  history  of  the 
State.  Holmes  Thomas,  her  father's  paternal 
grandfather,  was  a  Sergeant  in  Peleg  Wads- 
worth's  regiment  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Her  father,  Spencer  Churchill  Thomas,  married 
Eunice  Ann  Clayton,  of  Farmington,  Me.,  anti 
just  before  the  birth  of  their  daughter  they 
moved  to  Charlestown,  Ma.ss.  The  subject  of 
this  sketch  began  her  education  in  the  ('iuirle.s- 
town  public  schools,  subsequently  taking  les- 
sons from  private  tutors.  At  an  early  age  she 
displayed  the  gifts  of  harmony  and  improvisa- 


tion, and  long  before  she  knew  a  note  on  the 
piano  was  an  object  of  interest  to  those  who 
watched  her  childish  fingers  unerringly  extract 
melodies  from  the  keys.  Subsequently  devel- 
oping talent  as  a  vocalist,  at  the  early  age  of 
fourteen  she  toured  with  an  opera  company 
appearing  in  several  leading  parts.  At  the  age 
of  twenty  she  was  travelling  as  a  member  of 
the  Balfe  Opera  Company  of  New  York,  with 
which  she  scored  her  chief  success  as  Lady 
Harriett  in  "Martha."  Later  she  spent  four 
years  touring  under  the  auspices  of  the  Red- 
path  Lyceum  Bureau. 

Feeling  a  strong  desire  to  gather  laurels  in 
the  field  of  musical  composition,  she  became 
a  diligent  student  in  the  higher  departments 
of  music,  studying  in  London  with  Randegger 
(under  whom  she  did  her  first  work  in  compo- 
sition) and  with  Henschel.  In  Paris  and  in 
Belgium  she  is  a  great  favorite.  She  has  a 
high  soprano  voice  of  great  purity  and  sweet- 
ness. 

In  1894  Miss  Thomas  began  composing  con- 
cert songs,  and  in  1900  she  began  publishing 
them  in  London.  While  residing  in  that  city 
she  studied  composition  and  harmony  at  the 
Guild  Hall,  under  Professor  Gadsby.  She  also 
instructed  pupils  on  the  piano,  finding  a  some- 
what select  and  congenial  field  in  teaching 
ladies  who  could  sing  to  play  their  own  accom- 
paniments. 

As  among  the  most  pleasant  experiences  con- 
nected with  her  foreign  travels  she  recalls  her 
stay  in  Edinburgh  and  the  Scottish  Highlands. 
Yet  there  were  incidents  connectetl  with  her 
visit  to  Wales  which  render  it  memorable.  Her 
father's  family  being  formerly  dwellers  in  the 
south  of  Wales,  she  took  a  special  pleasure  in 
learning  the  language,  songs,  antl  folk-lore  of  the 
country.  While  visiting  the  old  Malvern  par- 
ish church,  which  Jenny  Lind  used  to  attend, 
and  to  which  she  was  a  most  generous  con- 
tributor. Miss  Thomas  noticed  that,  while 
many  others  had  been  honored  with  memorial 
windows  and  tablets,  there  was  nothing  to 
signify  remendirance  of  her.  The  man  in 
charge,  questionetl  as  to  the  reason  of  tliis 
strange  omission,  replied  that  he  supposed 
"nobody  had  ever  thought  about  it."  Miss 
Thomas  took  pleasure  in  placing  a  wreath  of 


REPRESENTATR'E   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


213 


laurel  and  a  flag  on  tlie  grave  of  the  great  artist, 
and,  making  a  donation,  asked  the  man  to  place 
a  contribution-box  upon  the  walls,  with  a 
printed  request,  inviting  visitors  to  assist  in 
procuring  a  tardy  memorial  to  the  wonderful 
songstress  and  noble,  pure-hearted  woman. 

They  were  Welsh  frienils  who  urged  Miss 
Thomas  to  publish  the  Japanese  Love  Song, 
which  so  impressed  Mr.  Boosey,  of  London,  the 
great  music  publisher,  that  he  requested  all 
her  work.  This  song  was  enthusiastically  re- 
ceived by  the  nuisical  world,  and  i-eached  the 
sale  of  twenty  thousand  the  first  year.  The 
composer  has  since  pviblished  "The  Mechanical 
Doll,"  Eugene  Field's  "Toy  Land,"  "Wing 
Tee  Wee,"  "Jai)anese  Dance"  (for  string  or- 
chestra), now  being  used  in  the  London  ])rotluc- 
tion  of  "The  Darling  of  the  Gods,"  also  an 
Ave  Maria,  which  has  been  enthusiastically  re- 
ceived in  London,  "My  French  Lesson,"  and 
"Chasing  Butterflies."  In  Leipsic,  with  Bos- 
worth,  she  published  "Peace  on  Earth,"  a 
Christmas  song,  the  words  of  which  she  wrote 
under  the  name  of  "Eaton  Churchill."  Her 
usual  professional  pseuilonym,  "  Clayton 
Thomas,"  is  a  combination  of  both  her  father's 
and  mother's  family  names.  She  is  now  busy 
on  other  works,  but  does  nothing  hurriedly; 
and  surely  her  music  is  original  and  choice 
enough  to  be  well  worth  waiting  for. 

In  September,  1902,  MLss  Thomas  married 
George  Lyman  Cade,  of  Cambridge,  Mass. 
After  residing  for  some  time  in  Boston,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Caile  removed  to  their  present  home  in 
Melrose.  They  have  one  child,  a  daughter, 
Margaret  Salome,  who  was  born  in  Melrose, 
October  28,  1903. 

Mrs.  Cade  is  a  member  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal church.  She  belongs  to  Paul  .Jones  C'hap- 
ter,  D.  A.  R.,  and  was  for  many  years  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Cecilia  Club  of  Boston. 

Graceful,  almost  girlish  in  figure,  of  gracious 
and  unassuming  manners,  she  is  a  woman  of 
delightful  personality  and  an  interesting  con- 
versationalist. 

Mrs.  Cade  has  recently  been  giving  the  Jap- 
anese Love  Song  and  dance  in  native  C(jstume 
in  Boston,  receiving  marked  commendation 
from  musical  critics.  In  November  next,  1904, 
she  is  to  appear  in  London  in  a  series  of  con- 


certs and  recitals  under  the  management 
of  Messrs.  Boosey  &  Co.,  introducing  her  own 
songs. 


ALICE   E.    WELD    WHITAKER,   first 

/  \  president  of  the  Boston  Woman's  Press 
X  .^  Club  (organized  in  February,  1903), 
was  born  at  Southbridge,  Mass.,  m 
November,  1851,  being  a  daughter  of  Charles 
Winthrop  and  Lucinda  (Richardson)  Weld. 
She  is  a  direct  descendant  of  Captain  Joseph 
Weld,  who  figured  prominently  in  the  early 
history  of  Roxbury.  She  also  traces  her  an- 
cestry along  other  lines  to  early  settlers  of 
Boston.  Mrs.  W^hitaker  early  manifested  a 
liking  for  domestic  science,  both  practical  and 
theoretical,  and  also  for  newspaper  work. 
Opportunities  enabled  her  to  gratify  and  develop 
her  natural  tastes.  Her  life  work  has  been 
therefore  along  these  dual  lines,  which  have 
admirably  supplemented  and  assisted  each 
other,  strength  and  experience  gained  in  one 
having  increased  her  ability  and  usefulness 
m  the  other.  In  this  way  she  has  become 
well  known  as  a  newspapei'  worker  and  a  rec- 
ognized authority  on  much  that  relates  to 
domestic  life,  from  cooking  and  sanitation  to 
the  artistic  use  of  the  needle  and  brush.  Her 
early  education  included  the  regular  courses 
at  the  high  school  in  her  native  town  and  at 
Nichols  Academy,  Dudley. 

Mrs.  Whitaker's  newspaper  work  began  soon 
after  her  marriage  to  George  M.  Whitaker, 
A.M.,  in  1872.  For  sixteen  years  she  edited 
a  page  of  the  Southbridge  Journal,  devoted 
to  women's  interests.  This  department  was 
conducted  with  such  ability  that  it  soon  won 
more  than  a  local  reputation,  and  gave  the 
Journal  a  standing  as  mon;  than  a  mere  pur- 
veyor of  town  items.  For  a  year  she  was  the 
sole  editor  of  the  paper. 

In  1886  Mrs.  Whitaker  removed  to  Boston 
and  took  a  prominent  position  on  the  New 
England  Farmer,  of  which  she  edited  a  page 
devoted  to  women's  interests  until  July,  1903. 
This  was  a  strong  feature  of  the  paper,  and 
added  much  to  its  popularity.  Her  editorials 
were  frequently  quoted  in  other  publications. 
In  addition  to  this  teclmical  writing  and  edit- 


214 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ing  she  did  considerable  all-round  work  on  the 
Neiv  England  Farmer,  at  times  being  responsi- 
ble for  the  editing  of  the  whole  pajier.  Further 
than  this,  she  has  done  much  work  for  other 
publications.  For  two  years  she  edited  the 
Health  Magazine,  which  was  a  marked  success 
under  her  management.  For  several  years  she 
has  written  a  daily  article  on  cookery  for  a 
syndicate  of  daily  papers;  for  a  portion  of  the 
tune  this  was  illustrated.  She  has  also  done 
much  miscellaneous  literary  work,  and  has  been 
a  frequent  contributor  to  various  other  period- 
icals. 

She  was  one  of  the  earliest  members  of 
the  New  England  Woman's  Press  Associa- 
tion, in  which'  she  has  held  all  offices  except, 
the  presidency,  and  she  has  been  frequently 
urged  to  take  that.  Her  services  are  in  fre- 
qumt  demand  on  different  important  com- 
mittees of  the  association.  She  represented 
it  one  year  at  the  convention  of  the  International 
League  of  Press  Clubs,  and'  has  four  times  been 
a  delegate  to  the  National  Editorial  Association, 
having  twice  responded  to  invitations  to  pre- 
pare papers  for  its  progranunes. 

Mrs.  Whitaker  was  invited  to  prepare  a 
paper  for  the  World's  Fair  Press  Congress  in 
Chicago  in  1893  on  "Three  Quarters  of  a 
Century  in  Agricultural  Journalism."  This 
paper  was  received  with  much  approbation. 
She  was  also  selected  for  a  similar  congress 
at  the  exposition  at  Atlanta. 

Her  writings  have  always  been  popular  be- 
cau.se  they  are  based  on  actual  experience,  and 
because  they  eliminate  the  purely  imaginative 
or  what  is  merely  theoretical.  "  If  Mrs. 
Whitaker  said  so,  it  is  so  "  is  a  fre(|uent  comment 
about  articles  which  appear  over  her  name. 
Her  style  is  marked  by  clearness,  vigor,  and 
terseness.  Her  meaning  is-  always  evident, 
and  no  words  are  wasted  in  getting  at  it.  This 
is   a   great    desideratum    in    newspaper    work. 

Mrs.  Whitaker's  prominence  as  a  writer  and 
authority  on  domestic  topics  has  created  a 
demand  for  her  services  in  a  number  of  direc- 
tions growing  out  of,  but  allied  to,  her  special 
work.  She  was  at  one  time  employed  by  the 
Bay  State  Agricultural  Society  to  organize 
a  series  of  travelling  cooking-schools  in  coun- 
try towns.     She  plaimed  and  successfully  man- 


aged a  Household  Institute  in  connection  with 
the  great  Food  Fair  in  Boston  in  1897.  She 
is  freciuently  in  demand  as  an  expert  judge 
at  fairs. 

Although  Mrs.  Whitaker's  chief  claim  to 
prominence  is  in  her  newspaper  work,  she  is 
well  known  as  a  club  woman.  The  many  brill- 
iant functions  of  the  New  England  Woman's 
Press  Association  always  give  prominence  to 
its  officers,  and  this  prominence  has  been  em- 
phasized in  her  case  by  the  many  years  that 
she  has  been  officially  connected  with  the 
association.  She  was  a  leading  spirit  in  the 
organization  of  the  Winthrop  Woman's  Club 
and  its  first  president.  Her  experience  and 
executive  ability  did  much  to  start  it  on  a 
sound  basis  and  to  give  it  a  recognized  stand- 
ing among  sister  clubs.  On  her  resignation 
she  was  elected  an  honorary  life  member. 
She  was  also  a  member  of  the  Cooking  Teach- 
ers' Club  during  its  existence,  and  was  one  of 
the  charter  members  of  the  Boston  Business 
League.  She  served  the  League  as  secretary 
antl  treasurer,  and  was  e'ected  an  honorary 
member.  For  several  'y^'ifs  she  has  been  a 
member  of  the  Arts  and  Crafts  Committee  of 
the  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs. 

She  is  the  mother  of  two  daughters:  Lillian, 
who  is  now  living;  and  Ethel,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  twenty-three.  F]thel  Whitaker  was  an 
artist  of  rare  promise,  who  had  already  won 
a  recognizeil  position  in  art  and  been  much 
com])limented  as  an  exhibitor  at  the  exhibi- 
tions of  the  Boston  Art  Club  and  others  of 
etjual  standing.  She  was  a  co-worker  with 
her  mother,  whose  work  she  illustrated  in  dif- 
ferent daily  and  other  pul)lications.  Her  pre- 
matine  death  was  acknowledged  by  the  critics 
to  be  a  less  to  the  art  world. 


ABBIE  ANN  BIGELOW,  president  of 
/\  the  Worcester  Branch  of  the  Bald- 
_/  \_  winsville  Hospital  Cottages,  is  a  na- 
tive of  Marlboro,  Mass.  Born  .Au- 
gust 1,  1SX7,  daughter  of  William  and  Eunice 
(Wilson)  Gibbon,  she  passed  the  first  twenty 
years  of  her  life  as  Abbie  A.  Gil)bon  in  her 
childhood's  home,  leaving  school  at  the  age  of 
twelve   years   to   become   her   mother's   helper 


ABBIE    A.  BIGELOW 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


215 


in  the  household  cares  of  a  large  family.  Her 
grandfather,  Samuel  Gibbon,  was  the  son  of 
Samuel,  Sr.,  and  Lydia  (!ibbon,  and  was  born 
April  27,  1759,  in  Dedhani,  Mass.  He  mar- 
ried Abigail  Colburn,  of  Dedham,  November 
25,  1784,  and  went  to  Marlboro  in  December 
of  the  same  year.  He  was  a  farmer  and  store- 
keeper and  a  prominent  citizen  of  Marlboro, 
being  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  Representa- 
tive in  the  Legislature.  He  died  January  12, 
1833,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four.  His  first 
wife,  Abigail  Colburn,  died  in  1787:  his  second 
wife,  Elizabeth  Perkuis,  died  in  1800;  and  his 
third  wife,  Abigail  Cogswell,  died  March  31, 
1826. 

William  Gibbon,  above  named,  .son  of  Sam- 
uel and  his  third  wife,  was  born  in  Marlboro, 
Mass.,  July  25,  1807,  being  the  twelfth  of  a 
family  of  thirteen  children.  He  was  a  farmer 
and  held  many  town  offices.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Marlboro, 
also  a  charter  member  of  the  Marlboro  Savings 
Bank,  in  which  he  was  a  director  for  many 
years.  He  died  November  11,  1890,  in  the 
room  where  he  was  born,  having  lived  all  his 
life  in  the  same  house.  This  house,  although 
two  hundretl  years  old,  is  still  in  good  repair. 
It  has  never  been  mortgaged,  and  has  had  but 
three  owners. 

Eunice  Wilson,  wife  of  William  Gibbon,  was 
born  December  1,  1808,  in  Peterboro,  N.H. 
She  was  married  in  1835,  and  died  October 
31,  1890,  just  eleven  days  before  her  husband. 
Neither  of  them  was  ever  sick,  and  both  pa.ssed 
away  from  the  infirmity  of  old  age.  Their 
graves  are  in  Brighani  (Cemetery,  Marlboro, 
Mass.,  very  near  the  old  home  and  on  land  once 
owned  by  Mr.  Gibbon. 

Eunice  Wilson's  parents  were  \\'illiam^  antl 
Dotia  (Smith)  Wilson.  William^  was  the  son 
of  Major  Robert"  Wilson,  who  came  to  Amer- 
ica with  his  parents  from  the  north  of  L-eland 
in  1737.  His  father,  William,'  settled  in 
Townsentl,  Mass.  Major  Robert  Wilson  mar- 
ried Mary  Hodge,  of  West  Cambridge,  and 
went  to  Peterboro,  N.H.,  where  he  became 
a  farmer  and  tavern-keeper.  William'  Wil- 
son also  kept  a  public  house,  the  \\'ilson  Tav- 
ern, a  noted  place  for  assemblies  and  balls 
and   public  meetings  in  his  day.     The  house 


is  still  well  preserved,  and  is  a  well-known 
landmark  in  Peterboro. 

James  Wilson,  another  son  of  Major  Robert 
and  uncle  of  Eunice,  was  born  in  1766.  He 
settled  in  Keene,  N.H.,  and  from  1809  to  1811 
was  a  member  of  Congress,  where  on  account 
of  his  great  height  (being  over  six  feet  tall 
and  very  large  in  every  way)  he  was  known 
as  "  Long  Jim." 

Abbie  Ann  Gibbon  was  married  May  20, 
1858,  to  Walter  Balfour  Bigelow,  of  Marlboro. 
He  died  March  30,  1872,  leaving  her  with  two 
small  children.  Mr.  Bigelow  was  the  youngest 
son  of  Gershom  Bigelow,  of  Marlboro,  who 
was  born  March  22,  1768,  and  his  second  wife, 
Eunice  Wilder,  who  was  born  in  Sterling,  Mass., 
January  13,  1790. 

Mr.  Bigelow  and  his  brother  Charles  were 
.shoe  manufacturers,  having  a  large  factory 
in  Marlboro,  and  were  the  first  to  make  shoes 
by  what  was  called  "  team  work."  Burnt  out 
in  1852,  they  went  to  New  York  and  made 
shoes  at  Sing  Sing,  employing  prison  labor. 
They  also  carried  on  the  same  business  at 
Trenton,  N.J.,  and  several  other  places,  in- 
cluding Worcester,  Mass.,  where  they  were 
managers  of  the  once  large  and  prosperous 
Bay  State  Shoe  and  Leather  Company,  whose 
main  factory  was  there  located. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bigelow  had  three  children 
who  outliveil  their  earliest  infancy:  Lawrence 
Gibbon,  born  November  23,  1866:  Ralph  Olin, 
born  July  21,  1868,  who  dietl  in  1871;  and 
Isabella  Francis,  born  December  27,  1869. 

Lawrence  Gibbon  Bigelow  was  educated 
in  the  public  schools  of  ^\'{)rcester  antl  the 
Highland  Military  Academy,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  1882.  He  has  been  a  member 
of  the  State  militia,  having  enlisted  as  a  pri- 
vate in  Battery  B,  of  Worcester,  and  been 
successively  promoted  till  he  became  Captain, 
serving  in  that  rank  ten  years.  He  married 
Fannie  Davis  Clark,  of  Worcester,  October 
9,  1889,  and  has  one  daughter,  Gretchen  Bige- 
low, born  November  4,  1890.  Isabella  Fran- 
cis Bigelow  was  married  October  31,  1900, 
to  Allan  J.  McFarlane,  of  Newtonville,  Mass. 
They  have  one  son,  Harold. 

Mrs.  Bigelow  has  lived  in  Worcester  for  the 
past    thirty-three    years.     She    is    a    member 


216 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF   NEW  ENGLAND 


of  St.  Mark's  P^piscopal  Church.  In  addition 
to  her  home  duties  she  ha.s  found  time  for  many 
outside  interests.  She  is  a  member  of  the 
Worcester  Woman's  Club  and  a  charter  hfe 
member  of  the  Worcester  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  also 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Woman's  Auxiliary,  in  both 
of  which  societies  she  has  held  offices.  The 
presidency  of  the  charitable  society  known 
as  the  Worcester  Branch  of  the  Baldwinsville 
Hospital  Cottages  for  Children,  its  purpose 
being  to  aid  that  benevolent  institution,  Mrs. 
Bigelow  has  held  for  four  years  and,  as  indi- 
cated above,  still  holds.  For  the  same  length 
of  time  she  has  served  as  treasurer  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of 
Worcester,  remaining  in  office  at  present  writ- 
ing (November,  1903). 


HARRIET  AUGUSTA  RALPH,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Association  of 
the  Soldiers'  Home  in  Massachusetts, 
is  the  wife  of  William  H.  Ralph,  of 
Sonierville.  She  was  born  in  Camden,  N.J., 
March  20,  1851,  daughter  of  the  late  Joseph 
Parker  and  Hannah  Elizabeth  (Bullock)  Myers. 
Her  father  was  from  Philadelphia. 

Through  her  mother  Mrs.  Ralph  is  a  great- 
great-grand-daughter  of  Abijah  Reed,  who, 
as  recorded  in  the  Revolutionary  Rolls  of  New 
Hampshire,  was  a  private  in  Captain  William 
Walker's  company.  Third  New  Hampshire 
Regiment,  connnanded  by  Colonel  James  Reed 
in  1775,  and  in  1776  was  in  Captain  William 
Barron's  company,  which  rendered  service 
in  Canada.  The  Hillsborough  (N.H.)  County 
History  names  him  as  one  of  the  soldiers 
who  fought  at  Bunker  Hill.  He  is  said  to  have 
held  at  one  time  the  rank  of  Corporal  and  later 
that  of  Sergeant.  He  died  at  his  home  in  Dun- 
stable, now  Nashua,  N.H.,  about  the  year  1828. 
His  daughter  Hannah  married  James  Wheeler. 
Their  daughter,  Mary  Sampson  Wheeler,  mar- 
ried Jabez  Bullock;  and  Hannah  Elizabeth 
Bullock,  tlaughter  of  Jabez  and  Mary,  married 
in  November,  1S45,  Joseph  Parker  Myers, 
above  named. 

In  1851  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Myers  removed  to 
Boston.  Mr.  Myers  enlisted  in  1861  in  Com- 
pany   G,    Eleventh    Massachusetts    Regiment. 


He  was  commissioned  First  Lieutenant,  and 
was  in  the  early  campaigns  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  As  the  result  of  injuries  received 
and  of  disease  contracted  in  the  service,  he  was 
honorably  discharged  in  August,  1862.  He 
was  an  invalid  the  rest  of  his  life,  being  incapac- 
itated for  active  work.  When  Joe  Hooker 
Post,  No.  23,  G.  A.  R.,  was  fonned  in  East 
Boston,  Lieutenant  Myers  enrolled  his  name 
on  its  list  of  members.  He  vyas  a  man  of  ster- 
ling principles,  and  was  highly  respected  by  his 
associates.  He  died  September  23,  1891,  at 
the  home  of  his  daughter  in  Somerville.  His 
grave  is  in  Woodlawn  Cemetery,  Everett. 

Brigadier-general  William  W.  Bullock,  who 
was  prominent  in  the  State  militia  before  the 
Civil  War  and  in  subsequent  years  identified 
with  national  interests,  was  Mrs.  Ralph's 
uncle.  Her  mf)ther,  who  was  General  Bullock's 
sister,  was  President  of  the  Soldiers'  Ladies 
Aid  Society  formed  in  East  Boston  in  1871, 
which  was  one  of  the  first  societies  of  the  kind 
organized  in  the  country.  Mrs.  Ralph  was 
a  member  of  that  society.  In  1882  she  joined 
the  Willard  C.  Kinsley  Relief  Corps,  No.  21, 
of  Somerville,  as  a  charter  member.  Of  this 
corps  she  was  the  second  President,  subse- 
([uently  serving  as  secretary. 

In  1886  Mrs.  Ralph  was  elected  treasurer  of 
the  Department  of  Massachusetts,  W.  R.  C. 
After  serving  with  efficiency  three  years 
in  this  responsible  position,  she  declined  a  re- 
election on  account  of  illness,  but  accepted 
office  as  a  member  of  the  Department  Execu- 
tive Boaril  two  successive  years.  In  the  plans 
for  the  National  I'^ncamjiment  of  the  G.  A.  R. 
in  Boston  in  1N90  Mrs.  Ralph  actively  repre- 
sented the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  of  Mas.saclui- 
.setts.  She  was  a  delegate  at  large  to  the 
National  Convention  in  Tremont  Temple,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
Arrangements  and  of  subcommittees.  As 
chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee,  she  had 
charge  of  several  thousand  dollars  contributed 
to  the  Convention  fund  iiy  the  corps  in  re- 
sponse to  an  appeal  for  money  to  provide  for 
the  reception  and  entertainment  of  visitors 
and  delegates. 

Mrs.  Ral]ih  has  also  been  a  National  Aide, 
press  correspondent,  chaplain,  and  Junior  Vice- 


HARRIET   A.  RALPH 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


217 


President.  AMieu  iKimiiiatcd  tor  the  hitter  of- 
fice, among  the  many  testimonies  to  her  work 
and  ability  was  the  following  by  Mrs.  Mary  L. 
Crilnian,  Past  De]«rtin(>nt  President;  "Mrs. 
Ralph  has  ably  tilled  positions  of  honor  in  this 
department,  and,  as  has  been  stated,  could 
have  held  the  highest  ofhce  years  ago  hail  not 
her  duty  to  an  invaliil  soldier  father  seemed  to 
her  more  imperative.  Siie  deserves  this  recog- 
nition in  coming  forward  again.  She  has  always 
manifested  great  interest  in  the  work,  and  we 
appreciate  her  valuable  services.  She  is  highly 
respected  as  a  noble  woman  wherever  known. 
She  has  always  been  ready  to  help  in  any  emer- 
gency ;  in  the  past  her  services  were  such  that 
we  feel  assured  that  if  elected  she  will  be  a 
worthy  leader." 

Mrs.  Ralph  was  chosen  and,  at  the  conven- 
tion a  year  later,  was  unanimously  elected  De- 
partment iSenior  \'ice-Presiilent ;  in  accordance 
with  the  custom  of  the  conventions  this  insures 
her  election  as  Department  President  in  1905. 

Mrs.  Ralph  joined  the  Ladies'  Aid  As.socia- 
tion  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in  Massachusetts 
soon  after  it  was  formed,  in  1SS2,  serving  on  the 
committee  that  drafted  the  constitution  and 
also  as  recording  secretary  of  the  association. 
After  holding  the  office  of  secretary  for  three 
years,  she  declined  a  re-election.  A  valuable 
silver  service,  suitably  inscribed,  was  pre- 
sented her  in  1886,  accompanied  by  an  en- 
grossed testimonial  expressing  the  regard  of 
the  members  and  their  ajjpreciation  of  her 
work.  She  is  now  (1904)  serving  her  fifth 
year  as  President. 

The  object  of  the  association  is  to  co-operate 
with  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  promoting  the 
interests  of  the  Soldiers'  Home,  assist  in  fur- 
nishing a  library,  and  provide,  as  far  as  possible, 
such  articles  as  are  necessary  for  the  comfort 
of  tlie  inmates.  The  appointment  of  finance 
committees  to  solicit  memberships  and  the 
issuing  of  appeals  through  the  papers  and  by 
circulars  were  the  first  methods  adopted  to 
enlist  co-operation  and  financial  support. 
Women  who  had  rendered  service  in  hospitals 
and  elsewhere  during  the  days  of  the  civil  strife, 
representatives  of  the  old  Soldiers'  Home  or- 
ganization, members  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps  and  of  other  organized  charities  in  Massa- 


chusetts, have  united  their  efforts  in  promoting 
the  work  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Association. 

Every  week  since  the  home  was  opened,  the 
hearts  of  the  inmates  have  been  cheered  by  their 
visits,  and  by  the  books,  flowers,  fruit,  and  nu- 
merous other  gifts  that  they  have  distributed. 
The  entertainments  given  by  the  association  for 
the  financial  benefit  of  the  home  have  been  well 
patronized.  The  Ladies'  Aid  table,  with  its 
several  annexes,  furnished  by  invitation  of  the 
executive  connnittee  of  the  Soldiers'  Home 
Carnival  in  188.3,  netted  five  thousand  four 
hundred  ninety-five  dollars  and  ninety  cents 
to  its  treasury.  The  kettledrum  arranged  for 
the  evening  of  February  14,  1884,  which  was 
attended  by  five  thousand  persons,  and  was 
recognized  by  the  public  anil  recorded  in  the 
press  as  a  brilliant  social  event,  added  four- 
teen hundred  dollars.  A  part  of  this  sum 
was  expended  in  the  j)urchase  of  a  lot  in 
Forest  Dale  Cemetery,  Maiden. 

In  referring  to  the  work  of  the  Ladies'  Aiil, 
Mrs.  Ralph,  in  an  address  given  at  a  church 
gathering  in  Sumerville  in  1900,  said  in  part : 
"The  association  has  borne  the  entire  expense 
of  caring  for  the  cemetery  lot,  which  amounted 
to  more  than  one  thousand  dollars  from  189G 
to  1899,  inclusive.  Through  the  efforts  of  the 
late  Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker,  condenmed  can- 
non were  secured  from  the  War  Department 
and  mounted  on  the  lot  at  a  cost  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars.  The  monu- 
ment of  granite  was  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Lyman 
Tucker,  who  was  an  active  member  from 
the  date  of  organization  until  her  life's  work 
was  completed,  ami  who  remembered  the 
association  in  her  will. 

"In  1885  new  steps  to  Powder  Horn  Hill, 
Chelsea,  where  the  home  is  located,  were  built 
at  a  cost  of  four  hundred  and  five  dollars  and 
forty-five  cents,  and  in  1887  new  floors  were 
laid  in  the  home,  for  which  over  one  hundred 
dollars  were  appropriated.  General  Horace 
Binney  Sargent  Hall  has  been  furnished  for 
religious  .services  and  entertainments.  The 
a,ssociation  assisted  in  furnishing  the  additional 
building  erected  in  1890,  and  in  1898  refur- 
nished the  surgeon's  office  with  desk,  chair, 
and  other  supplies.  In  1899  clocks  were  placed 
in  three  of  the  larger  rooms.     Assistance  has 


218 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


been  given  in  furnishing  a  library,  and  the  care 
of  some  rooms  has  been  assumed  by  members 
who  bear  all  the  expense  of  this  pleasant  duty." 

At  the  annual  meeting  twelve  directors  antl 
twelve  visitors  are  elected,  and  one  of  each  of 
these  visits  the  home  in  some  month  during 
the  year.  In  order  that  the  duties  m;iy  be 
thoroughly  understood,  it  is  required  tliat 
before  being  elected  to  the  Board  of  Directors 
a  member  shall  serve  as  visitor.  A  fair  held 
in  Horticultural  Hall,  Boston,  in  November, 
1900,  for  the  perpetual  care  of  the  buri;d-lot 
above  referred  to  netted  three  thousand  dol- 
lars, checks  for  liberal  amounts  being  received 
from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  S.  Conver.'^e,  of  Maiden, 
and  generous  contributions  from  other  friends. 

The  Presidents  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Associa- 
tion have  been  Mrs.  Caroline  King,  Mrs.  Julia 
K.  Dyer  (who  served  ten  years),  Mrs.  Austin  C. 
Wellington,  Mrs.  William  A.  Bancroft,  Mrs. 
Augusta  A.  Wales,  and  Mrs.  Harriet  A.  Ralph. 

The  late  Captain  John  (1.  B.  Adams,  in  his 
last  report  as  presitlent  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Home  (July,  1900),  mentioning  the 
services  at  Forest  Dale  Cemetery,  Maiden, 
on  Memorial  Day,  carried  out  by  Gettysburg 
Post,  of  Boston,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Ladies'  Aid,  said:  "This  association  has  main- 
tained its  interest  in  the  home  \mabated,  and 
in  very  many  ways  has  rendered  service  which 
could  not  be  otherwise  provided.  It  has  been 
a  blessing  to  us  since  the  incorporation  of  our 
board.  It  surely  is,  anil  I  trust  will  ever  con- 
tinue to  be,  what  its  name  implies,  an  aiil 
as.sociation." 

Mrs.  Ralph  is  a  member  of  the  Broatlway 
Congregational  Church  of  Somerville,  and  is 
deeply  interested  in  religious  work.  She  is 
also  identified  with  Ivaloo  Lodge,  Daugliters 
of  Rebekah,  of  Somerville,  has  served  as  its 
treasurer,  and  declined  higher  offices  that  have 
been  tendered  her.  She  is  interested  in  other 
social  and  charital)le  work  connected  with  the 
Independent  Order  of  Odd  PVllows.  Mrs.  Ralph 
is  a  member  of  the  Heptorean  Club  Auxiliary 
of  Somerville. 

The  marriage  of  Harriet  A.  Myers  and  Will- 
iam H.  Ralph,  of  Boston,  took  place  in  May, 
1874  They  removed  to  Somerville,  and  have 
continued    their  residence   in    that   city.     Mr. 


Ralph  is  one  of  the  leading  Odd  Fellows  in 
Massachusetts,  and  has  been  an  officer  of  the 
Grand  Encampment,  I.  O.  0.  F.,  and  is  Grand 
Marshal  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Massachusetts. 
He  was  Commandant  of  Canton  Washington, 
Patriarchs  Militant,  of  Somerville,  at  the  time  of 
the  comi)etitive  drill  at  Chicago.  This  canton 
there  won  the  second  prize,  which  consisted 
of  a  valuable  diamond  i)in  for  the  connnandant 
and  a  magnificent  banner  for  the  canton.  Mr. 
Ralph  was  Colonial  of  the  Second  Massachu- 
setts Regiment,  Patriarchs  Militant,  in  1891, 
and  was  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  parade  when  the 
Sovereign  Grand  Lodge  met  in  Boston  in  1894. 
He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Masonic  order. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ralph  are  highly  esteemed 
by  a  wide  circle  of  friends.  They  have  had 
three  children — namely,  Joseph  William,  born 
April  11,  1875;  H.  Florence,  born  September 
22,  1880 — both  graduates  of  the  Somerville 
High  School,  and  Charles  Warren,  born  August 
17,  1877,  who  died  January  9,  1880.  Their 
eldest  son  was  a  j'oung  man  of  talents  and  abil-- 
ity  that  gave  promise  of  a  successful  career. 
His  christian  fortitude,  his  manly  beaiing  and 
genial  companionship,  won  for  him  many  friends 
in  all  circles  of  society.  He  passed  to  the  life 
beyond,  SeptcTuber  13,  1903. 


ELLEN  A.  RICHARDSON,  artist,  was 
born  in  Portsmouth,  N.H.,  being  a 
daughter  of  Oren  Bragdon  and  his 
wife,  Anna  H.  W.  Bragdon.  We  are 
told  that  the  first  Bragdons  in  New  Eng- 
land came  over  from  England  in  their  own 
vessels  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  .sailed  up  York  River,  and  took  up 
their  abode  in  the  town  of  York,  Me.  Some 
of  the  land  of  which  they  became  the  owners 
has  never  passed  out  of  the  possession  of 
the  family,  and  it  is  said  to  be  a  matter 
of  record  that  no  year  has  elapsed  in  which 
some  Bragdon  has  not  been  serving  the  town 
in  public  office. 

Mrs.  Richardson  is  the  wife  of  A.  Maynard 
Richardson,  of  Boston.  She  was  educated  in 
public  and  private  schools  of  Portsmouth, 
N.H.,  and  the  academy  at  Fryeburg,  Me.,  pur- 
suing special  studies  in  art,  in  which  she  made 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


219 


great  progress.  After  her  marriage  her  hfe 
for  many  years  was  devoted  chiefly  to  her 
family,  the  pursuit  of  art,  however,  absorbing 
mufh  of  her  leisure.  She  was  equally  at  home 
in  the  handling  of  oils,  water-colors,  i)astels,  and 
charcoal,  engaging  also  in  etching  and  the 
decoration  of  porcelain  and  clay  under  the 
glaze.  Her  proficiency  in  the  last  nametl 
line  of  work  became  such  that  in  1893  she  re- 
ceived an  appointment  to  serve  at  the  Colum- 
bian Exposition  in  Chicago  on  the  Board  of 
Awarils,  in  the  Department  of  Manufactures 
from  Clay,  antl  at  the  close  of  the  fair  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  the  official  report  of  the 
potteries  exhibit.  In  1895  she  was  appointed 
to  serve  on  the  Jury  of  Awards  in  a  similar 
position  at  the  Atlanta  Cotton  States  Inter- 
national Exposition.  Also  she  was  the  only 
woman  to  sit  with  the  Higher  Boartl  of  Awards 
which  held  its  sessions  in  the  Smithsonian 
Institute  at  ^^'ashington. 

Her  ability  to  organize  and  conduct  affairs 
of  magnitude  won  a  .series  of  successes  in  popu- 
lar and  scientific  lecture  courses  and  depart- 
mental attractions  during  several  successive 
seasons  of  the  expositions  in  Boston  of  the 
Massachusetts  Charitalile  Mechanic  As.socia- 
tion  and  in  the  home  congresses  hekl  in  Boston 
in  1896  and  1897. 

Appointed  during  her  connection  with  the 
Columbian  Exposition  as  Massachusetts  State 
President  of  the  National  Business  League, 
Mrs.  Richardson  founded  a  State  branch  thereof. 
As  President'  of  the  Massachusetts  Floral  Em- 
blem Society,  she  inaugurated  the  work  of  that 
society  also,  and  developed  it  in  a  most  diver- 
sifietl  manner,  resulting  in  the  adoption  by  the 
Society,  January  1,  1903,  of  the  Mountain 
Laurel  as  the  State  flower. 

While  Mrs.  Richardson  was  carrying  out  her 
aims  in  these  directions,  she  became  profounilly 
interested  in  the  long-neglected  becjuest  of 
Washington  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
and  from  her  study  of  the  <iuestion  she  was 
led  to  inaugurate  the  movement  for  securing 
a  fitting  commemoration  of  the  centennial 
of  Washington's  death  and  a  public  remem- 
brance of  his  last  will  and  his  last  gift  to  his 
people. 

In  warm  appreciation  of  her  three  faithful 


and  successful  years  of  service  in  organizing 
and  administering  the  affairs  of  the  George 
Washington  Memorial  Association,  friends  of 
Mrs.  Richarilson,  visiting  the  Cave  of  the 
Winds  in  South  Dakota,  considered  among 
the  most  attractive  of  the  wonders  of  the  West, 
selected  one  of  the  finest  of  its  beautiful  stalac- 
titeil  chambers,  antl  dedicated  it  with  cere- 
mony as  the  "  Washington-Richardson  Me- 
morial." It  may  be  noted  that  on  retiring  from 
the  presidency  of  the  Association,  Mrs.  Rich- 
ardson was  appointed  honorary  president,  the 
first  and  only  honorary  officer  the  Association  is 
to  have. 

The  United  States  Geographical  Survey  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington,  named 
for  her  an  island  in  the  i\rctic  Ocean,  this  being 
in  accordance  with  a  precedent  (established  for 
her)  for  the  recognition  of  notable  services  for 
education. 

Mrs.  Richardson  is  Cabinet  Head  of  the  De- 
partment of  Art  antl  Literature  of  the  National 
Council  of  Women,  for  which  she  is  planning 
most  comi)rehensive  and  helj)ful  work.  She  has 
been  made  chairman  of  a  special  committee  to 
collect  an  exhibit  of  Art  for  the  session  of  the 
International  Council  to  be  held  in  Berlin,  Ger- 
many, in  June,  1904,  and  has  been  aNo  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  speakers  at  the  Council. 
Her  sympathies  are  broad,  and  with  her  untir- 
ing energy  tend  to  keep  her  in  touch  with  all 
that  is  best  and  most  progressive  in  the  world 
of  womanly  entleavor. 


SARAH  Fl'LLER,  principal  of  the  Horace 
Mann  School  for  the  Deaf,  is  a  native  of 
Weston.  Daughter  of  Hervey  and  Ce- 
lynila  (Fiske)  Fuller,  and  a  tlescendant  of 
colonial  and  Revolutionary  ancestry,  she  was 
born  February  15, 1836.  Growing  to  womanhood 
under  the  influence  of  a  well-ordered  farmhouse 
home,  she  had  the  advantage  of  instruction  in 
the  public  schools  of  Weston  and  Newton  and 
the  Allen  English  and  Classical  School  of  West 
Newton. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  she  began  her  labors 
as  a  teacher  in  the  public  schools.  Her  first 
charge  was  in  West  Newton,  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  Rev.  Cyrus  Pierce    of   honored 


220 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


memory,  the  first  principal  of  the  first  normal 
school  in  the  country.  In  1857  she  entered  the 
service  of  the  Boston  schools.  For  nearly  ten 
years  she  taught  in  nearly  every  grade  in  the 
Boylston  Grannnar  School,  under  the  master- 
ship successively  of  Charles  Kimball,  William 
T.  Adams  (Oliver  Optic),  Alfred  Hewins,  John 
Jameson,  and  Lucius  Wheelock.  She  was 
teaching  in  the  Bowditch  School,  to  which  she 
had  been  transferred  from  the  Boylston,  when, 
after  due  preparation,  she  was  ajjpointed  (1869) 
the  principal  of  the  school  in  Boston  now  known 
as  the  Horace  Mann  School  for  the  Deaf,  the 
first  successful  public  day-school  ever  opened 
for  deaf  children.  She  is  still  the  head  of  this 
school,  after  over  thirty  years  of  service,  in 
which  there  has  been  n«  break  or  friction. 

Miss  Fuller  is  a  director  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciation to  promote  the  Teaching  of  Speech  to 
the  Deaf,  and  of  the  Convention  of  American 
Instructors  of  the  Deaf,  a  vice-president  of  the 
Sarah  Fuller  Home  for  Little  Children  who 
cannot  hear  (named  in  her  honor),  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Teachers'  and  National  Edu- 
cational Associations,  the  National  Geographic 
Society,  the  New  England  Association  of 
Teachers  of  English,  and  the  New  England 
Educational  League.  She  is  the  author  of  an 
illustrated  primer  and  a  set  of  phonic  charts 
that  are  found  useful  in  the  schools.  She  has 
written  articles  for  educational  publications, 
and  has  delivered  suggestive  addresses  before 
conventions. 

With  Harriet  B.  Rogers,  of  the  Clarke  Insti- 
tution at  Northam]:)ton,  and  Dr.  Alexander 
Graham  Bell,  with  whom  she  has  ever  worked 
in  hearty  sympathy.  Miss  Fuller  called  the  first 
convention  for  teachers  of  articulation.  In 
1890  she  taught  Helen  Keller  to  speak,  and, 
with  Dr.  Bell,  was  instrumental  in  having 
Phillips  Brooks  open  for  her  a  way  to  spiritual 
truths. 

That  through  organized  effort  parents  might 
be  even  more  helpful  than  they  had  been,  Miss 
Fuller  founded  in  1895  a  society  (the  first  of 
its  kind  ever  formed)  known  now  as  the  Boston 
Parents'  Education  Association  for  Deaf  Chil- 
dren. This  organization,  of  which  she  is  one 
of  the  directors,  has  proved  a  most  useful  ally. 
Its  latest  effort,  the  preparation  of  a  booklet 


giving  the  history  of  the  Horace  Mann  School 
and  its  relation  to  speech  and  speech-reading, 
testifies  to  her  efficient,  loving  work  and  that  of 
her  co-workers. 

Miss  Fuller's  labors  in  private  as  well  as  in 
public  cannot  be  fully  estimated.  As  one  of 
n)any  incidents  that  could  be  told  of  her  indi- 
vidual action  in  behalf  of  the  adult  deaf,  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  prominent  residents  of  a 
New  Hampshire  town  (Dublin)  so  appreciated 
what  she  and  her  special  teacher  of  speech  had 
done  for  an  adult  member  of  their  comnmnity 
that  they  did  what  they  knew  would  most 
please  her — gave  a  valuable  present  to  the 
school  under  her  charge. 

All  of  Miss  Fuller's  labor  is  imbued  with  the 
faithful,  heroic  spirit  of  her  New  England  an- 
cestry. And  with  it  all  there  is  a  gracious  per- 
sonality which  the  home  life  at  Newton  Lower 
Falls,  where  she  has  lived  in  one  house  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  as  well  as  the  school  life, 
constantly  reveals.  As  a  member  for  over  fifty 
years  of  St.  Mary 's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  Newton  Lower  Falls,  she  has  been  active  in 
the  Sunday-School  and  in  other  work  of  that 
society. 

The  following  is  copied  from  Miss  Fuller's 
statement  relative  to  Helen  Keller,  addressed 
to  the  superintendent  of  public  schools: — 

The  first  intimation  to  me  of  Helen  Keller's 
desire  to  speak  was  on  the  26th  of  March,  1890, 
when  her  teacher.  Miss  Sullivan,  called  upon  me 
with  her,  and  asked  me  to  help  her  to  teach 
Helen  to  speak ;  for,  said  she,  "  Helen  has  spelled 
upon  her  fingers,  'I  must  speak.'"  She  was 
then  within  three  months  of  being  ten  years  old. 
Some  two  years  before,  accompanied  by  her 
mother,  Mr.  Anagnos,  and  Miss  Sullivan,  she 
had  visited  the  Horace  Mann  School  for  the 
Deaf,  when  her  ready  use  of  English  and  her 
interest  in  the  children  had  suggested  to  me 
that  she  could  be  taught  to  speak.  But  it  was 
not  then  thought  wise  to  allow  her  to  use  her 
vocal  organs.  Now,  however,  that  the  attempt 
was  to  be  made,  I  gladly  undertook  the  work. 
I  began  by  familiarizing  her  with  the  position 
and  condition  of  the  various  mouth  parts  and 
with  the  trachea.  This  I  did  by  passing  her 
hand  lightly  over  the  lower  part  of  my  face  and 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


221 


by  putting  her  fingers  into  my  mouth.     I  then 
placed  my  tongue  in  the  position  for  the  sound 
of  i  in  it,  and  let  her  find  the  point,  as  it  lay 
perfectly  still  and  soft  in  the  bed  of  the  jaw, 
just  behind  the  lower  front  teeth,  and  discover 
that  the  teeth  were  slightly  parted.     After  she 
had  tlone  this,  I  placed  one  of  her  forefingers 
upon  my  teeth  antl  the  other  upon  my  throat, 
or  trachea,  at  the  lowest  point  where  it  may  be 
felt,  and  repeated  the  sound  I  several  times. 
During  this  time  Helen,  standing  in  front  of 
me  in   the  attitude  of  one  listening   intently, 
gave  the  closest  attention  to  every  detail;  and, 
when  I  ceased  making  the  sound,  her  fingers 
flew  to  her  own  mouth  and  throat,  and,  after 
arranging  her  tongue  and   teeth,   she   uttered 
the  sound  i  so  nearly  like  that  I  had  made,  it 
seemed  like  an  echo  of  it.     When  told  she  had 
given  the  sound  correctly,  she  repeated  it  again 
and  again.     I  next  showed  her,  by  means  of  her 
sensitive   fingers,   the   depression   through   the 
centre  of  the  tongue  when  in  position  for  the 
sound  of  a  and  the  opening  between  the  teeth 
tluring   the   utterance   of   that   sound.     Again 
she  waited  with  her  fingers  upon  my  teeth  and 
throat  until  I  sounded  a  several  times,  and  then 
she  gave  the  vowel  fairly  well.     A  little  prac- 
tice enabled  her  to  give  it  perfectly.     We  then 
repeated  the  sound  of  i  and  contrasted  it  with 
a.     Having  these  two  differing  positions  well 
fixed  in  her  mind,  I  illustrated  the  position  of 
the  tongue  and  lips  while  sounding  the  vowel 
0.     She  experimented  with  her  own  mouth,  and 
soon  produced  a  clear,   well-defined  o.     After 
acquiring  this  she  began  to  ask  what  the  sounds 
represented,  and  if  they  were  words.     I  then 
told  her  that  i  is  one  of  the  sounds  of  the  letter 
i,  that  a  is  one  of  the  sounds  of  the  letter  a, 
and    that    some    letters    have    many    different 
sountls,  but  that  it  would  not  be  difficult  for  her 
to  think  of  these  sounds  after  she  had  learned 
to  speak  words.     I  next  took  the  position  for  a, 
Helen  following  as  before  with  her  fingers,  and, 
while  sounding  the  vowel,   .slowly  closed    my 
lips,  producing  the  word  "  arm."     Without  hesi- 
tation she  arranged  her  tongue,  repeated  the 
sounils,  and  was  delighted   to  know  that  she 
had  pronounced  a  word.     Her  teacher  suggested 
to  her  that  she  should  let  me  hear  her  say  the 
words  "mamma"  and  "papa,"  which  she  had 


tried    to    speak    before    coming    to    me.     She 
quickly  and  forcibly  said,  "nmm  nmm"  and 


puj)   pup 


I    commended    her   efforts,    and 


said  that  it  would  be  better  to  speak  very 
softly,  and  to  sountl  one  part  of  the  word 
longer  than  she  did  the  other.  I  then  illus- 
trated what  I  wanted  her  to  understand,  by 
pronouncing  the  word  "mamma"  very  deli- 
cately, and  at  the  same  time  drawing  my  finger 
along  the  back  of  her  hand  to  show  the  relative 
length  of  the  two  syllables.  After  a  few  repeti- 
tions, the  words  "mamma"  and  "papa"  came 
with  almost  musical  sweetness  from  her  lips. 

This  was  her  first  le.sson.  She  had  but  ten 
les.sons  in  all,  although  she  was  with  me  at 
other  times  talking  freely,  but  not  under  in- 
struction. The  plan  was  to  develop  at  each 
lesson  new  elements,  review  those  previously 
learnetl,  listen  to  all  of  the  combinations  she 
could  make  with  the  consonants  as  initial  and 
final  elements,  and  construct  sentences  with  the 
words  resulting  from  the  combinations.  In  the 
intervals  between  the  les.sons  she  practised  these 
with  Miss  Sullivan.  She  was  an  ideal  pupil, 
for  she  followetl  every  direction  with  the  utmost 
care,  and  seemed  never  to  forget  anything  told 
her.  On  the  day  she  had  her  seventh  lesson 
(Aprl  19)  she  and  Miss  Sullivan  were  invited 
with  me  to  lunch  at  the  house  of  a  friend. 
While  on  the  way  there  Miss  Sullivan  remarked 
that  she  wished  Helen  woukl  use  the  sentences 
she  had  learned,  and  added  that  she  seemed 
unwilling  to  do  so.  It  at  once  occurred  to  me 
that  the  cause  of  her  reluctance  was  her  con- 
scientious care  to  pronounce  every  word  per- 
fectly; and  so,  in  the  moments  I  had  with  her 
during  the  visit,  I  encouraged  her  to  talk 
freely  with  me  while  I  refrained  from  making 
corrections.  This  hatl  the  desired  effect.  In 
going  about  the  house  of  our  friend  she  asked 
a  great  many  ciuestions,  using  speech  constantly. 
In  the  presence  of  all  she  told  of  her  studies,  her 
home,  and  her  family.  She  also  told  of  a  visit 
to  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  a  short  time 
before,  when  she  "talked"  to  him.  Noticing 
her  words  as  .she  spoke,  there  were  but  four 
which  I  did  not  readily  understand.  The.se  I 
asked  her  to  spell  on  her  fingers.  Her  enjoy- 
ment of  this,  her  first  experience  in  the  real  use 
of  speech,  was  touchingly  expressed  in  her  re- 


222 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


mark  to  Miss  Sullivan  on  her  way  home,  "  I 
am  not  dumb  now."  In  a  conversation  some 
two  weeks  later  with  Dr.  Bell,  Miss  Sullivan, 
and  myself,  a  still  greater  freedom  in  the  use 
of  speech  was  noticeable.  Miss  Sullivan  fully 
appreciated  the  victory  gained,  for  she  wrote 
to  Mr.  Anagnos  two  months  after  Helen  had 
taken  her  first  lesson:  "Think  of  it!  Helen 
achieved  in  less  than  two  months  what  it  takes 
the  pupils  of  schools  for  the  deaf  several  years 
to  accomplish,  and  then  they  do  not  sj^eak  as 
plainly  as  she  does."  Helen's  own  joy  in  this 
conscious  possession  of  a  new  power  was  shown 
in  the  following  letter  she  wrote  me  a  week  or 
so  after  she  had  taken  her  first  lesson.  It  also 
reveals  the  origin  of  her  ilesire  for  speech. 

South  Boston,  Mass.,  April  .f.  inno. 
My  dkar  ^[iss  Filler: 

My  heart  is  full  of  joy  this  beautiful  morning  be- 
cause I  have  learned  to  speak  many  new  words,  and  I 
can  make  a  few  sentences.  Last  evening  I  went  out 
in  the  yard  and  spoke  to  the  moon.  I  said, "  ()  moon, 
come  to  me!"  Do  you  think  the  lovely  moon  was 
glad  that  I  could  speak  to  lier  ?  llow  glad  my  mother 
will  be!  I  can  hardly  wait  for  June  to  come,  I  am  so 
eager  to  speak  to  her  and  to  my  precious  little  sister. 
Mildred  could  not  understand  me  when  I  spelled  with 
my  fingers,  but  now  she  will  sit  in  my  lap,  and  I  will 
tell  her  many  things  to  please  her,  and  we  shall  be  so 
happy  together.  Are  you  very,  very  happy  l)ecause 
you  can  make  so  nianj-  people  happy  ?  I  think  you 
are  very  kind  and  jiatient,  and  I  love  you  very  dearly. 
My  teacher  told  me  Tuesday  that  you  wanted  to  know 
how  I  came  to  wish  to  talk  with  my  mouth.  I  will 
tell  you  all  about  it,  for  I  remember  my  thoughts  per- 
fectly. AVhen  I  was  a  very  little  child  I  used  to  sit  in 
my  mother's  laji  nearly  all  the  time,  because  I  was  very 
timid,  and  did  not  like  to  be  left  by  myself.  And  I 
would  keep  my  little  hand  on  her  face  all  the  while, 
because  it  amused  me  to  feel  her  face  and  lips  move 
when  she  talked  with  people.  I  did  not  know  then 
what  she  was  doing,  for  1  was  quite  ignorant  of  all 
things.  Then,  when  I  was  older,  I  learned  to  play 
with  my  nurse  and  the  little  negro  children,  and  I 
noticed  that  they  kept  moving  their  lips  like  my 
mother,  so  I  moved  mine,  too,  but  sometimes  it  made 
me  angry,  and  I  would  hold  my  playmates'  mouths 
very  hard.  I  did  not  know  then  that  it  was  very 
naughty  to  do  so.  After  a  long  time  my  dear  teacher 
came  to  me,  and  taught  me  to  connnunicate  with  my 
fingers,  and  I  was  satisfied  and  happy.  I5ut  when  I 
came  to  school  in  Boston  1  met  some  deaf  jieople  who 
talked  with  their  mouths  like  all  other  people,  and  one 
day  a  lady  wh"  had  been  to  Norway  came  to  see  me, 
and  told  me  of  a  blind  and  deaf  girl  she  had  seen  in 
that  far-away  land  who  had  been  taugiit  to  speak  and 


understand  others  when  they  spoke  to  her.  This 
good  and  happy  news  delighted  me  exceedingly,  for 
then  I  was  sure  that  I  sliould  learn  also.  I  tried  to 
make  sounds  like  my  little  ]ilavmates,  but  teacher  told 
me  that  the  voice  was  very  delicate  and  sensitive,  and 
that  it  would  injure  it  to  make  incorrect  sounds,  and 
jiromised  to  take  me  to  see  a  kind  and  wise  lady  wlio 
would  teach  me  rightly.  That  lady  was  yourself. 
Now  I  am  as  ha])py  as  the  little  birds,  because  I  can 
speak:  and  perhaps  I  sliall  sing,  too.  All  of  my 
friends  will  be  so  surprised  and  glad. 

Your  loving  little  pupil, 

Helen  A.   Keller. 

'  From  time  to  time  I  noted  the  improvement 
of  this  remarkable  girl  in  the  use  of  speech,  and 
I  am  free  to  confess  that  one  of  the  great  joys 
of  my  life  was  when,  six  years  after  the  first 
lessons,  it  was  my  privilege  not  only  to  suggest 
her  as  a  speaker  for  the  fifth  summer  meeting 
of  the  American  Association  to  promote  the 
Teaching  of  Speech  to  the  Deaf  at  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Institution  at  Mount  Airy,  but  to  see  and 
hear  the  successful  effort.  The  speech,  written 
out  by  herself  on  the  typewriter,  was  com- 
mittecl  to  memory  antl  now  repeated  without 
a  mistake. 


MAllY  ELIZABETH  KIMBALL,  Past 
President  of  the  National  Alliance, 
Daughters  of  Veterans,  is  a  success- 
ful teacher  in  the  public  schools  of 
Fitchburg,  Mass.,  her  native  place.  The  daugh- 
ter of  General  John  White  Kimball,  of  that 
city,  and  grand-daughter  of  Alpheus  Kimball, 
who  was  born  in  Fitchburg  in  1792  and  dietl 
in  1858,  she  is  of  the  fifth  generation  in  Worces- 
ter County  and  the  ninth  in  Massachusetts 
of  the  family  founded  by  Richard  Kimball, 
an  early  settler  of  Ipswich. 

Richard'  Kimball  came  over  from  England 
in  1634,  and  with  his  family  took  up  his  abode 
in  ^\'atertowu,  but  was  induced  not  long  after 
to  remove  to  Ipswich,  where  there  was  need 
of  a  wheelwright. 

Thomas^  Kimball,  born  in  Rattlesden,  Suf- 
folk, England,  in  1633,  .son  of  Richard'  and 
his  wife,  Ursula  Scott,  married  Mary  Smith, 
and  settled  in  Bradford,  then  a  part  of  Rowley, 
Mass.  Their  son  Thomas,'  born  in  1665, 
marricil    Deljorah    Pemberton,    antl    was    the 


MAI!Y    EI.IZAHETII    KI.MBAI 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


223 


father  of  I'^phraiiu/  who  married  Anne  Tenney. 
Ephraim,'^  born  in  Bradford  in  1722,  son  of 
Ephraim  and  Anne,  married  Mary  Wetherbee, 
of  Lvmenburg,  Worcester  County,  in  1746,  and 
resided  in  that  part  of  T^unenburg  wiiich  is 
now  Fitchburg.  Their  son  Ephraim,"  born  in 
Fitchburg,  married  Betsey  Wliite,  of  Lunen- 
burg, and  was  the  father  of  Alpheus,^  above 
named,  grandfather  of  Mary  Ehzabeth"  Kimball. 

Alpheus  Kimball  was  a  scythe-maker,  and 
carried  on  business  in  Fitchburg.  He  was 
a  Whig  in  politics  and  became  a  Free-soiler, 
being  a  strong  anti-slavery  man.  He  married 
Harriet,  daughter  of  Luther  Stone,  of  Framing- 
ham,  and  grand-tlaughter  of  Josiah  Stone,  who 
was  a  prominent  citizen  of  Framingham,  serv- 
ing as  Selectman,  Town  Clerk,  Represent- 
ative, State  Senator,  and  Councillor.  Josiah 
was  of  the  sixth  generation  in  descent  from 
Deacon  Gregory'  Stone,  who,  coming  to  New 
England  in  1635,  settled  in  Cambriilge.  The 
line  was:  Gregory';  John,^  who  settled  at  Sud- 
bury; DanieP;  Daniel';  Micah,^  who  married 
.\bigail  Stone,  of  Lexington;  Josiah,"  born  in 
1724.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  younger 
brother  of  Josiah,"  namely,  Eliab,"  born  in 
1737,  was  "Parson  Stone,"  of  revered  memory, 
who  for  more  than  sixty  years  was  pastor  of  the 
old  parish  church  in  North  Reading. 

The  Hon.  John  White  Kimball,  of  Fitch- 
burg, was  State  Auditor  for  nine  successive 
years,  having  been  first  elected  to  that  office 
in  1891.  He  has  served  in  various  town  offices; 
as  Representative  seven  terms;  on  the  State 
police  and  as  Police  Commissioner;  as  United 
States  Pension  Agent;  and  in  the  Treasury  De- 
partment at  Washington,  D.C.,  as  custodian 
in  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing. 
His  service  in  1846  as  marker  for  the  Fitchl)urg 
Fusiliers  was  the  begiiming  of  a  military  career 
which  culminated  in  the  Civil  War,  when  his 
gallant  and  distinguished  service  in  the  fieUl 
won  for  him  the  brevet  of  Brigadier-general 
of  United  States  Volunteers,  bestowed  March 
13,  1865.  His  military  record  is  as  follows; 
Captain  of  the  Fusiliers,  1855;  Adjutant  of 
the  Ninth  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Militia, 
1858;  Captain  of  Fusiliers,  1860,  going  with 
this  organization  into  United  States  service 
in  1861.     In  the  army  his  service  was;  Captain 


in  Fifteenth  Massachusetts  Infantry,  July  12, 
1861;  Major,  August  1,  1861;  present  at  Ball's 
Bluff;  Lieutenant  Colonel,  April  29,  1862; 
commanded  the  regiment  in  all  the  battles  of 
the  Peninsular  Campaign,  Second  Bull  Run, 
South  Mountain,  and  Antietam;  Colonel  of 
Fifty-third  Ma.s-^adiu.setts  Infantry,  November 
10,  1862;  mustered  December  3;  served  in 
Louisiana,  participating  in  the  Siege  of  Port 
Hudson  which  lasted  forty-six  days.  The  term 
of  .service  of  his  regiment  ex])ired  September  2, 
1863.  In  January,  1S64,  Colonel  Kimball  was 
appointed  superintendent  of  recruiting  service 
for  Worcester  County,  with  head(]uarters  at 
Worcester.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  Depart- 
ment Commanders  of  the  G.  A.  R.  for  the 
State  of  Massachusetts. 

John  W.  Kimball  married  July  15,  tSSl, 
Almira  Melissa  Lesure.  Four  children  were 
born  to  them,  and  three  are  now  living,  namely — 
Emma  Frances,  Mary  Elizabeth,  anil  Edward 
Franklin.  Enuna  Frances  married  April  17, 
1S78,  Fred  William  ]']ager.  Josephine  White, 
the  fourth  child,  died  September  2,  1881.  Ed- 
ward Franklin  Kimball  is  a  charter  member 
and  Past  Captain  of  Camp  No.  28,  Sons  of 
A'eterans,  of  Fitchburg;  and  Mrs.  Emma 
Frances  Eager  is  a  charter  member  and  Past 
President  of  Tent  No.  8,  Daughters  of  Veter- 
ans. 

Miss  Kimball  appears  to  have  inherited  from 
her  father  the  ciualities  which  made  him  a 
brilliant  soldi^  and  a  successful  statesman. 
She  became  interested  in  the  Daughters  of 
Veterans  when  Louisa  M.  Alcott  Tent,  No.  8, 
was  organized  in  Fitchburg,  and  .served  as 
President  of  tiie  Tent  in  1892,  accepting  the 
honor  of  a  re-election  in  1893.  Through  her 
zealous  and  untiring  efforts  No.  8  is  known 
throughout  the  State  and  nation  as  one  of  the 
leading  tents  of  the  order.  Miss  Kimball 
has  served  the  Department  of  Massachusetts 
Daughters  of  Wterans  as  Junior  ^'ice-Presi- 
dent,  Senior  Vice-President,  and  in  1899  as 
President.  Her  administration  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  in  the  history  of  the  depart- 
ment. Strongly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
justice  and  right,  she  worked  unceasingly  for 
a  just  recognition  of  the  Daughters  of  Veterans 
by   the   Grand   Army   of   the   Republic.     The 


224 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


result  was  gratifying.  At  the  thirty-fourth 
National  Encampment  of  the  G.  A.  R.,  held 
in  Chicago  in  1900,  a  resolution  which  was 
presented  by  John  E.  Oilman,  Department 
Commander,  was  adopted,  entlorsing  the  order 
and  giving  to  it  the  same  official  recognition  as 
that  previously  accorded  to  the  Sons  of  \'eterans. 

The  Soldiers'  Home  work  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  D.  of  V.  was  perpetuated  through 
her  efforts,  and  has  met  with  success.  Am- 
bitious to  have  the  "Daughters"  accomplish 
some  work  of  permanent  value  in  this  line, 
Miss  Kimball  made  the  first  donation,  which 
resulted  in  establishing  a  Soldiers'  Home  fund. 
The  convalescent  ward  of  the  Sokliers'  Home 
is  named  the  D.  of  V.  Ward. 

Miss  Kimball  was  elected  National  President 
of  the  Daughters  of  ^'eterans  at  the  convention 
in  Philadelphia,  September,  1899.  She  or- 
ganizetl  many  new  tents,  and  was  indefatiga- 
ble in  her  efforts  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
order.  During  her  administration  the  subject  of 
official  recognition  by  the  (Jrand  Army  of  the 
Republic  was  presented  to  all  the  departments 
of  that  body  in  States  where  tents  existed. 

"Onward  ever,  surrender  never,"  has  l)een 
her  motto;  and  with  ever  ready  hcljifulness 
she  has  brought  the  sisters  of  this  grand  organi- 
zation into  closer  relationship.  The  daughters 
have  been  led  to  show  the  same  fraternal  spirit 
which  actuated  the  "fathers  whose  record  they 
proudly  revere."  The  members  of  the  entire 
order  vie  with  each  other  in  according  to  Miss 
Kimball  thanks  for  the  good  work  she  has  ac- 
complished. 


JULIA  ANN  BRAY  RUSSELL,  M.D.,  was 
born  in  Reading,  Mass.,  March  6,  1847, 
daughter  of  John  and  Eliza  (Holt)  Russell. 
Her  father,  a  native  of  Andover,  Mass., 
was  a  pattern-maker  by  occupation,  and  noted 
for  a  phenomenal  accuracy  of  eye.  In  a  small 
way  he  was  also  an  inventor.  He  died  at  the 
age  of  fifty-six  years.  The  Doctor's  mother, 
who  was  born  in  Reading,  Mass.,  lived  to  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty-seven.  Her  mother 
(the  maternal  grandmother)  was  from  the 
north  of  Ireland,  a  devout  woman  of  Protes- 
tant principles.     Both  Dr.  Russell's  father  ami 


mother  were  characterized  by  great  gentleness 
of  manner,  and  to  the  extent  of  their  resources 
they  devoted  themselves  to  philanthropic  work 
in  their  inmiei^liate  neighborhood,  seldom  turning 
a  deaf  ear  to  the  appeals  of  the  unfortunate, 
where  they  could  not  assist  with  material  aid, 
tendering  a  warm  and  ready  sympathy  that 
was  often  of  greater  value. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  acciuired  her  gen- 
eral education  in  the  schools  of  Reading  and 
under  the  instruction  of  Rev.  Thomas  J. 
Greenwood  (Father  Greenwood)  with  whom 
she  studied  for  four  years.  One  of  the  recollec- 
tions of  her  girlhood  is  of  falling  asleep  on 
many  nights  while  the  maiden  aunt  under 
whom  she  was  reared  read  to  her  out  of  the 
Bible  and  Mr.  Garrison's  anti-slavery  paper, 
the  Liberator.  The  solemn  cadences  of  the 
Scriptures  doubtless  neutralized  the  horrors  of 
the  Liberator,  and,  luUetl  by  the  sweet  voice 
of  her  aunt,  she  found  the  well-deserved  rest 
of  the  innocent  and  comi)assionate. 

She  early  gave  evidence  of  a  taste  for  the 
profession  that  she  subsequently  adopted. 
When  only  fourteen  years  of  age  she  was  often 
called  ujjon  from  all  parts  of  the  town  to  sit 
up  with  and  care  for  the  sick.  From  the  work 
of  a  nurse  to  the  calling  of  a  physician  was, 
for  one  of  her  bent,  a  natural  step,  and  after 
some  years  of  diligent  application  to  study 
she  received  her  medical  diploma  from  Boston 
University.  Selecting  Maiden  as  her  field  of 
labor,  she  at  once  opened  an  office  in  that  city, 
where  she  has  since  resided  and  practisetl. 
Starting  with  a  sound  theoretical  knowledge  of 
both  medicine  and  surgery,  she  has  since  ac- 
quired that  accuracy  of  diagnosis  and  skill  in 
treatment  that  comes  only  after  years  of  actual 
practice,  and  then  only  to  those  who  are  fitted 
by  nature,  inclination,  and  training  for  the 
healing  profession.  To  these  necessary  qual- 
ities she  adds  an  address  that  invites  the  con- 
fidence of  her  patients  and  a  personal  character 
that  commands  for  her  the  respect  of  the  com- 
numity  in  which  she  lives. 

Dr.  Russell  has  a  collection  of  anticjues  that 
includes  some  specimens  of  rare  interest  and 
value.  Among  them  is  the  old  flint-lock  pistol 
carried  by  General  Warren  at  the  battle  of 
Bmiker  Hill,  given  to  her  by  Mr.  Fred  Pickering, 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


225 


a  member  of  the  \\'arren  family,  and  a  cup  and 
saucer  that  were  used  at  a  banijuet  held  many 
years  ago  to  celebrate  the  Boston  Tea  Party. 
A  lover  of  the  fine  arts,  the  Doctor  possesses  na- 
tive talent  as  a  painter,  and  her  home  on  Main 
Street,  Maiden,  is  adorned  with  several  i)leasing 
and  well-executed  pictures  in  oil  from  her  own 
brush. 

Dr.  Russell  has  not  accumulated  for  herself 
any  considerable  amount  of  this  world's  goods, 
but  her  deeds  of  charity  and  benevolence, 
both  in  the  bestowal  of  personal  service  and 
the  giving  of  money,  have  laid  up  for  her  a 
wealth  of  gratitude  in  the  hearts  of  the  many 
recipients  and  in  her  own  the  reward  that 
comes  to  those  who  have  learned  that  it  is 
"more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive."  Her 
natural  kindness  is  shown  in  the  adoption  of 
two  daughters,  one  some  twenty  years  ago  and 
the  other  within  the  last  five  years,  antl  both 
under  circumstances  that  show  a  mother's  de- 
votion and  love.  Dr.  Russell  is  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Homa-opathic  Medical  So- 
ciety, the  Boston  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society, 
and  various  local  medical  societies.  She  at- 
tends the  Protestant  Episcopal  church  of 
Maiden. 


MARY  J.  PRESCOTT  FADES,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  is  a  daughter 
of  sturdy  old  New  England  blood, 
coming  from  Scotti.sh  ancestry. 
In  the  year  1608  was  born  in  Scotland  Deacon 
John  Leavitt,  who  came  to  America  in  1628 
and  settled  in  Hingham,  Mass.  Of  his  descend- 
ants among  the  best  known  are  Moses  Leavitt, 
his  .son,  antl  Dudley  Leavitt,  his  great-great- 
grandson,  who  was  so  named  from  Governor 
Thomas  Dudley,  to  whom  his  family  was  re- 
lated. The  life  of  Dudley  Leavitt  was  sjient 
in  the  (at  that  time  not  inconsistent)  occupa- 
tions of  teacher  and  farmer.  Though  in  all  he 
had  not  more  than  three  months'  schooling, 
he  was  a  student  by  nature  and  spent  every 
leisure  moment  in  study,  so  that  at  the  age  of 
twenty  he  was  well  groun<le(l  in  all  the  science 
of  that  day,  especially  in  mathematics,  and 
able  to  give  instruction  in  algebra,  geometry, 
trigonometry,  navigation,  gunnery,  astronomy. 


and  philosophy.  For  this  instruction  he  re- 
ceived from  each  |)ui)il  the  generous  tuition  fee 
of  three  dollars  a  ([uarter.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-two  he  married  Judith  Glidden,  of  Gil- 
manton,  N.H.  They  resided  in  that  town  until 
1806,  when  he  removed  to  Meredith,  N.H., 
wliich  was  his  home  for  the  remaintler  of  his 
life. 

With  all  his  teaching  and  other  work,  he 
found  time  to  make  jjractical  use  of  his  scien- 
tific attainments  in  the  compilation  of  a 
farmers'  almanac.  His  first  edition  of  this  was 
published  in  1797,  his  last  in  1858.  He  died 
in  1851,  leaving  one  edition  in  the  press  and 
six  others  in  manuscript,  a  total  of  sixty-two 
continuous  issues.  He  taught  some  portion  of 
every  year  until  he  was  seventy-four,  and  at 
the  same  time  carried  on  his  farm.  After  his 
marriage  he  studied  Greek  and  Latin,  and  later 
in  life  Hebrew  and  several  of  the  modern  lan- 
guages. He  made  the  calculations  for  the  New 
Hampshire  and  Freewill  Bapti.st  Registers,  and 
was  the  author  of  several  school  text-books, 
having  at  the  time  of  his  death  a  work  on  as- 
tronomy nearly  ready  for  the  press.  He  was 
the  "most  robust  style  of  scholar,"  thinking 
that  whatever  was  to  be  known  he  must  know, 
And  as  Prof.  Agassiz  saitl,  should  be  painted 
with  a  book  in  his  hand,  others  filling  his 
pockets,  and  knowledge  sticking  out  all  over 
his  tall  head.  In  the  only  portrait  of  him  in 
existence  his  head  and  face  are  very  remark- 
able for  intellectuality  and  a  certain  childlike 
yet  noble  dignity.  One  of  his  pupils  expres.ses 
her  impression  of  him  as  a  man  who  loved 
knowletlge  and  reverenced  God. 

He  had  eleven  children,  five  boys  and  six 
girls.  t)ne  daughter,  Jane,  .married  the  Rev. 
John  L.  Seymour,  who  was  a  missionary  among 
the  Indians  from  1832  to  1846.  Another, 
Judith,  married  the  Rev.  John  Taylor  Jones, 
a  missionary  at  Bangkok,  Siam.  One  son, 
Dudley,  who  was  fitted  for  college  by  his  father, 
was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  in  1889,  and 
studied  divinity  at  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary, but  died  suddenly  before  graduation.  A 
younger  child,  Mary,  was  no  exception  to  the 
rest  of  the  family  in  her  ambition  to  obtain 
knowledge,  and,  after  she  became  a  devoted 
■wife   and   mother,   always   found   time   in   the 


226 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


midst  of  lier  busy  household  cares  to  aid  ma- 
terially, spiritually,  and  intellectually  those  de- 
pendent upon  her.  She  was  blessed  witli  a 
sweet  Christian  character,  antl  commanded  the 
respect  antl  love  of  all  who  knew  her.  About 
the  year  1837  she  married  Josiah  S.  Prescott, 
of  Meredith,  N.H.,  whose  occupation  was  that 
of  farmer  and  carpenter.  Mr.  Prescott  was  al- 
ways active  in  the  public  welfare,  serving  the 
town  on  the  Board  of  Selectmen  and  satisfac- 
torily representing  his  district  in  the  State 
Legislature.  They  had  four  boys  and  two 
girls. 

The  fourth  child  and  oldest  daughter  of 
Josiah  S.  and  Mary  (Leavitt)  Prescott  is  the 
one  whose  name  heads  the  present  article. 
Mary  J.  Prescott  was  born  in  Meredith,  N.H. 
As  a  mere  child  she  displayed  great  talent  for 
music,  shown  in  her  ability  to  read  unfamiliar 
compositions  with  correctness  of  tune  and 
tune.  The  advantages  of  a  musical  education 
were  not  sufficiently  appreciated  as  com|)ared 
with  the  more  practical  and  utilitarian  attain- 
ments. Consequently  her  training  was  con- 
fined to  patient  and  persistent  individual  effort 
and  the  annual  winter  singing-school.  A\'hile 
living  at  home  she  was  a  valued  memlier  of  the 
church  choir,  and  later  she  acceptably  filled 
the  position  of  leading  soprano  in  several  Massa- 
chusetts churches,  being  also  for  a  number  of 
years  an  active  member  of  the  Handel  and 
Haydn  Society  of  Boston,  Mass.  Although  her 
instruction  on  the  pianoforte  was  very  limited, 
she  mastered  some  of  the  most  difficult  music. 
Naturally  an  earnest  and  ajjt  student,  she  com- 
pleted her  education  at  Tilton  (N.H.)  Seminary, 
and  taught  successfully  in  the  district  schools  of 
her  native  State.  It  may  here  be  said  that 
one  of  the  most  pleasant  experiences  in  her 
etlucational  life  was  the  two  years  spent  as  a 
pupil  in  the  Emerson  College  of  Oratory,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

In  .seeking  the.se  higher  attainments  she  did 
not  lose  her  interest  in  the  affairs  of  every-day 
life,  but  has  continued  to  manifest  that  adapta- 
bility which  enables  one  to  accomplish  what 
the  hand  finds  to  do.  Her  life  from  childhood 
has  seemed  one  continuous  effort  and  sacrifice 
for  others.  In  the  year  LS71  she  was  called  to 
a  position  in  Boston,  and  a  few  years  later  she 


married  John  G.  Fales,  of  Thomaston,  Me. 
From  the  time  of  her  marriage  she  has  lived 
in  Boston  and  vicinity,  her  home  since  LS92 
being  in  Cambridge,  Mass.  She  was  reared  in 
the  Baptist  denomination,  and  afl^iliated  with 
that  church  until  she  became  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist. A  devoted  disciple,  she  gratefully  bears 
testimony  as  follows:  "From  earliest  remem- 
brance I  longed  to  express  that  soul  music  in 
song  which  would  convert  the  listener.  Since 
embracing  the  science  of  Christianity  as  given 
in  the  Christian  Science  text-book,  'Science  and 
Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,'  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  I  have  in  a  measure  realized  that  long- 
desired  soul  harmony  'with  signs  following,' 
not  only  in  having  been  raisetl  from  invalidism, 
but  through  experiencing  its  invaluable  spir- 
itual uplifting.  In  common  with  others  who 
imbibe  the  spirit  of  this  teaching,  it  has  been 
my  high  privilege  to  show  many  the  way  to 
health  ancl  harmony,  leading  them  to  an  under- 
standing of  their  true  being  as  children  of  God. 
vSuch  work  has  sought  me  to  such  an  extent 
and  the  benefit  afforded  others  has  been  so 
gratifying  that  all  other  ambitions  have  become 
secondary. 


CLARA  H.  BAGG  EVANS,  who  in 
February,  1903,  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Department  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
was  born  June  2,  1860,  in  Pittsfield,  Berkshire 
County,  Mass.,  being  a  daughter  of  Edwin 
and  Catharine  (Hull)  Bagg.  Her  father's 
great  -  great  -  grandfather,  David  Bagg,  was 
one  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Pittsfield,  re- 
moving thither  with  others  from  Westfield, 
Mass.,  about  the  year  1763,  only  a  few  years 
after  the  building  of  the  first  log  cabin  in 
that   locality. 

The  Bagg  family  have  held  a  continued 
residence  in  Pittsfield  from  that  time  to  the 
present.  In  the  Revolutionary  War  David 
Bagg  was  a  soldier  in  Captain  William  Fran- 
cis's company,  which  marched  to  Albany, 
N.Y.,  January  14,  1776,  by  order  of  General 
Schuyler;  an(l  later  he  was  a  member  of  Lieu- 
tenant James  Hubbard's  company,  which  was 
ordered    to     Manchester     on     July     18,  1777. 


noRA    BASCOM   SMITH 


KEPRSSENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


227 


He  was  not  only  a  sold.*':  hiniscU',  at  the 
age  of  sixty  years,  but  liad  five  sons  in 
the  service  as  well.  These  sons  were  .loseph, 
Martin,  Aaron,  Phineas,  and  Daniel.  (See 
"Massachusetts  Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the 
Revolution,"  vol.  i.)  Martin  Bagg,  born  in 
1745,  died  in  1824.  From  him  the  line  now 
being  considered  descended  through  his  son 
Martin,  Jr.,  to  Jedediah  Bagg,  who  married 
Clarissa  Newton,  and  was  the  father  of  Edwin, 
above  named,  and  paternal  grandfather  of 
Mrs.  Evans.  Moses  Newton,  fatlier  of  Clarissa, 
was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  serving  three 
months  under  Captain  Sanuiel  Taylor  in 
1776  and  for  several  short  terms  in  later  years 
(see  History  of  Deerfield,  Mass.). 

Mrs.  Evans's  maternal  gramlfather,  Oliver 
Sculthorpe  Hull,  was  a  soldier  of  the  War 
of  1,S12. 

Her  father,  Edwin  Bagg,  enlisted  in  the 
Sixty-first  Massachusetts  Regiment  in  1864 
for  one  year,  but  on  account  of  the  close  of 
the  war  received  an  honoialile  discharge  at 
the  end  of  nine  months.  Edwin  Bagg  entered 
the  employ  of  Jason  Clapp  as  a  farmer  in 
1850,  being  then  a  young  man;  and  he  con- 
tinued in  Mr.  Clapp's  emjiloy  and'  that  of 
his  son  until  his  own  death,  in  December, 
1894.  The  mother  of  Mrs.  Evans  still  re- 
siiles  in  Pittsfield,  her  native  place. 

Clara  H.  Bagg  received  her  education  in 
the  Pittsfield  public  schools.  At  the  age 
of  sixteen  she  became  an  employee  in  a  large 
ilry-goods  house.  There  she  soon  developed 
remarkable  business  ability,  and  was  i)romoted 
to  the  ])osition  of  l)ook-keeper  anil  confidential 
clerk,  in  which  tlouble  capacity  she  served 
for  seventeen  years.  June  2,  1897,  she  was 
married  to  David  L.  Evans,  son  of  Thomas 
and  Helen  M.  Evans. 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  she  united  with  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  has  ever 
since  been  an  active  and  earnest  worker  in 
its  different  departments. 

In  the  year  1887  Mrs.  Evans  became  iden- 
tified with  W.  W.  Rockwell  Relief  Corps, 
auxiliary  to  the  G.  A.  R.  One  year  later 
she  was  elected  treasurer,  holding  the  position 
for  eleven  years,  when  she  was  elected'  presi- 
dent for  the  years   1898  and   1899.     She  was 


again  elected  treasurer  in  1900,  and  still  holds 
the  position.  In  1898  Mrs.  Evans  was  a 
member  of  the  local  executive  committee 
of  the  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Aid  Associ- 
ation, which  did  such  good  work  in  furnishing 
relief  and  supplies  to  the  soldiers  in  the  war 
with  Spain. 

Mrs.  Evans  was  Department  Aide  in  1898- 
99.  She  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Ex- 
ecutive Board  in  1900,  Junior  Vice-President 
in  1901,  and  Senior  Vice-President  of  the 
Department  Woman's  Relief  Corps  in  1902. 
Elected  President  of  the  Department  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  February  of  the  present  year  (1903), 
as  above  statetl,  she  is  devoting  her  time  and 
strength  to  the  best  interests  of  the  order. 


DORA  BASCOM  SMITH,  of  Brookline, 
first     vice-president    of     the     Ladies' 
Physiological   Institute,  has  been  co- 
worker   with    most    of    the    notable 
women    philanthropists,   reformers,   suffragists, 
of  the  day,  and  has  filled  various  responsible 
official  positions. 

A  native  of  Massachusetts,  born  in  the  town 
of  Palmer,  September  18,  1840,  tlaughter  of 
Alonzo  anil  Clarissa  (Keith)  Bascom,  she  comes 
of  old  colonial  stock,  tracing  her  paternal  an- 
cestry back  to  Thomas  Bascom,  who  came  from 
England  less  than  twenty  years  after  the  land- 
ing of  the  Pilgrims,  lived  for  a  time  in  Connecti- 
cut, and  thence  removed  to  Northampton, 
Mass.  Several  succeeding  generations  of  the 
family  resided  in  the  Connecticut  valley. 
Alonzo  Bascom  was  in  business  for  many  years 
as  a  cotton  manufacturer  in  East  Jaffrey, 
N.H.  His  sterling  (jualities  strongly  impressed 
his  daughter,  and  exerted  a  marked  influence 
on  her  character.  His  wife  Clarissa,  mother  of 
Dora,  was  the  daughter  of  Daniel^  and  Lydia 
(Frost)  Keith  and  grand-daughter  of  Alexander* 
Keith,  who  is  mentioned  in  the  History  of 
Palmer,  Mass.,  as  a  descendant  in  the  fourth 
generation  of  the  Rev.  James  Keith,  the  first 
minister  of  Bridgewater,  Mass.  James  Keith 
came  from  Scotland  in  1662.  He  had  been  a 
student  at  Aberdeen.  He  married  Susanna 
Edson,  daughter  of  Deacon  Samuel  Edson,  of 
Bridgewater. 


228 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Bereft  of  a  mother's  loving  care  at  the  age 
of  six  years,  Dora  Basconi  early  learned  lessons 
of  self-reliance  and  of  unselfishness  and  us(>ful- 
ness  to  those  around  her.  She  was  educateil  al 
Townsend  Female  Seminary,  and  at  the  age 
of  sixteen  she  entered  her  father's  counting- 
room,  where  she  filled  the  position  of  hook- 
keeper  and  confidential  clerk  until  her  mar- 
riage. To  that  period,  with  its  varied  ex- 
periences, she  is  indebted  for  her  broad  and 
practical  views  of  life.  It  is  a  mistaken  idea 
that  business  development  in  woman  blunts 
her  finer  sensibilities:  the  opposite  is  the  truth. 
Like  a  ))lant  whose  blossoms  are  cut  freely, 
human  nature  repays  in  richness  and  fruitful- 
ness  for  all  drafts  properly  made  on  its  re- 
sources; and  a  woman  who  has  become  |)unc- 
tilious  in  business  detail  has  learned  to  solve 
many  problems  in  profit  and  loss,  eciuity,  jus- 
tice, that  must  be  encountered  and  .wived  in 
the  same  punctilious  way  in  daily  life.  Dora 
Bascom,  while  in  her  father's  business  office, 
came  in  contact  with  many  people,  and  her 
philanthropic  spirit  early  manifested  itself  in 
kindly  ministrations  to  the  poor  and  sick  of 
the  village.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out, 
and  the  Sanitary  Commission  was  formed  in 
June,  1861,  she  joined  the  ranks  of  devoted 
patriotic  women,  and  worked  early  and  late 
for  relief  of  the  "  boj's  in  blue." 

She  was  married  November  27,  1862,  to 
Samuel  Garfield  Smith,  a  well-known  watch- 
maker of  Boston.  Two  children,  Kate  Auzella 
and  Dexter  Munroe,  blessed  this  happy  union. 

Kate  Auzella  Smith  was  married  April  23, 
1889,  to  Charles  Sunmer  Waterhouse.  They 
live  in  Brookline,  Mass.,  and  have  one  child, 
a  daughter  named  Irma.  Mrs.  Waterhouse  is 
a  well-known  whist  teacher. 

Dexter  Munroe  Smith,  broker,  was  for  fifteen 
years  in  the  employ  of  F.  H.  Prince  &  Co., 
Boston.  He  married  December  19,  1894,  Anna 
Cogswell,  of  Ipswich,  Mass.,  where  they  now 
reside.  They  have  two  children,  Helen  C.  and 
Julian  D. 

Mrs.  Smith  was  one  of  the  earliest  meml)ers 
of  the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union  of  Boston,  and  for  many  years  served 
on  important  committees.  She  was  influential 
in  agitating  the  (juestion  of  the  placing  of  ma- 


trons in  the  police  ;?i.ations.  She  was  a  charter 
member  of  the  New  Eilgland  Helping  Hand 
Society  and  was  on  its  Board  of  Government 
for  several  years.  This  opened  to  her  numerous 
opportunities  for  quiet,  unostentatious  charity. 
Many  a  wronged  girl  has  reason  to  bless  her  for 
pecuniary  help  as  well  as  kindly  sympathy. 

She  was  on  one  of  the  committees  of  the  fair 
for  Mrs.  Charpiot's  Home  for  Intemperate 
Women,  by  which  thirteen  thousand  dollars 
was  raised.  These  committees  conceived  the 
idea  of  forming  the  Woman's  Charity  Club  of 
Boston.  Mrs.  Smith  was  one  of  the  organizers 
thereof  and  its  first  hospital  treasurer,  holding 
the  position  five  years,  until  obliged  to  resign 
by  a  protracted  illness.  She  served  for  six 
years  as  first  vice-president  of  the  club. 

Of  the  Ladies'  Physiological  Institute  of 
Boston,  said  to  be  the  oldest  women's  organi- 
zation in  America,  she  has  been  the  first  vice- 
president  for  twenty-one  years.  The  object  of 
the  Institute  is  to  bring  within  the  reach  of 
women,  by  open  lecture  platform,  in  a  simple 
way,  such  medical,  hygienic,  and  physiological 
instruction  as  shall  lead,  by  interesting  them, 
to  deeper  study  and  usefuhiess  reganling  the 
health  and  welfare  of  those  in  their  keeping. 

Some  of  its  charter  members  who  lived  to  a 
ripe  old  age  were  bitterly  opposed  to  woman 
suffrage,  anil  the  fiuestion  was  debarred  from 
its  platform  and  discussions  for  many  years. 
As  the  membership  gradually  included  the 
modern  woman  with  advanced  ideas,  the  spirit 
of  harmony  between  the  elders  and  the  later 
members  is  evidence  of  the  wisdom,  judgment, 
and  tact  of  its  official  incumbents.  Mrs.  Smith 
still  holds  the  position  of  first  vice-president, 
fre<|uently  occupying  the  chair.  None  of  her 
rulings  are  ever  questioned,  and  a  Boston  daily 
paper  says  of  her,  "She  is  a  thorough  parlia- 
mentarian, and  no  possible  tangle  or  mix-up 
in  a  meeting  can  faze  her." 

Mrs.  Smith  is  also  connected  with  the 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  and  with  the  Eastern 
Stcar,  a  Masonic  association.  Becoming  nmch 
interested  in  the  woman's  suffrage  movement 
after  hearing  in  the  seventies  the  strong,  earnest 
words  of  JuHa  Ward  Howe  and  Lucy  Stone  on 
the  subject,  she  innuediately  joined  the  ranks, 
and  labored   in   the  cause  with  untiring  zeal. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


229 


She  was  treasurer  for  many  years  of  the  Na- 
tional Woman  Suffrage  Association  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  several  times  went  to  Washing- 
ton as  delegate  to  suffrage  conventions. 

Mrs.  Smith  was  first  vice-president  of  the 
Committee  of  Council  and  Co-operation,  better 
known  as  the  three  C's,  and  in  connection  with 
the  late  Dr.  Salome  Merritt  was  instrumental 
in  many  public  reformatory  movements. 

She  generously  opened  her  house  two  years 
for  the  use  of  the  Boston  Political  Class,  formetl 
by  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  of 
Massachusetts,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  in- 
struction to  women  in  the  various  departments 
of  political  economy,  F]nglish  common  law, 
national  and  State  constitutions,  civil  service, 
elections,  nmnicipal  affairs,  and  parliamentary 
law. 

Dora  Bascom  Smith  has  a  reputation  as  a 
public  reader.  She  has  on  several  occasions 
taken  the  part  of  leading  lady  in  private  theat- 
ricals, and  has  been  instrumental  in  forwarding 
various  entertainments,  being  always  reatly 
to  utilize  her  talents  in  response  to  ever-recur- 
ring calls  for  charity.  She  was  a  student  of 
Professor  Emerson,  of  the  P^merson  School  of 
Oratory,  but,  independently  of  that  training, 
she  has  a  style  of  her  (jwn,  whose  charm  lies  in 
its  simplicity  and  purity,  clear,  reaching  enun- 
ciation, and  naturalness  of  ex])ression.  She 
has  given  the  Institute  many  delightful  sessions, 
filling  the  absence  of  president  or  lecturer  by 
readings  or  original  productions.  Her  lecture 
on  "Pearls  and  Patches,"  replete  with  character 
sketches  and  anecdote,  made  a  strong  and  last- 
ing impression. 

Her  religious  views  are  broad  and  liberal  aiul 
practical,  rather  than  .sentimental.  She  was 
a  member  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity  during 
the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Minot  J.  Savage, 
and  enjoyed  his  intimate  acquaintance  while 
he  remained  in  Boston.  The  choice  booklet, 
"Stray  Arrows:  Selections  from  M.  J.  Savage," 
compiled  by  Mrs.  Smith,  was  published  by  her 
in  1886. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  record  that  with  all  the 
outside  work  Mrs.  Smith  has  accom])Hslied  she 
has  been  a  thorough  housekeeper,  true  mother, 
and  faithful  wife. 

In    personal    appearance    Mrs.    Smith    is    a 


quiet,  unassuming  lady  of  medium  size  and 
height,  with  a  low,  pleasant  voice  and  a  pres- 
ence that  is  felt  for  strength  and  comfort  if  one 
is  depressed  and  like  "oil  on  the  waters"  if 
untler  any  undue  excitement.  The  strength  of 
character  indicated  in  her  face  she  claims  for 
a  heritage. 


MATILDA  JANE  CAMPBELL  WIL- 
KIN, educator,  is  of  English-Scotch 
parentage,  anil  was  born  in  Har- 
rington, Me.,  where  the  early  years 
of  her  childhootl  were  passed.  As  a  forecast 
of  her  .scholarly  career,  she  left  home  at  the 
early  age  of  eleven  to  obtain  better  school 
privileges  at  East  Machias.  First  she  at- 
tendetl  the  public  schools  anil  later  the  Wash- 
ington County  Academy,  located  in  this  charm- 
ing little  New  England  village.  Entering  the 
Normal  School  at  Salem,  Mass.,  in  February, 
1867,  Miss  Campbell  was  graduated  on  Jan- 
uary 21,  1869.  The  following  year  she  went 
to  Minnesota.  She  taught  three  years  in  the 
granmiar  schools  of  Minneapolis,  and  then 
gave  up  teaching  for  a  while  to  continue  her 
studies  at  the  University  of  Minnesota.  She 
was  graduated  in  the  class  of  77,  of  which  she 
was  valedictorian.  •  In  1890  she  took  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Literature  from  her  Alma  Mater, 
and  more  recently  she  has  spent  some  time 
at  the  L'niversity  of  Chicago,  with  a  view  to 
taking  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 
She  is  a  member  of  the  honorary  society  of 
Phi  Beta  Kappa.  In  1880  Miss  Campbell 
attended  the  centennial  of  the  Sunday-School 
in  London,  as  a  delegate  from  Minnesota, 
which  State  she  very  ably  represented. 

In  1882  she  married  the  Rev.  George  F. 
Wilkin,  of  Warsaw,  N.Y.,  later  known  as  the 
author  of  "The  Prophesying  of  Women"  and 
"Control  in  Evolution." 

Mrs.  Wilkin  has  travelled  extensively  in 
Europe,  having  been  abroad  three  times.  She 
studied  at  the  University  College  in  London 
and  at  Gottingen,  Germany.  She  was  espe- 
cially interested  in  linguistic  studies,  and 
spent  nuich  time  in  perfecting  her  knowledge 
of  Latin,  Anglo-Saxon,  and  German.  For  the 
past  twenty-five  years  she  has  been  connected 


230 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


with  the  University  of  Minnesota,  first  as  an 
instructor  and  later  as  assistant  professor. 
She  was  associate  author  of  an  Old-English 
grammar,  which  was  used  as  a  text-book  at 
the  University.  More  recently  she  has  com- 
piled a  book  of  English-German  idioms,  which 
bids  fair  to  be  u.seil  in  the  high  schools  of  the 
State. 

Mrs.  Wilkin  is  a  member  of  the  American 
Philological  Association  and  the  Association 
of  Collegiate  Alumna\  Her  daily  life  is  spent 
in  college  work,  but  she  keeps  up  an  active 
interest  in  religious  and  philanthropic  mat- 
ters. She  has  l)een  a  member  of  Olivet  Bap- 
tist Church,  of  Mimieapolis,  for  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  for  fifteen  years 
was  teacher  of  the  University  Bible  Class  in 
this  church.  She  is  an  active  member  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  I'.,  a  life  member  of  the  Woman's 
Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  and  a 
member  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  As- 
sociation. She  was  president  of  the  State 
Board  of  the  Minnesota  Y.  W.  C.  A.  for  four 
years.  Her  wider  experience  in  this  position 
has  enabled  her  to  be  an  efficient  helper  of  the 
local  Y.  W.  C.  A.  at  the  University,  in  which 
she  has  been  greatly  interested  from  the  first. 

A  woman  of  fine  character,  pure  life,  and 
excellent  judgment,  Mrs.  Wilkin  is  very  widely 
known  throughout  the  State  and  greatly  re- 
spected and  loved,  both  by  the  students  who 
have  been  under  her  instruction  ami  l)y 
her  a-ssociates  in  college  and  in  society. 


ELIZA  TRASK  HILL  was  born  in  the 
town  of  Warren,  Mass.,  May  10,  1840. 
Her  father,  George  Trask,  a  native  of 
'  Beverly,  belonging  to  that  branch  of 
the  Trask  family  founded  by  Osmond  (or  Os- 
man)  Trask,  an  English  immigrant  who  settled 
there  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
was  a  son'  of  Jeremiah  Trask  and  one  of  the 
youngest  of  fourteen  children,  all  of  whom 
lived  to  adult  age  and  were  noted  for  their 
piety  and  sobriety.  After  devoting  his  atten- 
tion for  some  years  in  his  early  manhood  to 
business  pursuits,  Mr.  Trask  took  up  his  studies 
at  Bowdoin  College,  to  prepare  for  the  ministry, 
paying  his  own  way.     While  there  he  became 


conspicuous  for  his  advocacy  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  He  was  graduated  from  Bowdoin  in  1826 
and  from  Andover  Theological  Seminary  in 
1829.  His  hrst  jjastorate  was  in  Framingham, 
his  next  in  A\'arren,  and  his  third  and  last  in 
Fitchburg,  of  the  Trinitarian  Church,  a  society 
that  stood  for  the  principles  of  anti-slavery 
and  which  disbanded  as  soon  as  the  slaves 
were  freed.  The  last  twenty-five  years  of  his 
life  Mr.  Trask  spent  in  the  effort  tq  abate  the 
evil  wrought  by  the  use  of  tobacco.  He  suf- 
fered much  persecution  for  his  pronoimced 
views,  was  forbidden  the  use  of  the  churches, 
and  ridiculed  by  his  brethren  in  the  ministry: 
but  he  giew  more  lovely  in  character  day  by 
day.  He  died  in  Fitchburg  in  January,  1875, 
in  his  seventy-ninth  year. 

Mrs.  Hill's  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Ruth  Freeman  Packard,  was  a  native  of  Marl- 
boro anil  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Asa  and  Nancj' 
(Quincy)  Packard.  Mrs.  Packard  was  born  in 
the  old  Quincy  mansion,  Quincy,  Mass.,  being 
a  daughter  of  Josiah^  Quincy  and  cousin  to 
Dorothy  Quincy,  wife  of  Governor  Hancock. 

The  Rev.  Asa  Packard  was  a  son  of  Jacoh^ 
Packard,  who.se  father,  Solomon,^  was  grand- 
son of  Sanniel'  Packard,  an  early  settler  of  West 
Bridgewater,  Mass.  Solomon^  Packard's  wife, 
Susanna,  mother  of  Jacob,  was  a  daughter  of 
Samuel  and  Mary  (Mitchell)  Kingman.  Her 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  Jacob"  Mitchell 
and  grand-daughter  of  Experience  Mitchell  by 
his  wife  Jane,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Francos' 
Cook,  one  of  the  "  Mavflower"  Pilgrims. 

The  Rev.  Asa  Packard  (H.  C.  1783)  was  for 
about  twenty  years  minister  of  the  town  and 
church  of  Marlboro,  being  subsequently  settled 
over  the  ^^'est  Parish  of  Marlboro,  where  he 
remainetl  till  May,  1819.  After  his  retirement 
he  removed  to  Lancaster,  Mass.,  where  his 
daughter's  marriage  took  place  in  1831. 

Mrs.  Trask  was  in  comjilete  sympathy  with 
her  hu.sband  in  all  his  reform  work,  and  was 
greatly  beloved  in  the  parishes  where  they 
lived.  The  Rev.  (leorge  and  Mrs.  Trask  were 
the  parents  of  six  children:  George  Kellogg 
Trask,  now  connected  with  the  Indianapolis 
Journal  as  railroad  editor:  Brainerd  Packard 
Trask,  a  Ignited  States  navy  officer,  who  died 
before   reaching    the    age    of   forty,    from    the 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


231 


effects  of  the  war;  Josiah  (Jhapiu  Trask,  wliu 
at  the  age  of  twenty-six  was  killed  in  Quan- 
trell's  raid  in  Lawrence,  Kan.;  Ruth  (^uincy 
Trask,  the  widow  of  Lewis  Bellows  Powell,  of 
Scranton,  Pa.;  Eliza  Trask  Hill;  and  William 
Dodge  Trask,  who  died  in  infancy. 

Mrs.  Hill  has  vivid  remembrances  of  the  stir- 
ring words  of  \\'illiam  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wenilell 
Phillips,  Lucy  Stone,  and  other  noble  souls 
among  the  early  reformers,  who  were  freciuent 
visitors  at  her  father's  house  in  her  childhood. 
The  accjuaintance  thus  formed  with  Lucy 
Stone  lasted  until  Mrs.  Stone's  death,  and  is  a 
precious  memory. 

She  received  her  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  Fitchburg,  and  immediately  after  her 
graduation  from  the  high  school,  in  1856,  she  be- 
gan to  teach  school  in  Franklin,  Mass.  A  mem- 
ber of  the  school  board  imiuired  if  she  had 
brought  a  certificate  of  moral  character,  to  which 
she  replied,  "All  the  moral  character  I  have,  sir, 
I  have  with  nie."  A  year  later  she  was  asked 
to  take  a  school  in  one  of  the  outlying  dis- 
tricts of  Fitchburg.  The  school  was  a  hard 
one  to  discipline,  and  the  first  great  test  of  her 
courage  came  at  this  point  in  her  career.  The 
war  of  the  Rebellion  was  in  progress,  and  in 
her  district  were  a  number  of  people  who  had 
been  greatly  opposed  to  her  appointment  be- 
cause of  her  father's  abolitionist  views,  with 
which  she  was  known  to  sympathize,  (^n  this 
account  she  was  refused  board  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, hut  was  not  thus  deterred  from  taking 
the  school.  For  three  months  she  walked  daily 
six  miles  to  teach  the  school,  and  not  only  were 
the  unruly  children  brought  into  subjection, 
but  all  the  parents,  including  her  l)itterest  op- 
ponent, became  her  firm  friends. 

Going  to  Indianapolis  to  teach  in  18G4,  she 
went  about  with  Superintendent  Shortridge  to 
grade  the  schools  of  that  city.  Later  she  taught 
for  a  year  in  Terre  Haute,  Ind.  Two  of  her 
pupils  while  teacher  of  an  intermediate  grade 
in  Fitchliurg  were  Maurice  Richardson  and 
Edward  Pierce,  the  former  now  the  well-known 
surgeon  of  Boston,  and  the  latter  recently  a])- 
pointed  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  R(n'.  George  Tiask  was  a  man  of  very 
liberal  ideas;  and,  when  his  daughter  was  asked 


to  become  a  memix>r  of  a  company  of  her  town's 
people  to  give  amateur  theatricals  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  Sanitary  Connnission,  he  readily 
gave  his  consent.  With  Mrs.  Vincent  of  the 
Boston  Museum  as  teacher,  plays  were  given 
throughout  the  winter,  which  netted  a  large 
sum.  Mr.  Trask  always  attended,  by  his  pres- 
ence giving  sanction  to  the  entertainments. 
The  benefit  of  Mrs.  Vincent's  teaching  has  been 
felt  by  Mrs.  Hill  in  after  life. 

During  the  Rebellion  Mrs.  Hill  (then  Miss 
Trask)  collectetl  money  to  give  a  flag  to  the 
Washington  Guards  of  Fitchburg,  presenting 
it  the  night  previous  to  their  tleparture  for  the 
battle-field,  urging  the  soldiers  to  fight  cou- 
rageously for  the  freedom  of  the  slave.  At  these 
woj-ds  the  colonel  of  the  regiment  took  offence, 
and  in  a  cruel  way  denietl  that  that  was  the 
issue.  Brave  men  defended  the  young  woman, 
and  a  victory  for  righteousness  was  scoretl  that 
night. 

AVhen  the  Soldiers'  Monument  in  Fitchburg 
was  dedicated,  some  years  after  the  close  of 
the  war,  Mrs.  Hill  with  her  two  children  was 
at  her  father's  home.  The  company,  much  de- 
pleted, passetl  by,  bearing  the  tattered  flag, 
which  had  been  through  many  battles.  The 
two  children,  one  representing  a  soldier,  the 
other  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  were  stand- 
ing upon  the  porch  of  the  old  home- 
steatl.  As  the  company  reached  the  house, 
they  halted,  antl  saluted  the  children;  and 
Mrs.  Hill,  from  behind  the  little  ones,  responded 
to  the  graceful  tribute.  The  colonel  before  his 
death  acknowledged  his  mistake,  and  apolo- 
gized for  his  rudeness  at  the  time  of  the  flag 
presentation. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-six  Eliza  Trask  became 
the  wife  of  John  Lange  Hill,  of  Boston.  Their 
children  are:  George  Sumner  Hill,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  Medical  School:  Julia  Annie  Hill, 
a  gratluate  of  Wellesley  College,  now  the  wife 
of  Dr.  Frank  J.  Geib,  of  A.shtabula,  Ohio,  a 
gratluate  of  Harvard;  and  Lewis  Powell  Hill, 
w'ho  is  in  commercial  life. 

When  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  was  organized,  over  a  ([uarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  Mrs.  Hill,  who  was  then  residing  in 
Braintree,  was  chosen  the  first  president  for 
Norfolk  County.     Some  official  position  in  that 


232 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


society  she  has  liekl  ever  since.  For  ten  years 
she  was  superintendent  of  the  prison,  jail,  and 
almshouse  ilepartinent,  and  is  now  superin- 
tendent in  this  department  for  Middlesex 
County  and  president  of  the  Winter  Hill  W.  C. 
T.  U.  of  Somerville. 

When  the  Australian  ballot  system  was  in- 
troduced in  Massachusetts,  Mrs.  Hill  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Prohibition  State  Committee 
to  go  from  town  to  town  with  the  ap))aratus 
illustrating  the  process  of  voting  under  the 
new  system;  and  large  audiences  composed  of 
all  parties  came  to  see  and  hear.  No  ojiportu- 
nity  was. lost  by  the  speaker  to  remind  her 
hearers  of  the  inconsistency  of  allowing  a 
woman  to  instruct  men  in  the  process  of  voting 
and  denying  her  the  right  to  vote  herself. 

In  18.S.S  Mrs.  Hill's  residence  was  in  Charles- 
town.  For  two  years  she  had  been  president 
of  the  Ward  and  City  Committee  of  Women 
Voters,  and  she  was  also  president  of  the  Bunker 
Hill  Woman's  Educational  League,  an  organ- 
ization that  was  formed  in  February.  Through 
the  efTorts  of  this  organization  alone  twenty- 
six  hundred  women  were  as.sessed,  with  a  view 
to  taking  part  in  the  school  election;  and  a 
most  vigorous  campaign  was  carried  on,  women 
being  stationed  at  the  various  registration 
places  to  watch  proceedings.  The  result  of 
the  election  was  most  gi-atifying.  Not  only 
was  the  whole  school  board  ticket  successful, 
but  the  women  hatl  much  influence  in  bringing 
about  a  change  at  City  Hall.  The  Independent 
Women  Voters'  party  was  the  outgrowth  of 
the  struggle  of  18S8,  and  until  1896  Mrs.  Hill 
was  the  leader  of  this  party.  In  1889  the 
Woman's  Voice  and  Public  School  Champion 
was  first  printed.  Mrs.  Hill  became  the  editor 
and  general  manager,  and  still  retains  these 
offices. 

In  1895  she  was  chosen  State  secretary  of 
the  Massachusetts  Branch  of  the  International 
Order  of  The  King's  Daughters  and  Sons,  an 
organization  having  six  thousand  members  in 
the  State,  comprising  two  hundred  and  seventy 
circles  and  two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  in- 
dependent members,  and  carrying  on  a  most 
helpful  charitable  work.  A  vacation  Home  at 
Hanson,  Mass.,  which  acconunodates  sixty  peo- 
ple, among  them  many  mothers  and  their  little 


families,  is  a  State  work.  The  Vacation  Home 
of  The  King's  Daughters  is  Gordon  Rest.  For 
eighteen  years  Mrs.  Hill  has  had  personal 
supervision  of  this  home.  The  work  increases 
year  by  year,  and  is  the  largest  undertaking  of 
its  kind  in  the  State. 

In  1885  the  New  England  Helping  Hantl 
Society  was  formed,  its  aim  being  to  proviile 
at  a  moderate  rate  a  comfortable  home  for 
young  women  earning  low  wages.  Of  this 
society  Mrs.  Hill  was  for  several  years  the 
.secretary,  and  for  ten  years  she  was  its 
president.  She  has  aided  in  many  ways  in 
ameliorating  the  conditions  of  working  men  and 
women. 

She  has  always  stood  finnly  for  free  speech. 
On  one  occasion  when  a  man  was  denied  the 
privilege  of  answei'ing  a  s])eakei'  who  had,  as 
he  affirmed,  made  false  statements,  she  mounted 
to  the  platform  and  asked  that  he  be  allowed 
a  hearing.  So  intense  was  the  excitement  that 
threats  of  bodily  harm  were  made,  but,  as  she 
preserved  a  perfectly  calm  demeanor,  the  ex- 
citement was  quelled  and  she  was  uninjured. 

For  eighteen  years  Mrs.  Hill's  voice  has  been 
heard  in  pul))it  and  on  platform  in  the  advocacy 
of  good  causes  in  Massachusetts  and  other 
States.  The  In(le])endent  Women  Voters  of 
Detroit,  Mich.,  were  organized  hy  her  efforts. 
In  Mrs.  Hill's  evangelistic  and  Bible  services  a 
simple  faith  is  taught,  with  a  reliance  on  Christ 
as  mediator  and  Saviour. 

The  result  of  labor  in  ])risons  and  missions 
has  been  most  gratifying  in  the  reconstruction 
of  broken-up  homes,  in  the  obtaining  of  em- 
ployment for  disheartened  men  and  women, 
and  in  the  redemption  of  those  who  have  be- 
come victims  of  evil  habits.  Following  in  the 
footsteps  of  her  belovetl  father,  .she  has  done 
much  to  help  on  the  anti-cigarette  movement, 
and  has  been  instrumental  in  banding  hundreds 
of  young  i^eople  together  to  labor  in  Christian 
service.  Naturally  possessed  of  a  very  hope- 
ful, cheerful  temperament,  obstacles  which 
might  seem  to  others  very  hard  to  overcome 
have  not  hindered  or  discouraged  her  in  the 
least.  She  looks  with  the  utmost  faith  toward 
the  time  when  right  shall  triumph  over  wrong 
and  her  native  land  lie  indeed  a  Christian 
nation. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


233 


SARAH  ANN  PRESTON  DICKERMAN 
(born  Ballard)  is  a  native  of  Boston, 
Mass.  Her  birtliplace  was  the  family 
I'esidence,  which  stood  on  Washington 
Street  (formerly  Orange  Street),  the  locality 
being  now  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Davis 
Streets,  where  her  mother's  grandmother,  Mrs. 
Zebiah  Davis  Cowdin,  a  daughter  of  General 
Amasa  Davis,  for  whom  Davis  Street  was 
named,  was  born  in  17N2.  General  Davis  was 
one  of  the  Boston  merchants  who  signed  the 
agreement  which  led  to  the  lioston  Tea  Party 
of.  December  16,  1773.  The  estate  remainetl 
in  possession  of  the  family  until  1892,  when  it 
was  sold. 

Mrs.  Dickerman's  father,  Joseph  Atlams  Bal- 
lard, was  of  Dutch  blood  on  the  paternal  side. 
His  father,  Peter  Albertus  Von  Hagen,  came  to 
Boston  to  teach  music,  and  was  organist  of 
Trinity  Church  for  many  years.  He  married 
Miss  Lucy  Ballard  in  ISOO.  The  ^'on  Hagen 
children  by  act  of  Legislature  took  their 
mother's  maiden  name,  Ballard,  Jo.seph  H. 
Von  Hagen  becoming  Joseph  Adams  liallard. 
Mr.  Ballard's  ancestors  on  the  maternal  side 
were  New  England  jieojile,  residents  for  a  num- 
ber of  generations  in  Btiston  and  vicinity.  The 
house  in  which  his  grandmother,  .Madam  Lucy 
Adams,  lived,  as  the  wife  and  afterward  the 
widow  of  Abijah  Adams,  her  secoiul  husband, 
is  still  standing  on  Pinckney  Street. 

Joseph  A.  Ballard  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  October  1,  1858,  at  the  age  of  fifty-one 
years,  was  marine  editor  of  the  Boston  Dnily 
Advertif^er,  associated  with  the  Hon.  Nathan 
Hale,  father  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Edward  P^verett 
Hale. 

Mr.  Ballard's  wife,  Mrs.  Dickerman's  mother, 
whose  maiden  name  was  Sarah  Davis  Cowdin 
Gamage,  died  July  4,  1874.  She  was  a  tlaughter 
of  Nathaniel  and  Sarah  Davis  (Cowdin)  CJamage 
and  grand-daughter  of  Daniel  Cowdin  and  his 
wife,  Zebiah  Davis,  above  named.  Mrs.  Bal- 
lard was  early  interested  in  philanthropic  work. 
She  joined  the  Rev.  Charles  Francis  Barnard 
in  organizing  the  Warren  Street  Chapel,  a  chil- 
dren's church,  and  devoted  many  years  to  this 
and  other  charitable  institutions. 

Sarah  Ann  Preston  Ballard,  now  Mrs.  Dick- 
erman,  was  born  June  13,  1833.     She  was  edu- 


cated in  the  Boston  public  schools,  being  for 
some  years  a  pupil  in  the  old  Franklin  School. 
She  was  married  February  16,  1853,  to  Henry 
Wilson  Dickerman,  son  of  Ezekiel  and  Marinda 
Dickerman,  of  Stoughton,  Mass.  Two  sons 
were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dickerman  in  the 
early  years  of  their  wedded  life,  namely:  Joseph 
Henry,  February  8,  1854;  and  William  .Mont- 
gomery, who  died  soon  after  his  birth,  April  10, 
1855. 

In  her  girlhood  Mrs.  Dickerman  was  much 
influenced  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Francis  Barnard, 
and  in  early  womanhood  she  came  under  the 
ministry  of  Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  with 
whom  she  formed  a  friendship  which  has  been 
unbroken.  This  training  determined  her  choice 
of  occupation  outside  of  family  claims.  She 
has  always  chosen  to  join  societies  having  for 
their  objects  the  advancement  of  humanitarian 
ideas  or  the  alleviation  of  some  form  of  suffer- 
ing. 

She  .seems  to  have  been  a  born  suffragist, 
as  from  early  girlhood  she  rebelletl  at  any  form 
of  injustice  to  women,  and,  although  descended 
from  most  conservative  ancestors,  was  always 
ready  to  work  for  suffrage  for  women,  serv- 
ing on  the  Ward  ami  City  Committee  of 
Women  Voters  in  Boston  with  .\bby  W.  May, 
Ednah  D.  Cheney,  Lucia  M.  Peabody,  Dr. 
Salome  Merritt,  and  other  pioneers  in  this  work. 
She  has  voted  for  school  committee  ever 
since  women  were  granted  the  right  to  do 
so,  and  her  interest  in  school  n)atters  still 
continues. 

She  has  worked  in  the  following  named  so- 
cieties, serving  most  of  them  as  either  presi- 
dent, secretary,  treasurer,  director,  or  trustee: 
Massachusetts  Woman  Suffrage  Association, 
Massachusetts  School  Suffrage  Association, 
Jamaica  Plain  School  Suffrage  Association, 
Woman's  Charity  Club,  Martha  and  Mary 
Lend-a-Hand  Club,  Moral  Education  Associa- 
tion, Barnard  Memorial  A.=sociation,  Franklin 
School  Association,  Children's  Mission  to  the 
Children  of  the  Destitute,  Committee  of  Council 
and  Co-operation,  Ladies'  Physiological  In- 
stitute, Jamaica  Plain  Friendly  Society,  New 
England  Helping  Hand  Society,  Jamaica  Plain 
Woman's  Alliance,  Daughters  of  the  American 
Rpvolutitm,  and  Animal  Rescue  League. 


234 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


UCY  BRIGHAM  (HOriMER)  FISHER 
was  born  in  Fitchburg,  Mass.,  March 
24,  1S34,  the  oldest  of  five  ehildreii  of 
Silas  and  Delia  (Gibbs)  Hosnier.  Her 
early  life  was  in  no  way  different  from  the  aver- 
age of  the  time.  Neither  wealth  nor  poverty 
was  the  lot  of  the  great  body  of  the  people,  and 
the  ojjportunities  for  develojjment  and  progress 
were  fairly  open  to  every  one.  She  early  man- 
ifested traits  of  character — among  them  a  strong 
sense  of  justice  and  a  conscientious  regard  for 
truth — which  have  since  given  her  power  and 
influence. 

When  sixteen  years  old,  Lucy  Brigham  Hos- 
mer,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  school  conunittee, 
became  a  teacher  in  the  public  schools  of  her 
native  town.  In  this  capacity  she  served  with 
marked  success  for  the  nine  years  following. 
On  February  12,  1860,  she  was  mari'ied  to  Dr. 
Jabez  Fisher,  well  known  in  the  horticultural 
world.  His  two  motherless  children  needed 
the  fostering  care  which  she  could  give,  and 
most  devotedly  tlid  she  fulfil  all  the  recjuire- 
ments  of  the  situation. 

Having  entered  the  Sunday-school  at  the  age 
of  three  years,  and  remained  a  constant  jiupil 
until  she  was  twenty,  she  then  began  her  work 
as  teacher  in  the  Sunday-school  of  the  First 
Universalist  Church  by  assuming  charge  of 
the  primary  cla.ss  of  little  girls.  The  gradual 
increase  of  oii|)ortunity  which  followed  her  suc- 
cessful early  experience  was  of  the  most  satis- 
factory nature.  From  that  time  to  the  ]ires- 
ent,  a  period  of  over  fifty  years,  she  has  been 
a  constant  and  im})ortant  factor  in  the  lives 
and  characters  of  many  hundreds  of  children. 
The  primary  department  has  constantly  grown 
under  her  management,  and,  as  now  consti- 
tuted, embraces  girls  and  t)oys  from  three  to 
ten  years  of  age;  the  numbers  ranging  from 
one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  thirty.  In 
many  cases  she  has  now  in  charge  children 
whose  father  or  mother  or  both  parents  were 
formerly  under  her  instruction  and  are  now 
teachers  in  some  department  of  the  school. 
On  each  returning  Sunday  she  has  the  inspiring 
satisfaction  of  looking  (he  greater  part  of  these 
children  in  the  face,  a  most  beautiful  si^ht; 
and  through  her  constant  watchfuln(>ss  and  well- 
directed  efforts  she  controls,  directs,  and  draws 


out  their  young  minds  in  the  direction  of  truth, 
justice,  and  lovelinei^s  of  character.  She  re- 
sti'ains  all  that  is  wrong,  and  encourages  all 
that  is  good  and  lovely.  It  is  done  so  easily 
and  naturally  that  the  looker-on  is  charmed  by 
the  smoothness  with  which  everything  proceeds, 
and  is  not  aware  that  any  sjiccial  effort  is  being 
used  to  this  end.  The  time  for  closing  the  ex- 
ercises comes  all  too  soon,  and  many  linger  to 
say  pleasant  words.  She  wins  the  love  of  most 
chiklren  at  once,  and  always  retains  the  lasting 
respect  of  even  those  who  are  prone  to  rebel 
against  her  requirements,  when  they  learn  that 
such  are  exercised  not  by  an  autocrat,  but  by 
a  friend  whose  only  consideration  is  for  their 
best  development  in  character,  and  who  will 
never  consent  to  see  them  go  wrong.  One  of 
her  pastors  thus  emphasizes  some  of  her  char- 
acteristics : — 

"I  am  reminded,  as  I  think  of  her,  of  Mrs. 
Fisher's  perfect  fairness  of  mind  and  firmness 
in  the  maintenance  of  what  she  deems  to  be 
right.  She  has  no  compromise  with  error  or 
evil.  She  is  always  earnest  in  her  convictions 
anfl  steadfast  in  her  loyalt)'^  to  duty.  She  never 
turns  aside  for  secondary  considerations,  and 
never  surrenders.  She  sees  the  right  clearly, 
and  devotes  herself  with  entire  consecration 
and  self-sacrifice,  as  evidenced  in  her  long  ser- 
vice in  the  church  and  in  her  imswerving 
fidelity  to  her  home.  She  is  an  optimist.  The 
greatness  of  her  trust  inspires  and  strengthens 
her.  She  fills  a  large  i)lace  in  the  conmuunty 
through  her  silent  inHuence,  and  with  all  her 
usefulness  and  power  Ikm-  life  is  crowned  with 
rare  modesty." 

Her  tireless  and  constant  thought  is  for  the 
welfare  of  those  with  whom  she  is  associated, 
even  to  the  neglect  of  her  own  best  physical 
welfare.  The  virtue  of  altruism,  much  alluded 
to  in  recent  years,  Mrs.  Fisher  has  been  prac- 
tising all  her  life.  She  has  often  said  that  her 
first  thought,  duty,  and  effort  were  due  to  her 
home:  her  second,  to  her  church  and  Sunday- 
school;  and,  if  she  had  any  reserve  strength, 
it  was  at  the  service  of  any  good  cause  that 
needed  it  the  most.  In  addition  to  more  press- 
ing duties  she  has  found  time  to  advocate  and 
labor  for  the  enfranchisement  of  woman,  giving 
her  opportiunty  to  rise  to  her  highest  level. 


LUCY   B.  FISHER 


EEPIIKSKNTATIVE   WOMEN    OF   NEW    ENOLAND 


235 


Mrs.  Fisher  was  among  th(>  earliest  to  join 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  and 
has  remained  an  earnest  and  ('on.sistent  mem- 
ber. She  early  united  her  efforts  with  others  in 
aid  of  the  Baldwinsville  Hospital  ('ottages  for 
the  care  and  treatment  of  children  afflicted  with 
epileptic  and  allied  diseases. 

Believing  that,  so  long  as  the  impelling  mo- 
tive of  humanity  is  a  selfish  one,  so  long  will 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  be  postponed,  here  or 
elsewhere,  Mrs.  Fisher  sympathizes  with  the 
present  trend  toward  sociological  ideals.  Her 
character  antl  tlisposition  are  such  that  she 
cannot  tolerate  or  excuse  the  wrongs  of  society 
resulting  from  the  worship  of  mammon,  with 
its  consequent  development  of  selfishness,  the 
prolific  mother  of  evil  and  crime.  The  only 
effective  remedy,  in  her  estimation,  is  public 
ownershiji  of  all  public  utilities,  replacing  com- 
petition by  co-operation.  Then,  as  she  reasons, 
the  world  would  be  in  a  position  to  realize  some- 
thing of  the  true  spirit  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
whose  life  bore  testimony  to  the  brotherhood 
of  man. 

These  words  from  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard 
are  in  line  with  her  thought :  "  I  believe  the 
things  tliat  Christian  .socialism  stands  for.  It 
is  Goil's  way  out  of  the  wilderness  and  into 
the  promised  land.  It  is  the  marrow  and  fat- 
ness of  Christ's  gospel.  It  is  Christianitv  ap- 
plied." 


HARRIET    EMILY    BENEDICT,    Re- 
gent of  the  John   Hancock    Chapter 
of    the  Daughters    of    the    American 
Revolution,   is  a  native  of   Le  Roy, 
Genesee  County,  N.Y.      She  was  born  Novem- 
ber 13,  1842,  daughter  of  Dr.  Mo.ses  and  Fanny 
Alvord  (White)  Barrett. 

Her  father,  who  M-as  born  January  28,  1815, 
was  the  son  of  Jetlediah  and  I*]unice  (Gleason) 
Barrett.  His  paternal  grandfather,  Lemuel 
Barrett,  was  a  soklier  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Moses  Barrett  studied  medicine  at  the 
Pittsfield  Medical  College.  His  wife,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Fanny  Alvord  White,  was 
born  in  Heath,  Ma.ss.,  February  19,  1813,  daugh- 
ter of  David  and  Sophia  (Kendrick)  White. 
She  was  a  friend  and  ]Hii)il  of  .Mary  Lyon  prior 


to  the  founding  of  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary 
(now  College).  Mrs.  Barrett'  was  thus  well 
qualified  to  be  her  daughter's  first  instructor — 
"first  and  last,"  as  held  in  that  ilaughter's 
loving,  grateful  remembrance,  but  not  her 
only  teacher,  it  must  be  added. 

Haniet  Emily  Barrett  attended  the  excel- 
lent schools  of  Le  Roy  in  her  early  childhood. 
Later,  her  parents  changing  their  place  of  resi- 
dence, she  pursued  her  studies  at  various  in- 
stitutions of  learning  in  the  West.  On  Febru- 
ary 11,  1868,  she  was  married  to  Washington 
Gano  Benedict,  a  native  of  Rhode  Island.  He 
was  son  of  Thomas  S.  and  Ruth  A.  (Smith) 
Benedict,  a  lineal  descenilant  of  Thomas'  Bene- 
dict, who  settled  in  Norwalk,  Conn.,  more  than 
two  hundred  years  ago. 

Mr.  Benedict's  paternal  grandfather,  the 
Rev.  David  Benedict,  a  native  of  Norwalk, 
Conn.,  was  for  many  years  the  pastor  of  a 
Baptist  church  in  Pawtucket,  R.I.  He  mar- 
ried Margaret  IL,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Stephen 
Gano  and  grand-daughter  of  the  Rev.  John 
Gano,  of  New  York  City,  who  served  as  a  chap- 
lain in  the  Revolutionary  War.  'Stephen  Gano 
studied  medicine  in  his  youth,  and  for  about 
two  years  servetl  as  a  surgeon  in  the  Conti- 
nental army.  He  afterward  studied  for  the 
-Baptist  ministry,  and  was  settled  in  Provi- 
dence. The  Rev.  John  Gano,  Mr.  Benedict's 
great-great-grandfather,  was  a  charter  member 
of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  ami  the  Rev. 
Stephen  Gano  was  also  a  member.  Mr.  Bene- 
dict was  well  known  in  the  business  world.  He 
built  the  first  electric  railway  in  the  State  of 
Mas.sachusetts,  that  from  Winthrop  Junction  to 
Revere  Beach.  For  some  years  he  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Boston  and  Revere  Electric  Railway 
Company.     He  died  January  24,  1S99. 

Mrs.  Benedict  has  three  sons:  Francis  Gano, 
born  October  3,  1870;  \'allette  Lyman,  born 
August  28,  1872;  anil  Clarence  Barrett,  born 
October  29,  1874.  Francis  Gano  Benedict,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  (A.B.  1893,  A.M.  1894), 
continued  his  stutlies  at  Heidelberg,  Germany, 
and  took  his  Ph.D.  in  one  year,  something 
never  before  achieved  by  an  American.  He  is 
now  a  professor  in  Wesleyan  University,  Miil- 
dletown,  Conn.  He  married  July  28,  1897, 
Cornelia  Golay.     A   daughter,   Elizabeth   Har- 


236 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


riet,  was  born  March  12,  1902.  [For  further 
information  concerning  Professor  Benedict, 
chemist  and  educator,  author  of  "Elemen- 
tary Organic  Analysis,"  1900,  and  "Cheniicai 
Lecture  Experiments,"  1901,  see  "Who's  AVho 
in  America. ' '] 

\'allette  Lyman  Benedict,  electrical  engineer, 
graduate  of  the  Massacliusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  1894,  is  with  the  General  Electric 
Company,  Schenectady,  N.Y.  He  married  Flor- 
ence Marian  Ballard,  June  21,  1900.  A  son, 
Russell  Gano,  was  born  May  15,  1902. 

Clarence  Barrett  Benedict,  lawyer,  in  Boston, 
married  Millicent  Emily  Thompson,  Deceml:)er 
5,  1900. 

Mrs.  Benedict,  as  noted  above,  is  the  pres- 
ent Regent  of  the  John  Hancock  Chapter  of 
the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution. 
She  was  admitted  to  membership  as  a  great- 
grand-daughter  of  Benjamin  White,  who  served 
in  the  war  as  a  Lieutenant  and  later  as  Cap- 
tain, and  assisted  in  the  capture  of  Burgoyne. 
She  has  been  a  member  of  the  New  England 
Women's  Club,  is  still  a  member  of  the  Cas- 
tilian  Club,  and  is  one  of  the  Board  of  Visitors 
to  the  New  England  Conservatory  of  Music. 

She  is  particularly  intcrestefl  in  the  Con- 
servatory student.s,  in  behalf  of  whom  she  has 
exercised  generous  and  cheering  hospitality, 
taking  great  pleasure  in  befriending  joung 
ladies  and  girls  who  were  far  away  from  their 
homes.  In  religion  she  is  an  Episcopalian, 
being  a  member  of  Trinity  Church. 


^NNE  ELIZABETH  MERRILL,  who 
/  \  ^has  for  many  years  occupied  the  posi- 
X  ^  tion  of  Supervisor  of  Music  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Portland,  Me.,  with  much 
credit,  is  a  native  of  that  State,  being  one  of 
the  two  surviving  daughters  of  the  late  Cap- 
tain Samuel  and  Sarah  Perkins  (Sturgis)  Ran- 
dall. The  home  of  her  parents  for  many  years 
was  in  Riverside,  formerly  a  part  of  Vassal- 
boro,  Kennebec  County.  Her  paternal  grand- 
father, Benjamin  Randall,  was  one  of  the  pio- 
neer settlers  of  that  town.  His  wife  was  Susan 
Cross.  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  William 
Randall,  who  settled  in  Scituate,  Mass.,  be- 
fore 1640.     A  Benjamin  Randall  is  on  record 


as  a  private  in  Captain  Bartholomew  York's 
company,  Colonel  Edmund  Phinney's  regi- 
ment, at  Fort  George,  December,  1776,  also 
in  the  same  company,  July,  1777  (Massachu- 
setts Archives). 

Captain  Samuel  Randall,  shipmaster,  was 
for  a  long  period  successfully  engaged  in  voy- 
aging, but  eventually  through  fire  and  ship- 
wreck he  met  with  severe  losses.  Going  to 
California  to  start  afresh,  he  became  master 
of  a  high-water  steamboat  on  the  Sacramento 
River.  Nearly  four  years  later,  and  after  he 
had  retrieved  his  fortune  and  his  own  boat  was 
not  running,  he  lost  his  life  by  a  boiler  explo- 
sion on  a  low-water  steamer,  on  which  at  the 
request  of  a  friend  he  had  embarked  as  captain 
for  a  single  trip.  His  property  was  in  Cali- 
fornia, where  he  had  made  large  investments, 
and  his  family  was  apparently  well  provided 
for.  Monthly  dividends  for  a  time  were  regu- 
larly sent  to  Mrs.  Randall,  then  in  Portland. 
At  length  notice  was  received  of  a  change  of 
management,  and  after  that  no  more  remit- 
tances were  received.  Hence  the  straitened 
circumstances  in  which  she  passed  her  declining 
years,  years  of  mental  and  physical  infirmity. 

Mrs.  Randall  was  the  daughter  of  Jonathan 
Sturgis  and  his  wife,  Melinda  Hartwell  Perkins. 
Jonathan  Sturgis  was  a  lineal  descendant  in 
the  sixth  generation  of  Edward'  Sturgis,  who 
emigrated  from  England  about  the  year  1634, 
and  in  1639  settled  at  Yarmouth,  on  Cape  Cod. 
Edward^  Sturgis,  son  of  Edward,'  married  Tem- 
perance Gorham,  who  was  born  in  Marshfield, 
Mass.,  in  1646.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Captain 
John  Gorham  and  his  wife.  Desire  Howland. 
who  was  the  daughter  of  John  Howland  and 
grand-daughter  of  John  Tilly,  both  of  whom 
came  over  in  the  "Mayflower"  in  1620. 

Edward^  Sturgis,  born  in  1673,  son  of  Ed- 
ward^ and  Temperance,  married  Mehitable  Hallet 
in  1703;  and  their  son  Edward*  married  Thank- 
ful Hedge,  and  was  father  of  Edward,''  who 
married  Mary  Bassett.  The  last  named  coui:)le, 
with  f(nir  sons — James,  David,  Jonathan,  and 
Heman — moved  from  Bainstable,  Mass.,  to 
Vassalboro,  Me.,  in  1795.  On  the  ground  where 
they  settled  were  many  Indian  graves,  and 
often,  even  to  this  day,  Indian  implements 
are  turned  up  by  the  plough. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


237 


Jonathan"  Sturgis  was  born  in  November, 
1782.  His  wife  Melinda,  whose  maitlen  name 
was  Perkins,  is  dimly  remembered  by  her 
grand-daughter,  Mrs.  Merrill,  as  being  intel- 
lectual and  refined,  a  gentlewoman  of  the  olden 
time.  She  was  cousin  to  the  Hon.  Reuel  Will- 
iams, of  Augusta,  the  kinship  being  through 
the  Ingrahams.  His  maternal  grandparents, 
Jeremiah  and  Abigail  (Hartwell)  Ingraham, 
who  were  married  in  Stoughton,  Mass.,  in  1755, 
and  removed  to  Augusta,  Me.,  were  hers  also. 
As  their  daughter  Zilpha,  who  married  Seth 
Williams,  was  the  mother  of  Reuel,  it  may  be 
taken  for  granted  that  their  daughter  Tilly, 
who  married  a  Mr.  Perkins  (see  History  of 
Augusta,  Me.),  was  the  mother  of  Melinda. 
Abigail  Hartwell,  it  may  be  added,  was  daugh- 
ter of  Joseph'  Hartwell,  son  of  SamueP  and 
grandson  of  William'  Hartwell,  an  early  set- 
tler of  Concord,  Mass.  Elizabeth  Hartwell, 
sister  of  Abigail,  was  the  wife  of  Roger  Sher- 
man, the  statesman. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  received  her  ear- 
liest education  mostly  at  private  schools,  and 
then  attended  the  Augusta  High  School,  where 
she  was  graduated.  At  an  early  age  she  showed 
marked  ability  as  a  singer,  probably  inheriting 
her  love  for  music  from  both  parents.  At  first 
she  sang  as  the  birds  sing,  for  pure  joy  and 
love  of  singing.  An  uncle  who  played  the 
violin  took  great  interest  in  her  early  train- 
ing, and  taught  her  to  read  music  unaided 
by  an  instrument. 

At  fifteen  Miss  Randall  sang  in  a  church 
choir  in  Augusta,  and  at  the  same  time  she 
began  studying  with  representative  teachers 
in  Boston.  At  nineteen  she  married  Albert 
Pembroke  Merrill,  who  was  connected  with  the 
large  whotesale  lumber  house  of  Moses  anil 
James  L.  Merrill,  of  Portland.  They  took  up 
their  abode  in  Portland.  The  wetlded  life  of  this 
young  couple  was  soon  blighted,  as  in  less  than  a 
year  after  marriage  Mr.  Merrill  was  pronounced 
a  hopeless  invalid,  and,  closely  following  this 
calamity,  business  reverses  came,  the  loss 
of  fortune  necessitating  removal  fro  n  a  lux- 
urious home  and  the  bearing  of  heavy  burdens. 
Mrs.  Merrill  then  began  singing  in  church 
on  a  salary,  first  at  old  St.  Luke's,  now  St. 
Stephen's,    then   at  Congress  Square  Church, 


where  she  remained  twelve  years.  The 
death  of  Mr.  Merrill  after  an  illness  of  nearly 
five  years  was  followed  some  years  later 
by  that  of  her  only  child,  Martha  Pitts  Merrill, 
at  the  age  of  twelve.  Through  these  and  other 
home  trials  that  came,  testing  her  faith  and 
strength,  Mrs.  Merrill  showed  herself  steadfast, 
keeping  up  her  nuisical  work  as  well  as  caring 
for  the  invalids  in  her  family. 

She  was  one  of  the  charter  members  of  the 
Rossini  Club,  one  of  the  best  known  ami  most 
exclusive  musical  clubs  of  Portland,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Haydn  Association.  She  had  large 
voice  classes,  and  was  soloist  at  many  large  con- 
certs throughout  New  England.  In  1884  the  po- 
sition of  Supervisor  and  Teacher  of  Music  in 
the  Portland  public  schools  was  proffered  her. 
Accepting  it  after  some  consideration,  she  has 
hekl  the  position  with  growing  favor  ever  since, 
and  has  brought  the  school  music  to  its  pres- 
ent high  standard.  This  sort  of  teaching  called 
for  additional  self-training;  and  each  summer 
she  has  attendeil  sunnner  schools,  thus  keep- 
ing in  touch  with  up-to-date  methods.  She 
has  studied  under  such  teachers  as  Professor 
Hugh  A.  Clark,  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Professor  Zuchtmann,  Professor  Lyman 
Wheeler,  Madame  Herminie  Rudersdorff,  Mr. 
William  H.  Dennett,  and  Mr.  Holt,  for  many 
years  a  leading  teacher  in  the  Boston  schools. 

Mrs.  Merrill's  elder  sister,  Martha  S.  Randall, 
married  Eben  Pillsbury,  and  died  in  Minne- 
sota, leaving  a  daughter,  now  Mrs.  Keach,  of 
Hartford,  Conn.  The  other  sister,  who  lives 
with  Mrs.  Merrill  and  skilfully  manages  their 
household  affairs,  is  Miss  Harriet  Howard 
Randall.  Mrs.  Merrill  is  much  loved  and  re- 
spected by  her  large  circle  of  acquaintances. 
She  is  a  prominent  worker  in  St.  Luke's  Cathe- 
dral, of  which  she  is  a  member. 


DELILAH  S.  DAVIS,  an  earnest  and 
liberal  sup[wrter  of  patriotic  work, 
has  been  a  department  officer  of  the 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  of  Massachu- 
setts for  several  years.  Born  November  28, 
1833,  in  that  part  of  the  old  town  of  Methuen 
now  includetl  in  Lawrence,  Mass.,  she  was  one 
of  the  twelve  children,  six  boys  and  six  girls, 


238 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  John  and  Delilah  (Smith)  Graves.  Her  father, 
born  September  27,  1800,  in  New  Market, 
N.H.,  died  November  23,  1880,  in  Palmer,  Mass. 

Her  paternal  grandfather,  .Joseph  Graves, 
was  born  in  1761  in  Stratham,  Rockingham 
County,  N.H.  His  wife  was  Mary  Badger,  of 
Portsmouth,  N.H.  Her  brother,  Daniel  Batlger, 
was  a  ship-builder.  He  was  buried  on 
Badger's  Island,  near  Portsmouth,  N.H.,  and 
on  his  tombstone  was  recorded  the  number  of 
ships  he  built.  The  mother  of  Mrs.  Davis 
was  born  in  Wolfborough,  N.H.,  April  12,  1798. 
She  died  in  Palmer,  Mass.,  June  4,  1873.  She 
was  one  of  the  four  children  and  the  youngest 
of  the  three  daughters  of  James  and  Abigail 
(Pinkham)  Smith.  Her  maternal  grandfather, 
Abijah  Pinkham,  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, the  records  showing  that  he  was  a  private 
in  Captain  Smith  Emerson's  company  on 
Seavey's  Island  in  November,  1775.  Abigail 
Pinkham  after  the  death  of  James  Smith, 
her  first  hasband,  married  Reuben  Libby,  by 
whom  she  had  a  son  and  a  daughter. 

John  Graves  and  Delilah  Smith  were  married  in 
1821  in  Boston,  where  Mr.  Graves  was  engaged 
in  the  livery  busine.ss.  He  subsecjuently  bought 
a  farm  in  Methuen,  built  a  soap  factory,  and 
conducted  an  extensive  business.  After  the 
founding,  in  1847,  of  Lawrence,  the  "new 
city,"  as  it  was  called,  he  removed  to  Billerica. 
Here  his  daughter  Delilah  attended  a  private 
school.  She  had  previously  been  a  pupil  in 
the  Prospect  Street  School,  Lawrence,  formerly 
Methuen:  and  when,  in  1850,  the  family  returned 
to  Lawrence,  she  was  admitted  to  the  Law^-ence 
High  School.  It  being  decided  in  the  home 
council  that  she  could  not  take  the  full  three 
years'  course  of  study,  .she  preferred  to  give  up 
school  at  once,  which  she  was  allowed  to  do. 
On  June  22,  1851,  she  was  married  to  Edwin 
Lawrence  Davis.  He  was  born  in  Billerica, 
February  17, 1831,  son  of  Timothy  Jr.  and  Su.san 
S.  (Lawrence)  Davis.  Timothy  Davis  Jr.  died 
in  Billerica  in  1841.  His  wife,  Susan  S.,  was  the 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Lawrence,  who 
preached  in  Tyngsboro,  Mass.,  forty  years,  and 
delivered  a  sermon  on  the  day  of  his  death. 
He  died  suddenly,  of  apoplexy.  His  son, 
Samuel  S.  Lawrence,  was  a  prominent  merchant 
of  Boston.     Timothy  Davis  Jr.  was  a  member  of 


the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association,  which 
was  formetl  in  1823.  Mrs.  Davis  has  in  her 
po.ssession  his  certificate  of  membenship,  signed 
by  the  president  of  the  association,  J.  Brooks; 
the  vice-presidents,  T.  H.  Perkins  and  Joseph 
Story:  the  secretary,  Franklin  Dexter:  the 
treasurer,  Nathaniel  P.  Russell;  and  fourteen 
directors. 

Edwin  Lawrence  Davis,  enlisting  in  the 
navy  in  1864,  was  in  the  United  States  service 
in  the  latter  ])art  of  the  Civil  War  as  captain's 
clerk  on  the  steamer  "Miami."  Mrs.  Davis 
hatl  two  brothers  in  the  L^nion  army,  one  of 
whom  died  in  a  hospital  at  Alexandria. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Davis  removed  in  September, 
1853,  to  Palmer,  Mass.,  where  Mr.  Davis  pur- 
cha-sed  a  dry-goods  store,  and  was  a  successful 
merchant.  They  had  two  children:  George 
Lawrence,  l)orn  March  26,  1854,  who  died 
Nov.  29,  1883:  and  Annie  Elizabeth,  who  is 
still  living.  Mrs.  Davis  became  interested  in 
church  and  charitable  work  in  Palmer,  devoting 
her  special  efforts  to  the  cause  represented 
by  L.  L.  Merrick  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  and  its  aux- 
iliary Relief  Corps,  which  was  formed  in  1886. 
She  was  elected  first  President  of  the  Relief 
Corps,  and  was  installed  into  this  office  five 
years  in  succession. 

At  the  annual  State  convention  held  in 
Boston  in  1891  she  was  elected  Senior  A'ice- 
President.  The  office  of  President  of  the 
Department  of  Ma.ssachusetts,  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps,  was  tendered  her  the  following  year, 
but  she  was  unable  to  accept  the  honor,  as 
her  husband  was  in  failing  health. 

During  the  destructive  fire  in  Palmer  in 
1895  Mr.  Davis's  store  was  burned.  They 
went  to  Gardiner,  Me.,  in  the  spring  of  1896, 
and  in  December  of  th(>  same  year  returned 
to  Massachusetts,  settling  in  Springfield.  Mr. 
Davis  died  in  that  city,  January  6,  1897.  In 
October  following  Mrs.  Davis  moved  to  Law- 
rence, where  she  now  resides  with  her  daughter. 

In  1900  Mrs.  Davis  was  elected  Department 
Chaplain  of  the  Massachusetts  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  and  at  the  aimual  convention  of  1901 
she  was  re-elected.  Referring  to  this  office, 
she  said:  "Fully  appreciating  the  honor  con- 
ferred, I  assumed  the  sacred  duties  of  Chaplain, 
and  have  filled  the  position  to  the  best  of  my 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


239 


ability.  The  work  lia.s  been  an  inspiration  to 
me  and  given  me  a  better  knowledge  of  what 
has  been  done  through  the  State  on  Memorial 
Day." 

In  her  last  report  as  Dei)artmcnt  Chaplain 
she  stated  that  members  assisted  in  tlecorating 
the  graves  of  thirty-four  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  soldiers  in  Massacliusetts, 
that  flowers  were  furnished  one  hundred  and 
twenty-two  posts  on  Memorial  Day,  and  that 
memorials  and  Horal  designs  for  the  unknown 
deatl  who  sleep  in  nameless  graves  were  pre- 
pared by  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  corps. 
Memorial  Day  work  in  the  South  was  aided 
by  one  humlred  and  fourteen  corps  in  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  number  of  children  who  assisted  in  me- 
morial exercises  under  the  direction  of  corps 
was  reportetl  as  twenty-eight  thousand  five 
hundred  and  fifty-five.  An  elaborate  account 
of  this  work  throughout  the  State  was  pre- 
pared by  Mrs.  Davis,  her  report  containing 
twenty-one  printetl  pages. 

Elected  a  member  of  the  Department  Exec- 
utive Board  in  1902,  Mrs.  Davis  has  continued 
her  interest  with  the  same  loyal  enthusiasm 
as  in  other  years.  She  has  served  as  Inspector 
and  on  numerous  committees.  As  a  delegate 
to  several  national  conventions  she  has  trav- 
elled in  many  States,  and  has  been  recognized 
by  national  appointments  in  the  order.  Mrs. 
Davis  is  a  liberal  contributor  to  the  various 
objects  of  the  W.  R.  C,  and  takes  special  inter-' 
est  in  its  charitable  and  philanthropic  work. 

She  has  been  a  guest  of  corjts  in  North  and 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  and  in  other 
Southern  States.  The  Andersonville  Prison 
property  under  the  management  of  the  Na- 
tional W.  R.  C.  has  received  her  lilieral  support, 
and  she  has  visited  these  historic  grounds  in 
Georgia. 

Mrs.  Davis  is  a  woman  of  firm  convictions, 
and  is  devoted  to  the  principles  of  loyalty  and 
justice.  Her  steadfast  friendship  and  kindly 
deeds  are  appreciated  by  her  associates. 

She  attends  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Lawrence.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Charity 
Club  of  that  city,  also  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  I'nion  and  of  the  auxiliary  to  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  Lawrence. 


Her  husband  was  a  nieniber  of  the  Masonic 
lodge  in  Palmer,  and  she  is  therefore  interested 
in  the  Order  of  the  Eastern  Star.  Revere 
Chapter,  No.  4,  of  that  city,  elected  her  its 
first  secretary. 

For  several  years  Mrs.  Davis  has  been  an 
active  member  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Association 
of  the  SoKliers'  Home  in  Massachusetts.  As 
a  visitor,  director,  and  in  other  capacities  she 
has  given  time,  money,  and  effort  for  the  welfare 
of  the  home.  The  officials  and  inmates  recog- 
nize her  faithful  work  in  its  behalf. 

Mrs.  Davis,  through  her  great-grandfather 
Pinkham,  above  mentioned,  has  membership 
in  Bunker  Hill  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution. 

Mrs.  Davis  has  one  sister  living,  namely: 
Sarah  Abbie  Graves,  whose  home  is  in  Indiana; 
another  sister,  Octavia  McFarland,  who  resided 
in  San  Francisco,  died  ,Iune  .5,  1S93.  Her  only 
brother,  Sewell  F.  Graves,  resides  hi  Alameda, 
Cal.  He  is  a  sea  cajitain,  was  in  the  United 
States  navy  during  the  Civil  War,  and  is  now 
a  pilot  in  San  Francisco  Harbor. 


EL^A  LOIS  TORREY  PECKHAM 
BALDWIN  (Mrs.  Charles  Clinton 
Baldwin)  was  born  September  12,  1847, 
in  North  Killingly,  Conn.  Her  parents 
were  Fenner  Harris  Peckham,  M.D.,  who  served 
as  a  surgeon  in  the  Civil  ^^'ar,  and  his  wife, 
Catherine  Davis  Torrey.  On  the  paternal  side 
the  first  American  ancestor  of  Mrs.  Baldwin 
was  John  Peckham,  of  Newport,  R.I.,  whose 
name  first  appears  on  the  records  in  1638. 
The  line  is:  John';  Stephen";  Stephen,^  of  Dart- 
mouth, horn  16S3,  and  his  wife  Mary:  Stephen,^ 
of  Dartmouth,  and  his  wife,  Mary  Boss,  daugh- 
ter of  Peter  and  Amy  Gardiner  Boss;  Seth,* 
of  Gloucester,  R.I.,  a  Revolutionary  soldier, 
and  his  wife,  Mercy  Smith,  daughter  of  John 
and  Mary  (Hopkins)  Smith;  Dr.  Hazael,"  of 
Killingly,  Conn.,  and  wife,  Sarah  Thornton; 
Dr.  Fenner  Harris,'  of  North  Killingly,  Conn., 
anil  later  of  Providence,  R.I.  Mary  Hopkins, 
wife  of  John  Smith  and  mother  of  Mercy,  Dr. 
Peckham's  paternal  grandmother,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas'  Hopkins  (Thomas'-  ').  Thomas' 
Hopkins,  her  grandfather,  one  of  the  first  set- 


240 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


tiers  of  Providence,  R.I.,  was  born  in  England 
in  1616,  -son  of  William  Hopkins,  of  Chisel- 
hurst,  Dorsetshire,  and  his  wife,  Joanna  Arnold, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Arnold,  son  of  Richard 
Arnold,  whose  ancestral  line,  it  is  said,  has  been 
traced  back  to  Charlemagne. 

Mrs.  Baklwin's  maternal  ancestry  begins  in 
New  England  with  William  Torrey,  who  set- 
tled in  Weymouth,  Mass.,  in  1640.  Born  in 
Combe  St.  Nicholas,  Somersetshire,  England, 
in  1608,  son  of  Philip  Torrey,  second,  and  his 
wife  Alice,  he  was  a  lineal  descendant  in  the 
fifth  generation  of  William  Torrey,  who  died 
at  Combe  St.  Nicholas  in  1557,  leaving  a  wife, 
Thomasine,  and  two  sons.  The  line  in  Eng- 
land continued  through  the  first  William's  son 
Philip,  Philip's  son  William,  second,  to  the 
latter's  son  Philip,  second,  above  named,  father 
of  the  third  William,  who,  being  the  first  of 
his  line  in  America,  is  designated  as  William.' 
The  other  three  sons  of  Philip  Torrey,  .second — 
James,'  Philip,'  and  Joseph — also  came  to  New 
England  in  1640. 

William'  Torrey,  of  Weymouth,  .served  many 
years  as  clerk  of  the  General  Court,  and  was 
Captain  of  the  militia.  The  line  of  descent 
continued  through  Captain  William  Torrey, 
Jr.,^  who  connnanded  the  Weymouth  com- 
pany, King  Philii)'s  War,  and  his  wife,  Deborah 
Green;  Joseph'  Torrey,  a  merchant  of  Wey- 
mouth, and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Symmes;  the 
Rev.  Joseph^  Torrey,  of  South  Kingston,  R.I., 
and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Fiske:  Captain  AVill- 
iam'  Torrey,  of  Killingly,  Conn.,  and  his  wife, 
Zilpah  Davison,  daughter  of  Daniel  and  Cath- 
erine (Davis)  Davison ;  to  Mrs.  Catherine  Davis 
Torrey  Peckham,  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Baldwin. 

Captain  William  Torrey,  Jr.,^  was  the  younger 
of  the  two  sons  of  ^^'illiam'  Torrey  by  his  .sec- 
ond wife,  Jane,  daughter  of  Robert  Haviland 
and  grand-daughter  of  Matth{>w  Haviland, 
sometime  Mayor  of  Bristol,  England.  Will- 
iam^ Torrey's  wife  Deborah  was  a  daughter 
of  John^  and  Ann  (Almy)  Greene,  of  Warwick, 
R.I.,  and  grand-daughter  of  John'  Greene,  a 
surgeon,  from  Salisbury,  Wiltshire,  England, 
who  died  at  Warwick,  R.I.,  in  165S. 

Elizabeth  Symmes,  wife  of  Jo.seph'  Torrey, 
was  daughter  of  Captain  William  Symmes 
and    grand-tlaughter    of    the    Rev.    Zachariah 


Symmes,  of  Charlestown,  Mass.  The  Rev. 
Joseph  Torrey,  born  in  1707,  was  for  fifty  years 
minister  of  the  Congregational  church  of  South 
Kingston,  R.I.  Elizabeth  Fiske,  his  second 
wife,  was  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John'  Fiske, 
of  Killingly,  Conn.  Her  father  was  son  of  the 
Rev.  Moses'  Fiske  and  grandson  of  the  Rev. 
John'  Fiske,  the  finst  minister  of  Wenham, 
Ma.ss.  Al)igail  Hobart,  wife  of  the  Rev.  John'' 
Fiske  and  mother  of  Elizabeth,  was  daughter 
of  the  Rev.  Nehemiah'  Hobart,  of  Newton, 
Mass.,  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter"  Hobart,  of  Hing- 
ham,  Mass. 

Captain  Willianf  Torrey,  born  in  176.S,  the 
youngest  of  eleven  children,  died  in  ■  North 
Killingly,  Conn.,  in  1847.  By  his  second  wife, 
Zilpah  Davison,  of  Brooklyn,  Conn.,  whom  he 
married  December  4,  1809,  he  had  two  daugh- 
ters. The  elder,  Zilpah  Torrey,  married  Will- 
iam Harris,  of  Scituate,  and  was  the  mother 
of  eight  children,  one  of  them  Dr.  William 
Torrey  Harris,  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education.  The  younger  daughter,  Cath- 
erine Davis  Torrey,  born  in  1819,  married  Fen- 
ner  Hanis  Peckham,  M.I).,  then  of  North 
Killingly.  Removing  to  Providence  later  in 
life.  Dr.  Peckham  was  at  one  time  at  the  head 
of  the  medical  jirofession  in  Rhode  Island. 
He  had  one  son  and  five  daughters,  one  of 
the  latter  being  Ella  Lois  Torrey  Peckham. 

After  studying  in  the  public  schools,  Ella 
L.  T.  Peckham  jjreparcd  under  private  tutors 
for  Mount  Holyoke  College,  from  which  she 
was  graduated  in  1867.  On  October  1,  1868, 
she  married  Charles  Clinton  Baldwin,  son  of 
the  late  Hon.  John  D.  Baldwin,  of  Worcester, 
Mass.,  where  her  home  has  since  been.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Baldwin  are  the  parents  of  Kather- 
ine  Torrey  Baldwin,  born  Jul}'  7,  1869,  who 
married  Lvnde  Sullivan,  of  Maiden,  Mass.; 
Edilh  i:ila" Baldwin,  born  November  19,  1870; 
Grace  Peckham  Baldwin,  born  May  16,  1874; 
and  Rose  Danielson  Baldwin,  born  October 
22,  1882,  who  died  November  8,  1893. 

Mrs.  Baldwin  organized  the  Worcester  Mount 
Holyoke  Alumnir  Association,  of  which  she  was 
first  president.  She  was  for  two  years  presi- 
dent of  the  Worcester  A\'oman's  Club,  and 
served  several  years  on  the  Executive  Bf)anl 
of    the    State    Federation    of   Women's   Clubs 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


241 


and  as  vice-president;  is  active  in  Colonel 
Timothy  Bigelow  Chapter,  D.  A.  R.,  of  which 
she  is  a  charter  nieinlter;  is  founder  of  the  Fort- 
nightly Club;  a  member  of  tlie  Society  of  An- 
tiquity, of  the  Public  School  Art  League,  and 
of  several  social  clubs;  is  also  a  director  of  the 
\\'onian's  Club  House  Corporation.  In  re- 
ligious faith  Mrs.  Baldwin  is  an  Ejiiscopalian, 
attending  All  Saints'  Cluirch  in  A\'orcester. 


A  NNA    BARROWS,   teacher  of   cookery 

/  \  and  lecturer  on  home  science,  was  born 
XA  in  Fryeburg,  Me.,  May  24,  1861,  the 
daughter  of  George  Bradley  antl  Geor- 
giana  (Souther)  Barrows.  Her  father,  George 
Bradley  Barrows,  who  was  at  one  time  president 
of  the  Maine  Senate,  was  the  son  of  John  S. 
Barrows  and  his  wife,  Anna  Ayer  Bradley,  and 
grandson  of  William  Barrows,  the  founder  of 
Hebron  Academy,  Maine.  The  first  of  the  name 
in  this  country  was  John  Barrowe,  of  Yarmouth, 
England,  who  came  to  New  England  in  1637, 
and  about  thirty  years  later  settled  in  Plym- 
outh, Mass.,  where  some  of  his  early  descend- 
ants occupied  the  Bonum  house,  which  is  still 
standing. 

Miss  Barrows'  ancestry  is  chiefly  English. 
Her  paternal  grandmother  was  a  daughter  of 
John  and  Hannah  (Ayer)  Bradley  and  grand- 
daughter of  Samuel  Bradley,  who  was  killed  by 
the  Indians  near  Concord,  N.H.,  in  1746;  and 
on  the  maternal  side  she  was  grand-daughter 
of  Samuel  Ayer,  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  and  his 
wife,  Ann  Hazen.  (See  Bouton's  History  of 
Concord,  N.H.,  for  these  and  other  particulars.) 

Her  maternal  grandparents  (as  mentioned  in 
"  Memoranda  relating  to  the  Descentlants  of 
Joseph  Souther,  of  Boston")  were  Samuel  and 
Mary  (Webster)  Souther,  the  grandfather  a  son 
of  John  Souther,  whose  wife  Mary  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Colonel  Thomas  Stickney,  of  Concord, 
N.H.,  who  commantled  a  regiment  at  the  battle 
of  Bennington. 

On  her  mother's  side  Miss  Barrows  traces 
her  descent  from  a  sister  of  General  John  Stark 
and  from  Hugh  Stirling,  a  native  of  Glasgow, 
who  came  to  America  about  1745,  having  served 
previously  as  Lieutenant  in  the  British  army. 
Several  of    Miss  Barrows's  ancestors  on  both 


sides  served  in  the  colonial  and  Revolutionary 
wars. 

After  graduating  from  Fryeburg  Academy  in 
1882,  Miss  Barrows  taught  in  the  public  schools 
of  that  town  and  of  Conway,  N.H.  From  her 
girlhood  she  w'as  a  practical  housekeeper,  and 
before  leaving  Fryeburg  she  served  in  many 
capacities,  from  that  of  organist  in  the  Con- 
gregational church,  of  which  she  is  a  member, 
to  that  of  village  postmistress.  In  1886  she 
took  the  normal  course  at  the  Boston  Cooking 
School  under  Miss  Ida  Maynard.  The  follow- 
ing autumn,  after  supervising  the  opening  of 
a  new  cottage  at  Wellesley  College,  in  which 
a  full  system  of  domestic  work  was  to  be  tried, 
she  became  the  teacher  of  cooking  at  the  North 
Bennet  Street  Industrial  School,  Boston,  where 
she  remained  five  years.  This  was  before  man- 
ual training  was  included  in  the  regular  studies 
of  the  public  schools.  A  class  from  a  different 
school  came  at  each  session. 
'  The  N^eiv  England  Journal  of  Education,  com- 
menting on  her  work,  said,  "  Miss  Anna  Barrows 
has  made  such  a  success  of  cooking  as  an  edu- 
cational force,  as  well  as  an  industrial  activity, 
that  her  work  deserves  study,  and  commands 
the  respect  of  the  most  devout  student  of  peda- 
gogy, as  well  as  of  specialties."  Mr.  Howells, 
the  novelist,  after  watching  a  boys'  class  in 
cooking  at  that  school,  said  that  he  had  "  heard 
more  natural  philosophy  demonstrated  in  half 
an  hour  than  some  people  acquired  in  the  whole 
course  of  their  lives." 

In  1891  Miss  Barrows  resigned,  to  accept 
the  position  of  instructor  in  the  School  of  Do- 
mestic Science  connected  with  the  Boston 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  and  in 
addition  to  this  work  gave  lectures  and  class 
instruction  in  cookery  at  Lasell  Seminary,  Au- 
burndale,  Mass.  The  growing  public  interest 
in  domestic  science  and  consequent  demand 
for  lectures  occupied  so  much  time  that  the 
routine  school  work  was  given  up  for  the  larger 
field. 

Miss  Barrows  has  lectured  for  women's  clubs 
and  given  over  a  thousand  demonstrations  in 
cookery  in  many  States.  She  has  lectured  in 
New  York  for  several  seasons  in  the  Farmers' 
Institute  courses,  and  has  given  addresses 
before   many  State   agricultural   organizations 


242 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  that  ami  other  States,  as  the  Massachusetts 
Horticultural  Society,  the  Maine  Pomological 
Society,  the  Vermont  Dairymen's  Association, 
and  the  Western  New  York  Horticultural  Soci- 
ety. At  the  present  time  the  only  regular 
school  work  that  Miss  Barrows  continues  is  an 
annual  course  of  fifteen  weekly  lessons  at 
Robinson  Seminary,  Exeter,  N.H. 

In  1894  she  became  one  of  the  editors  and 
proprietors  of  the  (then  New  England)  Ameri- 
can Kitchen  Magazine,  a  monthlj'  devoted  to 
home  science,  in  which  much  of  her  writing  was 
published  until  March,  1904,  when  she  severed 
her  connection  with  the  Home  Science  Pub- 
lishing Company. 

For  other  periodicals  she  has  written  many 
articles  on  her  specialty  and  allied  topics.  She 
has  published  a  small  book  on  Eggs,  and  with 
Mrs.  Mary  J.  Lincoln,  the  "?Iome  Science  Cook 
Book,"  and  has  other  books  in  preparation. 

The  constant  aim  of  all  her  teaching  and 
writing  is  the  simplification  of  the  processes  of 
housekeeping.  She  devotes  herself  not  to  a 
multiplication  of  recipes  and  the  preparation 
of  fancy  dishes,  but  the  teaching  of  funda- 
mental principles,  from  which  each  housekeeper 
may  adapt  herself  to  her  individual  limitations 
and  needs.  The  agricultural  and  horticultural 
bearings  of  the  subject  are  particularly  inter- 
esting to  her. 

For  several  years  a  summer  school  of  cookery 
at  the  Fryeburg  Chautauqua  Assembly  was  in 
her  charge.  From  this  she  was  called  to  be 
instructor  in  cookery  at  the  School  of  Domestic 
Science  of  the  original  Chautauqua  in  New 
York  State.  She  has  been  superintendent  of 
the  department  of  hygienic  cooking  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts W.  C.  T.  U.,  president  of  the  Cooking 
School  Teachers'  League,  director  of  the  Na- 
tional Hou.sehold  Economic  Association,  and 
secretary  of  the  Association  of  the  Alumni  and 
Friends  of  Fryeburg  Academy,  a  Massachusetts 
corporation. 

In  1900  Mi.ss  Barrows  was  chosen  a  member 
of  the  Boston  School  Committee,  being  nomi- 
nated on  a  reform  ticket  and  endorsed  by  the 
Independent  Women  Voters  and  the  Republi- 
cans. Although  she  made  no  personal  canvass, 
she  was  elected  by  the  largest  number  of  votes 
cast  for  any  city  officer  at  that  election.     Her 


work  on  the  connnittee  was  done  quietly, 
with  careful  regard  for  the  interests  of  the 
schools. 


REV.  SARAH  A.  DIXON,  S.T.B.,  pas- 
tor of  the  Congregational  church  in 
.^  Tyngsborough,  Ma.'^s.,  was  boin  in 
the  town  of  Barnstable,  on  Cape  Cod, 
where  her  parents,  William  and  Joice  (Cas- 
coyne)  Dixon,  natives  f)f  Warwickshire,  Eng- 
land (the  father  a  soldier  in  the  Fortieth  Mas- 
sachusetts Regiment  in  1862),  are  now  living. 
She  is  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  eight  chil- 
dren, four  sons  and  four  daughters.  When 
asked  not  long  ago  concerning  her  "call  to 
preach,"  she  replied,  "I  had  always  had  a 
great  desire  to  hel})  people,  and  when  about 
twenty  years  of  age  this  desire  developed  into 
a  definite  decision  to  be  a  minister." 

Miss  Dixon's  early  life  was  her  best  prepara- 
tion. Her  girlhood  was  sjjcnt  mostly  in  school 
and  out  of  doors,  her  home  being  near  the 
shore;  and  her  young  soul  was  filled  with 
the  incense  from  the  fields,  the  marshes,  and 
the  sea. 

Two  early  incidents  proved  to  be  determin- 
ing factors  in  her  life.  One  was  the  "redemp- 
tion" which  came  to  her  through  the  influence 
of  her  grannnar  school  teacher.  His  interest 
and  keen  insight  into  her  nature  inspired  her 
with  an  ambition  to  excel,  and  changed  her 
from  a  "trouble"  in  the  school  into  a  student. 
From  this  time  until  she  was  sixteen  lessons 
were  mastered  and  liigh  rank  held  without  any 
definite  hope  of  oiipoituiiities  for  a  higher  edu- 
cation. 

The  other  determining  incident  came  when 
Miss  Dixon  was  sixteen  years  old.  Two  young 
women  of  Barnstable,  hearing  of  her  progress 
in  her  studies,  became  interested  in  her  wel- 
fare. They  offered  to  help  send  her  to  Bridge- 
water  Normal  School.  Her  parents  were  very 
glad  to  accept  the  kindness,  as  they  were  not 
possessed  of  an  abundance  of  this  world's 
goods,  and  tliey  had  a  large  family.  By  giv- 
ing enterlaiiimcnts  and  soliciting  among  their 
friends  these  two  ladies  w(>re  enabletl  to  raise 
the  money  to  ])ay  her  expenses  for  the  first 
}'ear.     Accordingly    she    entered     Bridgewater 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


243 


Normal  School  in  1883,  and  was  graduated  in 
1885. 

Miss  Dixon  was  now  eighteen  years  old, 
holding  a  teacher's  diploma  and  waiting  for 
a  position.  She  was  asked  to  teach  the  pri- 
mary department  in  lirewster,  Mass.,  which 
she  did  .successfully  for  a  year.  Then  followetl 
two  years'  work  in  the  intermediate  grade  at 
Cotuit.  At  the  enil  of  this  period  her  former 
teacher  secured  for  her  a  position  in  one  of  the 
Brockton  schools,  and  in  that  city  she  spent 
two  j'ears.  It  was  while  in  l^rockton  that  Miss 
Dixon  decided  to  study  for  the  ministry.  She 
determined  to  prepai'e  herself  for  the  career 
of  an  efficient  worker.  With  this  end  in  view 
she  entered  in  the  fall  of  ISOO  the  College  of 
Liberal  Arts  of  Boston  University.  She  laugh- 
ingly told  her  friends  that  she  intended  to  take 
seven  years  of  college  and  theological  work, 
that  she  had  poor  preparation,  poor  health, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  a  conviction 
that  it  was  the  right  thing  to  do.  This  convic- 
tion made  it  possible  for  her  to  accomplish  the 
task.  The  second  year  was  the  hardest:  her 
money  was  expended,  and  she  was  obliged  to 
do  some  work  outsitle  of  her  college  cour.se. 
During  all  of  this  year  .she  taught  an  evening 
school  three  nights  each  week,  and  every 
Wetlnesday  taught  as  a  substitute  in  the  Ham- 
mond Street  Granmiar  School.  This  left  but 
three  evenings  and  four  days  a  week  for  all 
of  her  college  work.  At  the  end  of  the  year 
Miss  Dixon's  health  failed,  and  .she  was  obliged 
to  lie  in  one  of  the  Boston  hospitals  foi-  sixteen 
weeks.  The  next  year,  through  the  kindness 
of  friends  and  her  physician,  she  was  enabled 
to  pursue  her  studies  without  doing  extra 
work,  and  was  graduated,  taking  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Phild.soph}-.  The  following 
September  she  entered  the  Theological  School 
of  Boston  University,  and  was  the  only  woman 
in  the  school  eligible  to  a  divinity  degree. 
During  her  course  here  an  opportimity  came 
to  her  to  supply  the  pulpit  of  the  Methodist 
Church  at  Centreville,  Ma,ss.  This  village  on 
Cape  Cod  is  five  miles  from  Barnstable,  her 
native  place,  and  seventy-five  miles  from  Bos- 
ton, where  she  was  at  school.  I''or  two  years 
she  travelled  this  distance  every  wt'ck,  iireach- 
ing  on  Sundays  and  taking  full  charge  of  the 


work.  She  was  not  allowed  to  be  called  the 
pastor,  as  the  Methodisti^  do  not  grant  licenses 
to  women  to  preach;  but  the  people  wanted 
her,  and  so  she  was  allowed  to  do  the  work, 
the  presiding  elder  t)f  the  district  being  nomi- 
nally the  pastor. 

Miss  Dixon  was  graduated  from  the  Theo- 
logical School  early  in  June,  1S97,  taking  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Sacred  Tlieology  and 
ranking  among  the  first  in  her  class.  Dur- 
ing the  last  few  months  of  her  coiu'se  she 
had  supplied  the  pulpit  of  the  Congregational 
Church  at  Tyngsborough,  Mass.  She  now  re- 
ceived a  unanimous  call  from  this  church  to 
become  its  .settled  pastor. 

(^n  the  10th  of  June,  after  being  sub- 
jected to  a  long  and  trying  examination  by  a 
council  of  all  the  churches  in  the  .A.n(lover 
Conference,  which  ni(>t  at  TytLsborough,  she 
was  ordained  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  The 
ordaining  prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev. 
I.  AA'.  Dodge,  of  Newburyport:  the  right 
hand  of  fellowshi]i  liy  the  Rev.  Amelia 
Frost,  then  minister  of  the  Congregational 
Church  at  Littleton;  and  the  charge  to  the 
churches  by  the  Rev.  \\.  A.  Bartlett,  now  of 
('hicago. 

Miss  Dixon  has  sei'ved  as  pastor  of  this 
church  at  Tyngsborough  for  seven  years  with 
marked  success.  Its  meml)ership  since  she 
came  here  has  increa.sed  nearly  one-third.  In 
all  departments  the  church  work  has  been 
([uickened,  and  the  society  has  enjoyed  a  greater 
degree  of  i)rosperity,  both  s|iiritual  and  material, 
than  ever  before  in  its  history.  A  new  pipe 
organ  has  been  bought,  and  extensive  repairs 
and  impi-ovements  have  been  made  on  the 
church  building  and  jiarsonage. 

Well-e(|uipjied  for  lier  profession,  Miss  Dixon 
shrinks  from  none  of  its  duties.  She  has  con- 
ducted thirty  or  moi'e  fiuieral  .services  in  her 
parish,  and  has  married  sixteen  couples.  She 
lias  delivered  two  Memorial  Day  orations  in 
Provincetown,  one  in  Barnstable,  anil  one  in 
Tyngsborough,  has  read  papers,  notably  one 
on  Browning,  before  literary  societies,  and 
made  addresses  at  various  jniblic  gatherings. 

In  June,  1902,  she  started  on  a  four  months' 
tn'i)  to  Eurojie,  returning  in  Septendier.  On 
the    Continent    she    visited    Antwerp,    Rouen, 


244 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


Paris,  and  in  England,  London,  Lincoln,  York, 
Chester,  and  other  places.  She  preached  in 
Birniina;hani,  St  rat  ford-on- A  von,  and  in  Brailes 
and  ^^'ellesbourne  in  Warwickshire. 

She  keeps  house  in  (he  cose}-  parsonage  in 
Tyngslx) rough,  and  her  home  is  a  centre  for 
uplifting  and  stimulating  influences.  Her 
frankness  and  sincerity  have  won  for  her  the 
confidence  as  well  as  the  warm  affection  of  her 
parishioners,  her  wliole-souled  devotion  to  her 
chosen  work  and  the  earnestness  and  aptness 
of  her  pulpit  utterances  impressing  even  the 
casual  hearer  and  chance  acquaintance.  Her 
hundreds  of  friends  and  admirers  feel  that  she 
reflects  honor  upon  the  sacred  profession. 
Years  of  careful  study  and  high  thinking  have 
made  her  the  cultured,  refined  woman  whom 
to  meet  is  a  pleasure  long  to  be  rememljered 
and  to  number  in  friendship  is  a  privilege. 


KATE  SANBORN.— Breezy  Meadows, 
cool,  shady,  a  brook  singing  along  a 
few  steps  from  the  piazza;  cattle, 
sleek  and  contented,  grazing  on  the 
rolling  slopes  of  upland  pasture;  fields  of  grow- 
ing timothy  and  clover,  grain  and  corn,  on  every 
hand.  A  garden,  blossoming  full  with  flowers 
of  our  grandmothers'  day,  antl  new  varieties 
also,  leads  into  but  half  hides  another,  where 
grow  old-fashioned  and  new-fangled  fruits, 
berries,  and  vegetables,  for  the  refreshment 
of  mistress  and  guests. 

The  hand  of  the  landscape  artist  has  never 
touched  the  place.  Rose-bushes  and  a  few 
shrubs  grow  at  will  about  the  house,  which  is 
an  old-fashioned  one,  standing  in  their  niitist 
well  back  from  the  highway.  Great  trees  are 
near,  but  not  many  shadow  the  building,  which 
gives  out  such  an  air  of  sunshine,  of  inbred 
hospitality,  that  one  smiles  before  pounding 
a  summons  on  the  brass  knocker,  and  keeps 
on  smiling,  for  the  welcome  from  the  mistress 
is   sincere. 

This  is  the  home  of  Kate  Sanborn;  and  she 
loves  it,  and  delights  to  entertain  her  friends 
here,  both  the  famed  and  the  fameless. 

One  walks  through  the  large  sunny  rooms, 
with  books  everywhere,  quaint  things  in  corners 
and  odd  places.     There  is  a  distaff  full  of  flax 


in  a  niche  half-way  up  the  stairway,  and  at 
its  head  a  wool  wheel,  banded  ready  for  use. 
Coming  to  the  dining-room,  one  finds  a  great 
fireplace,  never  changed  since  the  olden  day 
when  the  house  was  built,  immense  fire-dogs, 
big  bellows,  tongs,  and  shovel,  made  in  a  primi- 
tive blacksmith's  shop.  Many  a  distinguished 
guest  has  chatteil  and  laughed  by  its  crackling 
fire,  many  a  merry  group  surrounded  it.  It 
is  not  a  show  place,  but  a  home;  and  Miss  San- 
born's hospitality  is  much  larger  than  her  acres. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  picnic  party  out  from  Boston, 
and  always  a  guest  in  the  house,  often  half 
a  dozen.  She  is  a  good  housekeeper  and  an 
excellent  farmer. 

She  lives  outdoors,  makes  her  garden,  and 
walks  among  the  growing  crops.  Dogs  and 
horses  know  the  clear,  wholesome  ring  of  her 
voice,  and  come  to  be  petted.  Even  the  cows 
are  a  little  more  attentive  when  she  calls.  Only 
a  womanly  woman,  a  lady  born  and  reared, 
could  live  her  life  of  good  cheer,  literary  en- 
vironment, and  farming. 

Miss  Sanborn  was  eminently  well  born.  Her 
father  was  Edwin  D.  Sanborn,  who  for  prac- 
tically all  his  life  held  a  professorship  in  Dart- 
mouth College.  From  LS37  to  1859  he  occu- 
pieil  with  distinguished  ability  the  chair  of 
Latin  language  antl  literature.  In  the  last- 
named  year  he  accepted  the  Latin  professor- 
ship and  presidency  of  Washington  University, 
at  St.  Louis,  returning  four  years  later  to  the 
chair  of  oratory  and  literature  at  Dartmouth, 
which  he  held  until  he  retired  from  active  work. 
Plis  was  a  very  long,  able,  and  distinguished 
career.  In  1837  he  married  Mary  A.,  daughter 
of  Ezekiel  Webster,  of  Boscawen,  N.H.,  a 
niece  of  Daniel  Webster. 

Of  this  grandfather,  Daniel  says:  "Ezekiel 
was  witty,  quick  at  repartee,  his  conversation 
full  of  illustrative  anecdote."  He  was  a  man  of 
wonderful  presence.  "In  manly  beauty,"  said 
Daniel,  "  he  is  inferior  to  no  person  that  I  ever 
saw."  He  was  a  model  lawyer  and  a  model 
man,  simple  and  temperate. 

His  "Credo,"  which  is  preserved,  is  one  of 
the  most  clear,  simple,  and  perfect  papers  of 
its  kind  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  Christi- 
anity. All  his  leisure  from  business  and  his 
family  was  devoted  to  books.     Lawyers  who 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


245 


were  in  court  with  him  called  him  the  peer 
of  his  illustrious  brother,  both  in  law  and  in 
oratory.  His  death  in  the  very  prime  of  man- 
hood made  an  intensely  dramatic  scene  in  the 
old  Merrimack  County  court-house  at  Concord. 
Concluding  a  remarkable  plea,  he  stood  grace- 
fully for  a  moment  while  the  court  and  his 
brothers  of  the  bar  were  silent  under  the  spell 
of  his  speech.  Then  he  fell  slowly  backwanl 
to  the  floor,  and  was  gone.  ''What  shadows 
we  are,  what  shadows  we  pursue!"  exclaimed 
George  Sullivan,  the  illustrious  Attorney-gen- 
eral of  New  Hampshire.  He  died  April  10, 
1829. 

Mrs.  Webster  lived  to  great  age,  a  dainty, 
lovely  woman,  dying  January  31,  1896. 

Miss  Sanborn  was  educated  at  home  by  her 
father  almost  entirely,  though  tutors  in  math- 
ematics were  employed  for  her.  Her  drill  in 
Latin  commenced  at  eight  years  with  studying 
a  Latin  booklet,  and  continued  till  she  left 
home  to  support  herself.  It  comprised  more 
than  a  college  course.  This  year  after  year  of 
translating,  scanning,  wortl  selection  and 
phrasing,  was  a  wonderful  training  in  language. 
She  was  obliged  to  connuit  to  memory  some 
portion  of  prose  or  poetry  daily,  and  also  to 
describe  something  in  writing.  Then  followetl 
apt  quotations  at  the  tea-table,  later  a  good 
anecdote.  These  teachings  and  tasks  of  mind 
and  memory  were  not  dull  drill,  but  part  of 
every-day,  social  family  life. 

W'hile  such  instruction  set  the  course  of  her 
career,  it  accomplished  a  thousand  times  more, 
giving  a  splendid  memory,  ready  for  use. 
Daily  writing  under  skilled  criticism,  studying 
the  light  and  shade  of  word  and  expression, 
the  use  of  synonyms,  pointed  the  "  inevitable 
nib  "  to  her  pen  and  also  to  her  speech,  so  adding 
another  powet  to  naturally  great  mental  en- 
dowment. It  was  the  love  of  her  father  and 
her  love  for  him  which  was  ever  the  essential 
feature  of  this  instruction:  there  was  in  it  no 
drudgery  for  teacher  or  pupil. 

At  eleven  she  earned  three  dollars  for  a  little 
story  her  father  sent  to  a  child's  paper,  and  thus 
began  a  brilliant  career  successful  beyond 
most  and  still  continuing. 

The  brightness  of  Miss  Sanborn's  books  is 
like  sunlight  glinting  clear  brooks  and  lighting 


their  depths.  There  is  nothing  tempestuous 
or  gusty  about  her  composition,  yet  it  is  full  of 
anecdote,  spirit,  wit — keen  thrusts  in  plenty, 
but  without  spite,  worded  to  a  nicety,  but 
never  shorn  of  strength.  She  inherited  a  love 
for  teaching,  and  began  that  employment  in 
the  ell  of  her  father's  house,  then  went  with 
him  to  St.  Louis,  where  she  taught  in  Mary 
Institute,  connected  with  Washington  Univer- 
sity, at  a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars  per  year, 
of  which  she  was  very  proud.  After,  she  taught 
elocution  in  Packer  Institute,  Brooklyn,  so  well 
that  Henry  Ward  Beecher  said,  "There  used 
to  be  a  few  prize  pumpkins  here,  but  now  each 
pupil  is  doing  good  work."  At  the  .same  time 
she  gave  twenty  lectures  in  New  York  City 
each  season  upon  such  subjects  as  "Bachelor 
Authors,"  "  Punch  as  a  Reformer,"  "Literary 
Gossips,"  "Spinster  Authors  of  England," 
and  so  forth. 

In  its  early  days  Smith  College  called  her 
to  teach  English  literature,  and  here  she  created 
the  "Round  Table  Series  of  Literature,"  once 
published  and  used  by  many  teachers.  No 
mortal  can  go  over  this  collection  of  complete 
and  exact  tables  without  knowing  English 
letters  correctly  nor  look  at  one  diagram  five 
minutes  unprofitably.  It  shows  marvellous 
power  of  concentration  and  "monumental 
drudgery."  During  her  three  years  at  Smith 
Miss  Sanborn  lectured  in  Springfield,  at  Mrs. 
Terhune's,  and  in  many  towns  near  the  college. 
Leaving  Smith,  she  went  on  a  lecturing  tour 
through  the  A^'est,  and  met  success  everywhere. 
The  exact  knowledge,  newness  of  thought  and 
subjects,  elegant  phrasing,  and  keen  wit  of  this 
gifted,  warm-hearted  New  England  woman 
touched  the  Westerners.  Great  and  enthusi- 
astic audiences  greeted  her.  Prairie  folk  were 
proud  of  this  deputy  from  Eastern  home  people, 
and  they  made  her  stay  among  them  a  notable 
event. 

Returning,  Miss  Sanborn  began  teaching  in 
New  York  City,  and  also  lecturing,  first  in  Mrs. 
Stokes's  parlor,  till,  outgrowing  it,  she  moved 
to  rooms  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, and  finally  to  those  in  Dr.  Howard 
Crosby's  church,  speaking  to  audiences  that 
crowded  them.  This  work  was  reported  weekly 
in  the  Tribune,  World,  Sun,  ami  Times. 


246 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


For  several  years  she  reviewed  books  for  the 
Club  Room  Department  in  The  Galaxy.  Dr. 
J.  G.  Holland  gave  her  the  Bric-a-brac  Depart- 
ment in  Scribner's,  and  at  this  time  she  met 
every  week  a  class  of  married  women  at  Mrs. 
Holland's,  condensing  and  discussing  new  books. 
Meanwhile  she  was  an  individual  and  potent 
factor  in  New  York  social  and  literary  life. 
At  Mi-s.  John  Sherwood's — or  in  any  place  where 
wit  and  wisdom  gathered — she  was  at  home, 
unpretending,  picturesque,  humorous. 

She  has  written  over  forty  lectures,  and  read 
them  in  many  places  in  New  York  and  the 
West  and  all  over  New  England.  Calendars 
are  her  recreation:  they  run  right  off  her  pen, 
or  are  collected  from  other  penmen.  "<)ur 
Calendar"  gives  to  each  date  a  few  lines  from 
an  American  author.  Then  we  have  "Cupid's," 
"ChiKIren's,"  "Sunshine,"  "Rainbow,"  "Star- 
light," "Indian  Summer"  calendars;  and, 
just  so  long  as  Kate  Sanborn  e.xists  in  the  flesh, 
they  will  keep  coming.  Certainly  that  is  our 
hope. 

Club  work  is  outside  her  kingdom,  but  she 
was  the  first  president  of  New  Hampshire's 
Daughters,  an  as.sociation  of  women  born  in 
New  Hampshire,  but  living  in  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire.  Hers  was  a  notable 
administration,  and  brought  to  the  organiza- 
tion a  prestige  which  remains.  Rules  might 
fail,  but  the  brilliant  president  never.  She 
governed  a  merry  company,  many  of  them 
famous,  but  she  was  chief.  They  loved  her, 
and  that  affection  and  pride  still  exist. 

She  is  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Paul  Babcock, 
at  Montclair,  N.J.,  or  in  New  York,  some  part 
of  each  winter;  but  her  home  is  at  Breezy 
Meadows,  Metcalf,  Mass.,  where  several  years 
since  she  "adopted"  an  abandoned  farm, 
which  later  .she  deserted  for  a  farm  only  a  short 
distance  beyond  it,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
road,  where  she  .settlerl  down  to  agriculture, 
hospitality,  and  authorship.  In  each  of  these 
industries  she  excels,  iiKJst  of  all  in  pen  work. 

Life  is  beautiful  to  Kate  Sanborn,  the  homes 
of  friends  delightful;  but  Breezy  Meadows, 
with  its  cattle,  horses,  and  dogs,  its  bu.sy  out- 
door life,  its  growing  crops  and  old-fashioned 
flowers  and  hen-coops,  its  century-old  fireplace 
anil  friends  beside  it,  is  ever  the  land  of  her 


heart's   desire.     Her    thoughts   are    transfixed 
on  the  point  of  a  sharp  and  fearless  pen. 

Miss  Said)orn  has  published  "  Home  Pict- 
ures of  English  Poets"  (commendations  called 
out  by  this  one  volume  would  make  a  book. 
College  men  and  students  of  literature  point 
to  it  as  a  fascinating  study  of  facts,  holding 
a  permanent  ])lace  of  its  own) ;  "  Wit  of  Women" 
("Its  play  [of  wit]  is  like  that  of  summer  light- 
ning on  the  clouds,  so  quick,  varied,  and  irra- 
diant,"  writes  Frances  Willard);  "Adopting 
an  Abandoned  Farm";  "Abandoning  an 
Adopted  Farm";  "A  Truthful  Woman  in 
Southern  California";  "'My  Literary  Zoo"; 
"Favorite  Lectures";  "Vanity  and  Insanity 
Shadows  of  Genius."  Not  a  dull  volume  or 
lectui'e  from  this  rarely  gifted  writer,  and  every 
book  does  one  good.  If  sentences  are  pictu- 
res(|ue,  witty,  they  are  also  lessons  in  excellent 
English.  How  well  this  woman  Avas  equipped 
for  her  work,  how  healthy  and  sunny,  strong 
and  laughable,  instructive  and  amusing,  is 
the  product  of  her  mind!  And  she  is  still  busy, 
preparing  two  new  books,  writing  regular  book 
chats  for  one  paper  and  reviews  for  the  Natiojial 
Magazine. 


FLORENCE  COLLINS  PORTER,  of  the 
editorial  staff  of  the  Los  Angeles  Herald, 
was  born  in  Caribou,  Aroostook  County, 
Me.,  August  14, 185;-?,  daughter  of  Sanuiel 
Wilson  and  Dorcas  S.  ^Hardison)  Collins. 
Mrs.  Pfirter's  father,  Sanuiel  W.  Collins,  one 
of  the  early  jiioneers  of  Aroostook  County, 
served  several  terms  in  the  Maine  Legislature, 
at  first  as  Repre.sentative  and  later  as  State 
Senator,  and  also  held  iin|)ortant  town  offices. 
He  was  a  manufacturer  of  lunil)er  and  a  man 
noted  for  generous  and  kindly  deeds  and  dem- 
ocratic principles.  He  died  in  1898  at  the  ad- 
vanced age  of  eighty-seven. 

The  Hardisons  also  were  a  family  of  early 
pioneers,  ilescendants  of  Ivory  Hardison,  who 
made  an  impre.ss  on  the  life  and  character 
of  the  new  town  in  the  Aroostook  forest.  Mrs. 
Dorcas  S.  Collins  inherited  many  of  the  sterling 
qualities  of  her  mother,  Mrs.  Dorcas  Abbott 
Hardison,  a  very  capable  woman,  of  great 
strengtli  of  character,  for  whom  she  was  named. 


-?^"' 


ELECTA   N.  L.  WALTON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


247 


Mrs.  Collins  h;i.s  livcnl  to  sec  ker  live  children 
occupy  positions  of  influence  and  honor.  She 
has  recently  gone  to  make  her  home  with  her 
daughter  Florence,  Mrs.  Porter,  in  South 
Pasadena.  At  seventy-six  years  of  age  she 
is  in  possession  of  active  mental  faculties,  with 
the  prosjject  of  continued  long  life  in  the  land 
of  sunshine. 

Mi's.  Porter  was  graduated  from  the  public 
schools  of  Caribou,  and  has  always  taken  an 
interest  in  educational  matters.  Elected  as 
a  member  of  the  School  Committee  of  Cariboii 
in  1882,  she  served  in  that  capacity  one  year, 
being  one  of  the  first  women  in  the  State  of 
Maine  to  hold  such  a  position.  After  the 
death  of  her  husband,  the  Re^■.  Charles  AVilliam 
Porter,  in  1894,  she  served  for  four  years  as 
Supeiintendent  of  the  schools  of  Caribou,  and 
for  a  year  was  editor  and  proprietor  of  the 
Aroostook  Kepuhlican.  The  paper  was  a  finan- 
cial success,  and  proved  to  be  the  entrance 
into  a  larger  fiekl  of  journalism.  Mrs.  Porter's 
maternal  uncle,  W  allace  L.  Hardison,  having 
purchased  the  Los  Angeles  Herald,  offered  her 
a  lucrative  and  important  position  on  the  edi- 
torial staff  of  that  jjaper.  Accordingly,  in 
Octol)er,  1900,  !\Irs.  Porter  transferred  her 
interests  from  Maine  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

Mrs.  Porter  has  always  been  active  in  mat- 
ters that  pertain  to  woman's  work  and  ad- 
vancement. A\'hen  but  a  girl  in  her  teens, 
she  drove  ten  miles  to  hear  the  first  woman 
speaker  that  ever  came  into  that  ]iart  of  the 
country  in  which  she  lived.  Temperance  work 
early  attracted  her  attention,  and  for  four  years 
she  was  the  national  .secretary  of  the  Non- 
partisan Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
whose  headquarters  were  at  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

From  1896  to  1898  Mrs.  Porter  was  vice- 
president  of  the  Maine  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs  and  from  1898  to  1900  the  president. 
When  she  went  to  Los  Angeles,  the  Federation 
showed  its  appreciation  of  her  services  by  cre- 
ating the  office  of  honorary  president,  and 
giving  her  that  title.  In  Los  Angeles  she  is 
a  member  of  the  Friday  Morning  Cluli  and 
of  the  Ebell,  and  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Ruskin  Art  Club.  At  tlip  time  of  the  biennial 
meeting  of  1902  she  edited  an  illustrated  souve- 
nir edition  of  the  Los  Angeles  Herald  that  at- 


tracted wide  attention,  and  drew  forth  many 
compliments  because  of  the  accuracy  of  the 
biographical  sketches  of  club  women  and  the 
artistic  (juality  of  the  work.  She  conducts 
a  weekly  column.  She  is  in  demand  by  clubs 
and  child-study  circles  for  short  addresses 
on  topics  relating  to  women's  work. 

Florence  Collins  was  married  to  the  Rev. 
Charles  William  Porter,  November  3,  1873. 
Mr.  Porter  was  born  in  Houlton,  Me.  Or- 
dained as  a  Congregational  clergyman,  he 
served  as  pastor  of  the  churches  of  Caribou, 
Oldtown,  and  Winthrop.  He  died  in  Caribou, 
July  17,  1894.  Three  children  survive  their 
father,  namely:  Helen  Louise,  born  in  Caribou, 
July  28,  1876;  Florence  S.,  born  in  Caribou, 
September  1,  1885;  and  Charles  Winthrop 
Porter,  born  in  Winthrop,  Me.,  January  14, 
1891.  Helen  Louise  was  married  in  October, 
1900,  to  Mr.  John  Gregg  Utterback,  of  Roches- 
ter, N.Y.  The  two  younger  children  are  liv- 
ing with  their  mother  in  their  new  home,  the 
"Inglenook,"  recently  built  at  South  Pa.sadena. 


ELECTA  NOBLES  LINCOLN  WALTON, 
wife  of  George  A.  Walton  and  co- 
author with  her  husband  of  Walton's 
Arithmetics,  was  born  in  Watertown, 
N.Y.,  May  12,  1824,  the  youngest  child  of 
Martin  and  Susan  W.  (Freeman)  Lincoln.  On 
the  paternal  side  she  is  a  descendant  of  Samuel' 
Lincoln,  who  settled  at  Hingham,  Mass.,  in 
1637,  and  of  his  son  Mordecai,"  who  was  born 
in  Hingham  in  1657.  These  two  ancestors  of 
Mrs.  Walton  were  also  ancestors  of  the  martyreil 
President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  was  of  the 
same  generation  that  she  i.s — the  seventh. 
Mrs.  \\'alton's  great-great-grandfather,  Jacob^ 
Lincoln,  born  in  1711,  son  of  Mordecai'  by  his 
second  wife,  was  half-brother  to  President 
Lincoln's  great -great -grandfather,  Mordecai' 
Lincoln,  born  in  1686,  who  removed  from 
Hingham,  Mass.,  to  New  Jersey  anil  thence  to 
Pennsylvania.  And  Mrs.  Walton's  great-great- 
grandfather on  her  grandmotlier  Chloe's  side, 
namely,  Lsaac^  Lincoln,  born  in  1691,  was  own 
brother  to  President  Lincoln's  great-great- 
grandfather, Mordecai,'  both  being  sons  of 
.Mordecai"  by  his  first  wife,  Sarah  Jones. 


248 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Obadiali^  Lincoln,  son  of  Jacob^  and  Mary 
(Holl)rook)  Lincoln,  was  the  father  of  Jacob,^ 
born  in  1762,  who  married  Chloe^  Lincoln, 
daughter  of  Deacon  Isaac^  and  Sarah  (Hobart) 
Lincoln.  .Licob^  and  his  wife  Chloe'*  were  the 
parents  of  Martin  Lincoln,  above  named,  father 
of  Mrs.  Walton. 

Through  her  grandmother,  Chloe"  Lincoln, 
Mrs.  Walton  is  descended  from  the  Rev.  Peter 
Hobart,  who  settled  at  Hingham,  Mass.,  in 
September,  1635,  and  from  his  father,  Edmund' 
Hobart.  Chloe  Lincoln's  mother,  Mrs.  Sarah 
Hobart  Lincoln,  born  in  1727,  was  a  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Nehemiah' Hobart  fHarv.  Coll.,  1714), 
minister  of  the  Second  Parish  of  Hingham,  now 
Cohasset.  Her  father's  father,  Davi(P  Hobart, 
of  Hingham,  was  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter"  Hobart 
and  one  of  a  family  of  fifteen  children.  The 
Rev.  Peter  Hobart,  a  graduate  of  Emmanuel 
College,  Cambridge,  England  (A.M.  1629), 
died  in  1679,  in  the  fifty-third  year  of  his  min- 
istry, nine  years  in  Hingham,  England,  and 
nearly  forty-four  in  Hingham,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Walton's  father,  Martin  Lincoln,  was 
born  in  Cohasset  in  1795.  A  teacher  by  pro- 
fession, he  tavight  in  the  public  schools  of  Lan- 
caster, Mass.,  also  in  the  Lancaster  Academy, 
and  afterward  for  some  years  kept  a  private 
school  in  Boston. 

Mrs.  AValton's  mother,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Susan  \Miite  Freeman,  was  the  daughter 
of  Adam  and  Margaret  (White)  Freeman. 
Adam  Freeman,  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Walton, 
emigrated  with  a  party  from  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main  about  1780,  and  settled  in  the  locality 
then  known  as  the  "German  Flats,"  afterward 
named  Frankfort,  N.Y.  His  wife,  Margaret 
^\'hile  Freeman,  Mrs.  Walton's  maternal  grand- 
mother, was  from  Windsor,  Vt.  Archibald 
\\'hite,  Jr.,  and  William  ^^'hite,  who  ^are  on 
record  as  tax-paying  inhabitants  of  the  town 
in  1786,  w(>re  her  brothers. 

When  Electa  Not^les  Lincoln  was  two  years 
old,  her  parents  removed  to  Lancaster,  Mass., 
the  family  afterward  living  in  Roxbury  and 
Boston.  Her  first  teacher  and  the  chief  in- 
structor of  her  early  years  was  her  father.  Li 
the  autumn  of  1841  she  entered  the  State  Nor- 
mal School  in  Lexington,  Mass.,  of  which  the 
Rev.  Cyrus  Peirce  ("Father  Peirce,"  of  revered 


memory)  was  t\w  principal.  About  a  year  anil 
a  half  later,  or  in  1843,  having  completed  the 
normal  course  of  study  and  received  her  diploma, 
she  became  an  assistant  in  the  Franklin  Gram- 
mar School,  Boston.  After  teaching  there 
for  a  few  weeks,  she  was  ajjpointeil  assistant  in 
the  Normal  School,  her  Alma  Mater,  where 
sh(>  began  to  teach  on  May  7,  1843,  when  she 
lacketl  five  days  of  being  nineteen  years  old. 
She  retained  her  position  as  assistant  at  the 
State  Normal  School  for  seven  years,  one  at 
Lexington  antl  six  at  West  Newton  (whither 
the  school  was  removed  in  1844),  and  served 
under  three  principals — the  Rev.  Cyrus  Peirce, 
the  Rev.  Sanuiel  .1.  May,  and  Eben  S.  Stearns. 

In  the  interregnum  between  the  resignation 
of  Mr.  Peirce  and  the  accession  of  Mr.  Stearns, 
Miss  Lincoln  served  as  principal  of  the  school; 
and  it  was  the  expressed  wish  of  Mr.  Peirce 
that  she  should  succeed  him  as  permanent 
principal.  Miss  Lincoln  was  thus  the  first 
woman  in  the  country  to  act  as  principal  of 
a  State  Normal  School,  but  to  make  her  the 
permanent  principal  was  too  great  an  innova- 
tion to  be  seriously  thought  of  by  those  in 
authority  at  that  early  day. 

She  was  married  to  George  Augustus  Walton 
on  August  27,  1850.  Mr.  Walton  at  that  time 
and  for  a  number  of  years  after  was  principal 
of  the  Oliver  Grammar  School  in  Lawrence, 
Mass.  Sub.sc(iuently,  as  a  teacher  in  teachers' 
institutes  in  New  England,  also  in  New  York 
and  \'irginia,  he  became  widely  known  and  in- 
Huential.  For  twenty-five  years  from  1871  he 
was  agent  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of 
Education.  Mr.  Walton  is  a  graduate  of  the 
liridgewater  Normal  School.  He  received  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts  from  Williams  College. 
Born  in  South  Reading  (now  Wakefiekl),  Mass., 
February  18,  1822,  son  of  James  and  Elizabeth 
(Bryant)  \^^^lton,  he  is  a  lineal  descendant  of 
the  Rev.  William  Walton,  whose  services  as 
minister  of  the  gospel  at  Marblehead  covered 
a  period  of  thirty  years,  1638-68. 

For  eighteen  years  after  marriage  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  A\'alton  r(\sided  in  Lawrence.  A  Unitarian 
in  religious  faith,  brought  up  under  the  pulpit 
teachings  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Thayer,  of 
Lancaster,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Putnam, 
of  Roxbury,  and  later  influencetl  by  the  inspir- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


249 


iiig  elocjuence  of  Theodore  Parker,  Mrs.  Walton 
devoted  herself  to  benevolent  and  philanthropic 
enterprises  in  her  spare  time,  and  was  a  leader 
in  church  and  charitable  work.  During  the 
Civil  War,  turning  the  sympathies  of  the  Law- 
rence people  toward  the  Sanitary  Connnission, 
she  aided  in  organizing  the  whole  community 
into  a  body  of  co-laborers  with  the  army  in 
the  field. 

Having  received  thorough  instruction  in 
vocal  culture  from  Professors  James  E.  Mur- 
dock  and  William  Russell,  she  was  for  years 
employed  as  a  teacher  of  reading  and  vocal 
training  in  the  teachers'  institutes  of  Massa- 
chusetts. She  also  taught  in  the  State  Normal 
Institutes  of  Virginia,  and  for  five  successive 
years,  by  invitation  of  General  Armstrong, 
conducted  a  teachers'  institute  of  the  gradu- 
ating class  in  Hampton.  Her  belief  in  the  right 
of  woman  to  be  rated  equally  with  man  at  her 
own  worth  and  be  credited  with  her  own  work 
was  intensifietl  by  the  decision  of  the  publishers 
that  her  name  should  not  appear  witli  her  hus- 
band's on  the  title-page  as  co-author  of  the 
arithmetics  which  were  their  joint  production, 
and  led  at  length  to  earnest  advocacy  of  equal 
rights  for  the  sexes.  She  was  always  zealous 
in  the  temperance  cause,  and  during  a  residence 
in  Westfield  was  president  of  the  local  branch 
of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 
Since  the  removal  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walton  to 
West  Newton,  where  they  now  reside,  Mrs. 
Walton  has  been  active  in  promoting  woman 
suffrage,  believing  that  this  will  best  advance 
the  interests  of  temperance  and  kindred  re- 
forms, and  tend  to  the  purification  of  politics. 
She  was  for  many  years  an  officer  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts W^oman  Suffrage  Association,  is  a  val- 
ued member  anil  vice-president  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Women's  Club  of  lioston,  for  twenty  years 
was  president  of  the  West  Newton  Women's 
Educational  Club,  organized  in  L8S0,  and  is 
now  on  the  Boanl  of  Directors  of  the  Woman's 
Club  House  Corporation.  Although  not  a  pro- 
lific writer,  she  sometimes  contributes  to  the 
press.  She  is  an  interesting  speaker  and  an 
occasional  lecturer  upon  literary  and  philan- 
thropic subjects. 

Mr.  anil  Mrs.  Walton  are  the  parents  of  five 
children,    of   whom   three   are   livmg:   Harriet 


Peirce,  wife  of  ex-Judge  James  R.  Dunbar, 
of  the  Massachusetts  Superior  Court;  Dr.  George 
Lincoln  Walton  (Harv.  Univ.,  A.B.  1S75,  M.D. 
1880),  neurologist,  of  Boston;  and  Alice  Walton 
(Smith  Coll.,  A.B.  1887;  Cornell,  Ph.D.  1892), 
now  (1903)  associate  professor  of  Latin  and 
archa-ology  at  Wellesley  College.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Dunbar  have  five  children — namely,  Ralph 
Walton,  Philip  Richards,  Ruth,  Helen  Lincoln, 
and  Henry  Fowler. 


LUCY  MARIA  JAMES,  of  New  Bed- 
ford, first  Regent  of  the  Captain  Thomas 
J  Kempton  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
Revolution,  was  born  in  Fairhaven, 
Mass.,  March  1,  1841,  daughter  of  William 
and  Maria  Hartson  (Caswell)  James.  She  was 
married  August  10,  1865,  to  Henry  B.  James, 
of  New  Bedford,  son  of  John,  .Ir.,  and  Sylvia 
(Kempton)  James. 

John  James,  Sr.,  father  of  John  and  Will- 
iam, came  as  a  sailor  boy  from  England  in 
1805  or  1806.  He  married  April  24,  1808, 
Sally  Dunham,  of  Dartmouth,  Mass.,  where 
he  bought  land  and  became  a  resident,  but 
continued  for  some  time  to  follow  the  sea. 
During  the  War  of  1812  the  vessel  he  was  in 
was  captured  by  the  English,  officers  and  crew 
being  held  as  jirisoners.  On  reaching  Ireland 
he  escajied,  but  was  recaptured  and  imprisoned 
in  Cork.  The  date  of  his  release  is  not  given 
in  the  family  recoi'd.  His  son  William  was 
born  in  Dartmouth  in  March,  1816. 

Mrs.  James's  mother  was  the  daughter  of 
Daniel  Caswell,  a  soldier  in  the  War  of  1812, 
and  his  wife,  Sally  Elliot,  anil  grand-daughter 
of  John  and  Betsey  (Cain)  Elliot.  John 
Elliot  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  who  was 
wounded  at  the  battle  of  Saratoga.  He  was 
born  in  East  Taunton,  Mass.,  where  he  died 
in  1843  at  the  age  of  ninety-six  years. 

The  parents  of  Mrs.  James  moved  to  New 
Bedford,  Mass.,  when  she  was  an  infant,  and 
she  received  her  education  in  the  public  schools 
of  that  city.  At  the  age  of  ten  years  she  was 
in  great  demand  as  a  correspondent  for  those 
who  could  not  write. 

Mrs.  James  has  acted  on  the  principle  that 
study  should  be  a  part  of  the  every-day  home 


250 


REPRESENTATIN'E   WOMEN    UF   NEW   EN(J1.AND 


life.  The  poor,  whom  she  has  often  visited 
in  their  homes,  have  been  instructed  by  her 
teaching;s  and  aided  by  her  generous  con- 
tributions. Her  mother  early  encouraged 
her  in  this  laudable  mission  of  helpfulness  to 
others.  During  the  Civil  War  she  offered 
her  services  as  an  army  nurse,  but  nu^t  with 
disap]K)intment,  as  she  was  too  young  to 
perform  official  tluty  in  the  hospitals.  Many 
a  soldier,  however,  was  provided  with  comforts 
and  luxuries  through  her  zealous  efforts  at 
home  in  their  behalf.  When  a  Relief  Corps 
auxiliary  to  William  L.  Rodman  Post,  No. 
1,  G.  A.  R.,  was  formed  in  New  Bedford, 
Mrs.  James  enrolled  her  name  on  its  charter 
list.  From  the  date  of  its  institution,  Sep- 
tember 11,  1885,  to  the  present  time  she  has 
devoted  her  best  efforts  to  the  patriotic  and 
charitable  work,  of  the  corps.  Installed  as 
its  president  in  January,  18S7,  she  filled  the 
office  so  successfully  that  she  was  re-elected 
in  18S8  and  1889,  and  again  in  1891  and  in 
1901.  During  the  intervening  years  she 
served  successively  as  senior  vice-president, 
treasurer,  and  chaplain,  willingly  taking  any 
position  in  which  she  could  advance  the  in- 
terests of  the  corps.  Mrs.  James  has  served 
on  committees  in  many  department  con- 
ventions, and  has  been  a  delegate  to  national 
conventions.  She  has  served  as  deixartment 
aide  by  the  appointment  of  seven  deiiartment 
presiilents,  and  has  also  served  on  the  staff 
of  two  national  Relief  Corps  presidents.  She 
took  the  lead  in  organizing  the  liristol  County 
Association,  an<l  was  its  first  chajtlain.  She 
was  elected  president  in  October,  1890,  and 
served  one  year,  at  the  close  of  which  she 
presented  to  the  Association  a  beautiful  gavel. 
Mrs.  James  joined  the  order  of  King's  Daugh- 
ters in  1887,  working  independently  for  the 
sailors  until  1900,  when  she  joined  the  Unity 
Circle,  K.  D.,  of  New  Bedford.  In  1890  she 
was  instrumental  in  forming  the  Ca})tain 
Thomas  Kempton  Chapter  of  the  D.  R.,  of 
New  Bedford.  Of  this  chapter  she  was  ap- 
pointed the  first  Regent,  and  continues  in 
the  office,   having  been  annually  re-elected. 

When  the  Spanish-American  War  began, 
and  the  \'olunteer  Aid  Association  of  Massa- 
chusetts   was    formed,    Mrs.    .lames   gave    her 


efforts  to  the  cause.  She  worked  as  secre- 
tary of  a  connnittee  representing  Corps  No. 
53,  and  assisted  in  organizing  the  New  Bedford 
branch  of  the  Adluntcer  Aid  Associatidu, 
which  accomplished  a  grand  work.  This 
branch  forwarded  several  hundred  dollars' 
worth  of  hosjiital  su|)plies  to  the  soldiers  and 
sailors,  and  contributed  in  aildition  three 
hundred  dollars  toward  fitting  out  the  hosjjital 
shij),  "Bay  State."  which  was  sent  to  Cuba 
by  the  A'olunteer  Aid  Association  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  convey  the  sick  antl  wounded  to 
their  homes.  Mrs.  James  acted  as  advisory 
connnittee  during  all  this  work  in  New  Bedfonl, 
rec(>iving  the  respect  and  regard  of  the  society, 
whose  members  often  referred  to  her  as  "  our 
Mrs.  Livermore."  When  the  war  ended,  and 
active  work  was  over,  the  money  remaining 
in  the  treasury  of  the  New  Bedford  branch 
was  placed  in  charge  of  four  trustees,  of  whom 
Mrs.  James  was  one.  Several  barrels  of  com- 
fort bags,  reading  matter,  and  so  forth,  have 
been  forwarded  by  her  on  behalf  of  the  trustees 
to  Porto  Rico,  Manila,  and  to  the  navy.  The 
wives  and  children  of  several  soldiers  have 
also   been   cared   for   at   home. 

During  the  j^ast  forty-two  years  Mrs.  James 
has  contributed  poems,  essays,  notes  of  travel, 
items  of  news,  to  various  periodicals.  She 
is  a  charter  member  of  the  Old  Dartmouth 
Historical  Society,  and  has  devoted  nmch 
time  to  historical  and  genealogical  research, 
Init  amid  all  her  varied  interests  has  not 
neglected  her  home  duties. 

Henry  B.  James,  to  whom  she  was  married, 
in  1865,  as  mentioned  above,  is  a  descendant 
through  his  mother,  Sylvia  Kempton,  of 
I"-phraim'  Kempton,  Sr.,  who  came  to  Plym- 
outh some  time  between  1627  and  164)5, 
and  .settled  in  Scituate,  wJiere  he  died  in 
May,  1645.  h'phrainr  Kempton,  Jr.,  who 
came  over  with  his  father  ami  was  his  partner 
in  l)usiness  in  Scituate  (see  Plymouth  Colony 
Reconls,  vol.  ii.),  married  in  January,  1646, 
Joanna,  daughter  of  Thomas  Rawlins.  The 
line  was  continued  through  their  son  Ephniim,' 
who  married  Mary  Reeves;  Ephraim,'  married 
Patience,  daughter  of  Elder  Thomas^  Faunce; 
William,'  married  Mary  Brewster;  E])hraim," 
married  Ann  Nye;  I'^lijah,'  married  Lucy  Hay- 


4  ■■  IfP   ' 


»▼ 


MARTHA    SP:AVEY    IIOYT 


RErRESENTATlVE    WOMEN    OF   NEW    ENdEAND 


251 


lU'ii;  George,'*  married  Rel)eei'a  \\'eeks;  to 
Sylvia,'  who  married  John  James,  Jr.,  and  was 
the  mother  of  Henry  B.  James. 

Mr.  James  is  the  author  of  a  vohime  en- 
titled "Memories  of  the  Civil  War."  In  it 
he  says:  "I  have  often  wondered  how  it  hap- 
pened that  I,  born  of  Quaker  stock  on  my 
mother's  side,  should  have  had  such  a  natural 
leaning  toward  scenes  of  adventure  and  con- 
flict. It  may  well  have  been  that  I  inherited 
it  from  the  paternal  side  of  the  liouse."  He 
adds,  speaking  of  his  grandfather,  Joim  James, 
Sr. :  "During  my  childhood  I  often  listened 
to  his  tales  of  warfare  and  l)loodslu>d,  and 
longed  to  be  a  man,  that  I  miglit  hglit  and 
avenge  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  my  devoted 
country  in  its  earlier  days.  As  I  read  of  the 
War  of  the  Revolution,  I  wished  that  I  might 
have  lived  in  tho!«e  stirring  days  and  done 
my  part   in  creating  the  American  nation." 

Mr.  James  desired  to  enlist  among  the 
first  volunteers  of  the  Union  after  the  fall 
of  Fort  Sumter,  but  his  father  would  n(jt  then 
consent.  He  enlisted  November  2,  1861, 
just  after  his  twentieth  birthday,  in  Company 
B,  First  Battalion,  afterward  the  Thirty- 
second  Massachusetts  Infantry.  He  was 
mustered  into  the  United  States  .service  No- 
vember 27,  1861,  and  on  December  3  was 
sent  with  his  company  to  Fort  Warren,  Boston 
Harbor,  to  guard  piisoners  of  war,  among 
them  being  General  Buckner,  Commodore 
Barron,  Commissioners  Mason  and  Slidell,  and 
the  Mayor  and  Chief  of    Police  of    Baltimore. 

On  May  25  Company  B  left  Fort  Warren  for 
Washington.  On  July  4  the  battalion  of 
which  this  company  was  a  part  was  assigned 
to  the  brigade  of  General  Charles  Griffin, 
division  of  General  Morell,  in  Fitz  John  Por- 
ter's conmiand,  afterward  known  as  the  Fifth 
Army  Corps.  Mr.  James  was  engaged  in 
thirty-eight  battles — Antietam,  I'^redericks- 
burg,  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  Mine 
Run,  Cold  Harbor,  Petersburg,  the  Wilder- 
ness, and  others.  He  was  commissioned 
Sergeant  in  February,  1864,  was  wounded  in 
a  skirmish  on  the  Boydton  i)lank  road  March 
30,  1865,  and  was  in  the  Artn(<ry  Square 
Hospital  in  Washington  from  April  2  to  May 
26,   when  he  was  transferred   to   White   Hall, 


on  the  Delaware  River.  He  was  able  to 
leave  the  hospital  July  6,  and  received 
an  honorable  tlischarge  in  Boston,  July  18, 
1865. 

Mr.  James  is  a  past  Senior  Mce-Commantler 
of  William  Logan  Rodman  Post,  No.  1,  G.  A.  R., 
of  New  Bedford,  and  has  the  esteem  of  all 
his  conu-ades. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  have  had  four  sons 
and  one  daughter,  namely;  Franklin  Elliot, 
born  May  29,  1869;  William  Edgar,  born 
February  18,  1871 ;  Clarence  Henry,  born 
February  7,  1872;  Percy  Clifton,  born  Feb- 
ruary 2,  1875;  and  Isabel  Agnes,  born  October 
19,  1881,  died  in  infancy.  The  four  sons 
were  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  New 
Bedford,  graduating  from  the  high  school, 
anil  are  now  in  business  in  New  Bedford. 
They  are  mendiers  of  John  A.  Hawes  Camp, 
No.  35,  Sons  of  Wterans,  of  New  Bedford. 

Franklin  Elliot  James  married  August  10, 
1890,  Helen  E.,  daughter  of  Charles  H.  Gifford, 
the  celebrated  marine  artist.  They  have  one 
child,  Isabel  Ethel,  born  December  13,  1896. 

William  p]ilgar  James  married  June  3, 
1896,  Grace  Eaton  Thompson,  of  New  Bed- 
ford. They  have  one  child,  Miriam  Earle, 
born  September  4,  1902.  Clarence  Henry 
James  married  June  24,  1896,  Mary  Eleanor 
Gibbs,  of  New  Bedford,  who  died  April  20, 
1899,  leaving  one  child,  Marjorie  Campbell, 
born  July  7,  1897. 

Percy  Clifton  James  married  February  1, 
1896,  Nellie  May  Benjamin.  They  have  had 
four  children,  namely:  Lucy  Marion  and 
Marion  Leonard,  who  both  died  in  infancy; 
Sylvia  Kemjjton,  born  November  21,  1899; 
and  Lucy  May,  born  April  3,  1903. 


MARTHA  SEAVEY  HOYT  is  a  native 
of  h^ast  Machias,  Me.,  one  of  the  sis- 
ter villages  planted  a  century  and 
a  half  ago  on  the  banks  of  the  two 
rivers  flowing  through  the  Machias  valley,  by 
a  company  of  brave  and  stalwart  men  drawn 
thither  by  the  beauty  of  the  .scenery,  the  broad 
marshes  covered  with  luxuriant  grasses,  ami 
the  stately  forests  of  pine.  Rising  far  back 
in  the  lakes  of  the  woods,  the  two  rivers  mingle 


252 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


their  waters  two  miles  below,  in  the  beautiful 
Machias  Bay,  with  its  winding  shores  and  out- 
lying islands. 

Here  was  the  scene  of  the  first  naval  l)attle 
and  victory  of  the  Revolution,  famous  in  the 
annals  of  naval  warfare  for  the  reckless  daring 
of  the  undertaking  and  the  desperate  valor  of 
the  hardy  assailants,  which  alone  achieved  suc- 
cess. Along  the  shores  of  the  bay  and  the 
banks  of  the  rivers  are  still  shown  the  grass- 
grown  ramparts,  behind  which  those  early 
settlers  resisted  the  British  power,  defended 
their  houses,  and  preserved  to  Maine  the  east-, 
ern  half  of  the  State — an  imperishable  monu- 
ment of  the  character  and  courage  of  "  the  fore- 
fathers of  the  hamlet." 

From  this  purely  New  England  stock  in 
direct  line,  in  the  third  generation,  Mrs.  Hoyt 
traces  her  descent,  and  from  such  an  inheri- 
tance derives  naturally  those  distinguishing 
qualities  so  strongly  displayed  in  the  various 
spheres  of  her  activity  and  success.  Of  the 
three  potent  influences  chiefly  instrumental  in 
shaping  the  lives  and  moulding  the  characters 
of  individuals — heredity,  environment,  educa- 
tion— which  in  this  instance  has  been  most 
powerful  we  have  no  occasion  to  consider,  since 
all  seem  to  have  been  equally  favorable.  Of 
the  early  and  mare  remote  ancestry  we  have 
alreaily  spoken  sufficiently.  Coming  down  to 
the  immediate  progenitors,  the  parents,  Sylva- 
nus  and  Cynthia  0.  (Seavey)  Seavey,  were  both 
persons  of  marked  individuality.  Her  father 
was  a  man  whose  sterling  honesty  and  intelli- 
gence commanded  the  highest  respect  of  his 
contemporaries.  Never  seeking  publicity  nor 
aspiring  to  official  position,  he  made  his  influ- 
ence felt  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  and  in 
the  stirring  questions  of  the  day.  Strong  in 
his  moral  convictions  and  pronounced  in  his 
opinions,  without  fear  or  favor,  he  stood  firmly 
on  the  ground  of  principle,  and  was  always 
found  among  the  first  and  foremost  of  the  tem- 
perance reformers  and  the  earliest  abolitionists, 
when  these  were  names  of  reproach  and  ol)i()(iuy. 
And  the  mother  was  no  less  distinguished  for 
her  noble  and  womanly  qualities.  A  most  de- 
voted wife  and  mother,  and  full  of  sympathy 
for  the  suffering  and  afflicted,  generous-hearted, 
always  watching  for  opportunities  to  do  good 


and  to  help  others,  especially  the  poor  and 
neetly,  gentle  in  her  manners,  doing  all  this 
quietly  and  with  the  spirit  of  love,  she  was 
beloved  by  all.  Of  an  active-  mind,  quick  in- 
telligence, and  a  most  genial  disposition,  Mrs. 
Seavey  enlivened  the  home  by  her  ready  wit, 
and  was  a  most  agreeable  companion  in  all 
social  intercourse,  retaining  these  qualities  to 
the  last  of  her  ninety  years  of  existence. 

Inheriting  in  a  large  degree  the  characteris- 
tics of  her  Puritan  ancestors — indepentlence  in 
thought  and  action,  enterprise,  and  energy, 
which  grew  with  her  growth  and  strengthened 
with  her  strength — at  an  early  age,  with  jnipils 
mostly  her  senior,  Martha  Seavey  entered 
Washington  Academy.  An  institution  old  and 
well  endowed,  famous  for  its  record  of  able  in- 
structors and  still  more  for  the  many  distin- 
guished men  and  women  it  had  trained  and 
sent  forth  into  almost  every  walk  of  life  during 
the  more  than  half-century  of  its  existence,  no 
better  fitting-school  could  be  found  for  one's 
life  work. 

Thus  equipped  with  educational  advantages, 
she  went  forth  to  make  a  way  and  place  for 
herself  in  the  workl,  not  unsuccessfully.  A 
fine  oi)portunity  soon  offered  for  the  exercise 
of  her  gifts.  A  j'^oung  minister,  the  Rev.  Gil- 
man  A.  Hoyt,  wanting  a  competent  helpmeet 
for  his  chosen  work,  found  in  her  the  right 
woman,  admirably  suited  to  the  high  vocation. 
Thejf  were  married  in  East  Machias,  and  im- 
mediately started  for  their  new  field  of  labor  in 
the  Far  West.  One  year  of  successful  labor  in 
Missouri  and  three  more  of  arduous  work  on 
the  prairies  of  Kansas  wore  out  the  life  of  the 
minister,  leaving  the  young  widow,  with  the 
addition  of  a  rich  experience,  to  begin  life  anew 
in  a  widely  different  sphere  of  activity.  Boston 
offered  the  most  inviting  field,  and  with  her 
pi'actical  energy,  natural  business  ability,  self- 
reliance,  and  knowledge  gained  of  the  world, 
to  win  confidence  and  gain  a  permanent  and 
lucrative  position  was  not  a  diflncult  task  for 
Mrs.  Hoyt.  Here  she  found  congenial  occupa- 
tion in  one  of  the  prominent  newspaper  offices, 
where  she  labored  with  success  until  the  death 
of  her  father  called  her  away  to  the  perform- 
ance of  more  sacred  duties.  With  characteris- 
tic devotion  she  then  returned  to  her  childhood 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


253 


home  to  make  the  lives  of  those  most  dear  to 
her — an  aged  and  feeble  mother  and  an  infirm 
sister — as  pleasant  and  happy  as  unwearied  at- 
tention and  fidelity  could  effect. 

The  ancient  homestead,  standing  apart  from 
the  village  in  a  wide  field,  with  its  avenue 
shaded  by  evergreens,  its  scattered  apple-trees 
tough  and  gnarleil  with  age,  and  its  old  oaken 
bucket  hanging  in  the  well  by  the  kitchen  door, 
was  rejuvenated  without,  and  the  house  bright- 
ened and  adorned  within.  The  aged  mother, 
now  quite  weak  antl  helpless  in  body,  was  the 
centre  of  interest  and  the  light  of  the  home, 
while  with  faculties  unimpairetl,  cheerful  and 
bright  as  in  the  earlier  days,  she  enjoyed  the 
society  of  her  numerous  friends  and  the  evening 
readings,  with  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Hard- 
ing, as  their  guest,  in  which  Browning  was  the 
favorite  author. 

When  the  change  came  and  the  light  of  the 
household  was  extinguished,  Mrs.  Hoyt  re- 
turned to  Boston,  made  her  a  permanent  home 
there,  and  resumed  her  work  in  a  much  en- 
larged sphere  of  public  functions  and  respon- 
sibilities. She  was  appointed  special  commis- 
sioner by  Governor  AA'olcott.  Being  interested 
in  working  for  the  soldi(M-s  and  soldiers'  widows, 
she  applied  to  the  Pension  Bureau  in  Washington 
for  authority  to  tlo  all  pension  work,  and,  being 
able  to  fulfil  all  the  requirements,  was  soon  ap- 
pointed pension  attorney,  an  offtce  granted  to 
very  few  women.  In  this  work  Mrs.  Hoyt  is 
able  to  give  cheer  and  comfort  to  many  wi(lows' 
hearts.  From  the  aged  and  helpless,  applica- 
tions come  to  her  with  the  preface,  "  I  appeal  to 
you  because  you  are  a  woman,  knowing  1  shall 
have  your  .sympathy";  and  they  are  sure  to 
have  it  and,  oftentimes,  advice  and  assistance 
without  remuneration. 

At  the  request  of  several  owners  of  property, 
Mrs.  Hoyt  added  to  her  vocations  that  of  real 
estate.  In  this  enterprise  she  has  been  very 
successful  in  .securing  the  confidence  ami  re- 
spect of  all  with  whom  she  comes  in  contact. 
She  has  the  entire  charge  of  the  property, 
handling  it  with  skill.  She  is  also  working 
for  a  ]iul)lishing  company,  and  is  correspondent 
for  several  papers. 

Mrs.  Hoyt  loses  no  opportunity  to  aid  in  any 
movement  for  justice  to  women,  sometimes  by 


a  petition  to  the  Legislature  originated  by  her- 
self, as  in  the  present  year,  sometimes  in  a  more 
quiet  way,  but  always  with  the  one  object  in 
view,  of  l)ringing  women  to  the  position  they 
should  occupy,  to  be  determined  by  personal 
ability.  Although  her  hands  are  very  full,  she 
finds  time  for  not  only  doing  charitable  work, 
but  for  interesting  others  in  large  philanthropies. 
Through  her  business  she  is  enabled  to  call  the 
attention  of  wealthy  people  to  worthy  causes, 
and  thus  obtain  for  them  pecuniary  aid.  This 
has  been  one  of  her  achievements  from  early 
girlhood,  soliciting  successfully,  sometimes  sur- 
prisingly so,  money  for  different  worthy  ob- 
jects, never  failing  of  the  desired  amount,  and 
going  about  it  in  a  way  that  makes  it  a  pleas- 
ure to  all  concerned.  Later  in  addition  to  her 
other  work  Mrs.  Hoyt  signed  a  contract  with 
the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company  of  New 
York,  and  became  a  representative  in  the  Boston 
office,  working  more  particularly  on  the  line  of 
the  Gold  Bond  and  Annuity,  investments  be- 
coming popular  with  women. 

Safe  to  say  in  conclusion,  that,  in  addition  to 
her  great  executive  ability  and  large  resourceful- 
ness, her  cheerful  disposition  and  happy  faculty 
of  rendering  herself  agreealiie  in  business  rela- 
tions and  also  in  social  life  have  had  much  to 
do  with  her  successful  achievement  in  all  her 
varied  lines  of  effort. 

Mrs.  Hoyt  is  a  member  of  the  Boston  Busi- 
ness League,  the  Massachusetts  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association,  the  Women's  Educational 
and  Industrial  Union,  and  the  Underwriters' 
Association  of  Boston. 


MARY  A.  KOTZSCHMAR,  wife  of 
the  organist,  conductor,  and  com- 
{)0ser,  Hermann  Kotzschmar,  of 
Portland,  has  made  for  herself 
an  enviable  reputation  in  the  musical  circles 
of  that  city.  She  was  born  in  Sacramento, 
Cal.,  in  1852.  Her  parents,  Midian  Torrey 
and  Mary  A.  (Griffin)  Torrey,  were  both  of 
good  old  New  England  stock,  her  mother 
a  native  of  Ellsworth,  Me.,  and  her  father 
of  Deer  Isle,  Me.  Mr.  Torrey  was  one  of  the 
"forty-niners,"  or  gold  hunters  who  went 
in  that  year  to  seek  their  fortune  in  California. 


254 


KEl'RESEiNTATlVE    VVUMEN    OF    NEW    ENGLAND 


Mrs.  Torrey  remained  in  .Sacramento  while 
her  husband  was  at  the  mines.  When  but 
twelve  years  of  age  Mrs.  Kotzschmar  lost 
both  her  parents.  Soon  after,  her  uncle, 
who  was  her  guardian,  brought  her  to  Port- 
land, Me.,  to  be  educated.  She  was  placed 
in  a  private  school  kept  by  Miss  Prince,  and 
at  the  same  time  she  began  with  Mr.  Kotzsch- 
mar her.  nmsical  studies,  which  she  con- 
tinued under  his  instruction  until  the  time 
of  her  marriage.  Since  that  event  their 
combined  professional  career  has  been  very 
successful,  and  they  now  rank  among  well- 
known  New  England  nuisicians.  Mrs.  Kotzsch- 
mar was  among  the  first  to  attend  the 
clavier  school  in  New  York,  and  study  the 
method  which  has  since  become  so  generally 
used.  Recognizing  the  possibilities  of  this 
method,  .she  was  one  of  the  first  to  introduce 
it  in  Maine,  and  has  employed  it  in  all  of 
her  teaching  for  the  last  ten  years  with  much 
success. 

In  1896,  accompanied  by  her  daughter, 
she  travelled  extensively  in  Europe,  and 
again  in  1900  she  spent  several  months  abroad, 
on  both  occasions  stui  lying  under  leading 
instrumental  teachers  in  Berlin.  In  addition 
•to  her  success  as  a  teacher  of  piano,  she  has 
gained  a  reputation  as  a  writer  and  lecturer. 
She  is  also  possessed  of  considerable  executive 
ability.  Her  first  public  work  to  be  noted 
was  in  the  season  of  1S94,  when  she  gave  a 
•series  of  talks  in  Kotzschmar  Hall  on  the 
growth  of  music.  The.se  talks  were  first 
arranged  for  lier  pupils.  The  first  one  was 
called  "An  Outline  of  the  Growth  of  Music," 
and  was  followed  by  sketches  of  the  music 
of  Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  illustrated 
with  songs.  These  have  since  been  iTjieated 
before  leading  musical  associations  through- 
out the  State.  When  the  first  Maine  Musical 
Festival  was  given  in  Portland,  in  1897,  Mrs. 
Kotzschmar  was  honored  with  an  invitation 
to  give  her  paper  on  the  Growth  of  Music. 
In  1895  she  brought  out,  in  Kotzschmar 
Hall,  that  beautiful  song-cycle,  "In  a  Persian 
Garden,"  by  Liza  Lehinann.  Mr.  ^'an  "\'orx, 
a  tenor  from  New  York,  and  Miss  Katherine 
Ricker,  contralto,  of  Boston,  were  engaged 
for  the  occasion,   the  other  parts  being  sung 


by  Portland  soloists.  This  was  the  first  time 
that  the  poem  was  presented  in  this  country 
except  in  New  York  City,  and  the  first  of 
its  being  given  with  stagings  to  represent 
a  garden.  This  i)roved  a  most  effective 
feature,  and  ditl  much  toward  making  the 
poem   realistic. 

While  abroad,  Mrs.  Kotzschmar  wrote 
letters  of  travel  for  the  Portland  Fresn  and 
for  the  Kennebec  Journal,  in  all  about  fifty. 
Her  clear  manner  and  originality  of  style 
gained  her  notice  in  literary  circles.  She 
has  also  written,  with  success,  for  the  Ladies' 
Home  Journal,  and  is  a  contributor  to  the 
musical  paper,  L'l^tude.  She  wrote  a  little 
book  on  the  clavier  and  its  method,  which 
was  purchased  by  the  Clavier  Company,  and 
is  used  in  their  adverti.sements.  .She  was  a 
pioneer  in  Maine  in  introducing  class  work 
for  beginners,  antl  formed  classes  of  eight 
to  ten  children,  ranging  from  five  to  twelve 
years  of  age,  to  whom  .she  taught  the  rudiments 
of  music,  sight  reading,  etc.,  giving  them 
a  basis  on  which  to  work  when  beginning  private 
lessons.  The  success  of  this  enterprise  is 
shown  by  the  numerous  cla.sses  she  now  has. 
Mrs.  Kotzschmar  is  devoted  to  her  art,  antl 
is  .always  busy  planning  something  new  to 
keep  the  musical  ]ieople  in  her  vicinity  alert 
and  in  touch  with  the  doings  of  the  musical 
world. 


MINNIE  LOUISE  FENWICK,  of 
Chelsea,  Mass.,  well  known  as  an 
educator  and  for  her  connection 
with  women's  clubs  and  charitable 
organizations,  was  born  in  Baden-Baden,  Ger- 
many, Init  was  brought  to  this  country  by  her 
parents.  Dr.  F.  William  and  Louise  (Brodtman) 
Mahl,  in  infancy.  Her  father.  Dr.  F.  Will- 
iam Malil,  settled  at  Sabine,  Tex.  He  died  in 
New  Orleans  in  1S57  of  yellow  fever,  during 
the  epidemic  of  that  disease,  he  having  gone 
there  to  the  relief  of  resident  physicians.  Mrs. 
Mahl,  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  made 
|i(>r  home  with  her  two  chill|r^n,  William  and 
Minnie  Louise,  in  Louisville,  Ky.  She  died 
there  on  January  .SI.  1S.59.  Mrs.  Fenwick's 
brotlier,  \\'iUiam   Mahl,  of  New  York,  is  now 


MINNIE    LOUISE    FENWICK 


ELIZABETH  E.  BOIT 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


255 


coiuptioller  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Raih-oad 
and  other  consoUdated  hnes,  and  is  a  recog- 
nized power  in  raih'oad  circles  all  over  the  con- 
tinent. 

Mrs.  Fcnwick  accjuired  her  early  education 
in  Louisville,  and  completed  her  preparatory 
studies  in  Switzerland,  where  she  was  sent  to 
attentl  school  during  the  Civil  War,  when 
Kentucky  was  in  an  unsettled  condition.  In 
1866  .she  was  offered  a  position  as  teacher  in 
one  of  the  public  schools  of  Louisville,  and  'in 
the  autumn  she  returned  home  to  begin  her 
duties.  In  1871,  after  five  years  of  teaching, 
she  married  Henderson  Reno,  of  Louisville,  Ky. 
He  died  in  1876,  ami  in  the  fall  of  the  same 
year  she  resumed  work  as  teacher  in  the  public 
schools  of  Louisville.  She  continued  thus 
employed  for  nine  years,  and  in  that  time  she 
acquired  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the 
entire  system  of  school  work.  Appointed 
principal  of  one  of  the  grammar  schools  in 
January,  1886,  she  occupied  this  jiosition  till 
the  sununer  of  1891.  She  became  the  wife  of 
Dr.  Joseph  Benson  Fenwick,  of  Chelsea,  Mass., 
in  July  immediately  after  the  close  of  the 
school  term,  and  has  since  inatle  that  city  her 
home. 

She  was  elected  to  the  School  Board  of  Chelsea 
in  December,  1892,  and  has  been  re-elected 
after  each  expired  term  since.  Intelligent 
and  practical  as  an  educator,  conversant  with 
the  best  methods  of  foreign  and  American  ped- 
agogy, her  counsel  has  been  of  inestimable  value 
to  the  instructors  and  the  students  of  the 
Chelsea  schools. 

She  has  served  on  all  the  important 
conunittees,  such  as  Course  of  Study,  Text- 
books, Supplies,  High  School  (being  chairman 
of  the  High  School  Connnittee  for  two 
years). 

She  has  been  an  active  memtaer  of  the  Chelsea 
Woman's  Club  since  its  organization,  and  is  a 
member  of  the  Chelsea  Fortnightly  Club.  She 
holds  the  office  of  secretary  in  the  Associated 
Charities  of  Chelsea,  and  is  a  vice-president  of 
the  Rufus  S.  p>o,st  Hospital  Aid  Association. 
Mrs.  Fenwick  is  a  delightful  conversationalist, 
and  hei  jileasnig  manners  make  her  a  social 
favorite  in  the  city,  which  gratefully  acknowl- 
edges her  services. 


ELIZABETH  EATON  BOIT,  one  of  the 
founders  and  owners  of  the  Harvartl 
Knitting  Mill,  Wakefield,  was  born  in 
Newton,  Mass.,  July  9,  1849.  Her 
parents  were  James  Henry  and  Amanda  Church 
(Berry)  Boit,  who  were  married  May  7,  1846, 
her  mother  being  a  daughter  of  Isaac  and 
Phoebe  (Emerson)  Berry,  of  Bridgton,  Me. 
Her  paternal  granclfather,  John  Boit,  a  native 
of  Boston,  turned  his  attention  to  farming  and 
resided  in  (iroton,  Mass.  He  married  Rebecca 
Wesson,  and  had  a  family  of  eleven  children. 

Miss  Bolt's  father  was  born  in  Groton,  Au- 
gust 13,  1824.  He  learned  the  trade  of  an  en- 
gineer, but  later  engaged  in  the  paper  manu- 
facturing business  at  Newton  Lower  Falls  for 
many  years.  For  twenty  years  he  served  as 
janitor  of  the  Hamilton  School  buikling  at  the 
Lower  Falls,  and  h.e  was  for  a  long  period  sexton 
of  Saint  Mary's  (Episcopal)  Church.  He  died 
January  16,  1899.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Henry 
Boit  celebrated  the  golden  anniversary  of  their 
wedding  in  1896.  They  reared  six  daughters: 
Julia  Amanda,  born  April  12,  1847,  who  died 
March  15,  1861;  Elizabeth  Eaton,  the  subject 
of  this  sketch;  Clara  Rebecca,  born  February 
3,  1851:  Harriet  Maria,  born  August  11,  1853; 
Helen  Augusta,  born  November  29,  1859;  antl 
Su.san  Henrietta,  born  January  31,  1864,  who 
died  May  4,  18S6.  Clara  R.  married  on  Octo- 
ber 20,  "  1870,  C..  W.  Morse,  of  Newtonville, 
Ma.ss.;  Harriet  M.  married  March  1,  1881,  A.  C. 
AViswall,  of  Wellesley,  Mass.;  and  Helen  A. 
married  June  26,  1882,  Dr.  F.  W.  Freeman,  of 
Newton  Lower  Falls, 

Elizabeth  Eaton  Boit  pui'sued  her  elementary 
studies  in  the  Newton  public  schools;  and  after 
her  graduation  from  the  grammar  school  she 
took  a  two  years'  course  at  l^asell  S.  minary, 
Auburndale.  When  eighteen  years  old  she 
accepted  the  position  of  timekeeper  in  the  sew- 
ing, or  finishing,  department  of  the  Dudley 
Hosiery  Knitting  Mill,  Newton,  of  which  H.  B. 
Scudder  was  at  that  time  agent.  The  able  and 
whole-souled  manner  in  which  she  performed 
her  duties  .soon  cau.sed  her  promotion  to  the 
post  of  assistant  forewoman,  from  which  she 
was  shortly  afterward  advanced  to  the  position 
of  forewoman:  and  in  five  years'  time  she  was 
given  full  charge  of  the  finishing  department. 


256 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


When  Mr.  Scuckler  established  the  Allstou  Mills 
at  AUston,  Mass.,  for  the  manufacture  of  ho- 
siery and  children's  scarlet-wool  goods,  she  ac- 
cepted the  supcrin tendency  of  the  new  enter- 
prise, which  she  retained  for  five  years,  or  until 
the  property  was  sold. 

Desirous  of  connecting  lierself  with  a  busi- 
ness in  which  she  could  have  a  personal  finan- 
cial interest,  she  formed  a  partnership  with 
Charles  N.  Winship,  formerly  of  the  Dudley 
Mill  and  afterwanl  foreman  of  the  knitting 
department  of  the  Allston  Mill.  In  1888  the 
firm  of  AVinship,  Boit  &  Co.  established  the 
Harvard  Knitting  Mill  at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
from  which  city  they  moved  to  Wakefield  in 
the  following  year,  and  resumed  operations  in 
the  Wakefielcl  Block,  occupying  one  floor. 
They  inaugurated  their  enterprise  with  a  small 
capital  but  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
business,  Miss  Boit  assuming  charge  of  the 
finances  as  well  as  the  general  superintendency 
of  the  finishing  department,  while  Mr.  Winshi]) 
attended  to  the  knitting  and  other  branches  of 
the  work.  The  laudable  aim  of  placing  gooils 
upon  the  market  whicli  .should  be  a  credit  to 
themselves,  serving  also  to  elevate  the  stand- 
ard of  the  American  textile  fabric  industry, 
resulted  in  securing  such  a  wide  popularity  and 
increasing  demanil  for  the  Harvard  brand  of 
imderwear  as  to  make  necessary  the  enlarge- 
ment of  their  facilities  from  time  to  time,  until 
they  were  at  length  compelled  to  erect  a  build- 
ing for  their  exclusive  use. 

The  present  Harvard  Knitting  Mill,  which 
stands  upon  an  acre  of  ground  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  Wakefield  station  of  the  Boston 
&  Maine  Railway,  was  completed  in  1897,  and 
is  fully  equippeil  with  modern  machinery  and 
appliances  for  producing  the  highest  quality 
of  knit  goods.  The  building,  which  is  of  brick 
and  is  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  feet  long 
by  sixty-seven  feet  wide,  with  a  three-story 
wing,  forty  by  thirty  feet,  contains  three  floors 
and  a  basement.  The  basement  is  used  for 
storage  purposes.  The  folding,  packing,  and 
shipping  are  all  done  on  the  first  floor,  which 
also  contains  the  business  oflnces.  The  sec(jnd 
floor  is  devoted  to  the  finishing  department, 
while  the  knitting  room  is  located  on  the  third 
floor.     There  are  in  use  one  hundred  and  fifty- 


five  knitting  machines,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
sewing  machines,  eight  looping  machines,  and 
twenty  winders,  operated  by  a  force  of  over 
three  hundred  hands  and  producing  five  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dozen  articles  daily.  The  prod- 
ucts, which  consist  of  cotton,  cotton  and  silk, 
woollen,  and  woollen  and  silk  knit  goods,  arc 
distributed  to  the  retail  trade  by  Messrs. 
AVilliam  Lselin  &  Co.,  of  New  York  City. 

Miss  Boit  is  said  to  be  the  only  woman  in 
the  United  States  who  is  actively  engaged  in 
conducting  a  textile  fabric  manufactory.  Al- 
though her  numerous  business  duties  are  so 
exacting  as  to  demand  her  closest  personal 
attention,  she  has  found  time  to  familiarize 
herself  with  various  other  interests  and  insti- 
tutions, among  them  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  of 
Massachusetts.  She  was  for  a  time  treasurer  of 
the  Aged  AA'omen's  Home,  and  also  of  the 
Kosmos  Club  (a  local  literary  organization). 
She  is  especially  interested  in  tlie  welfare  of 
yoimg  girls,  particularly  those  in  her  employ, 
and  avails  herself  of  every  opportunity  to 
furth(>r  the  progress  and  well-being  of  the 
wage-earners  of  her  sex. 


LUCY  ANNE  KIRK,  M.D.,  a  success- 
ful homoeopathic  physician  of  Boston, 
_^  was  born  in  Dorchester  on  March  31, 
1859,  daughter  of  Joseph  and  Eleanor 
Hall  (Stimpson)  Kirk.  Joseph  Kirk,  whose 
ancestors  were  P]nglish,  came  to  the  United 
States  from  Nova  Scotia  about  the  year  1845, 
and  followed  the  occupation  of  printer  in 
Boston  throughout  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
Born  in  Halifax,  October  7,  1821,  he  died  in 
Dorchester,  May  16,  1863. 

John  Foster  Kirk,  of  Philadelphia,  brother 
of  Joseph  and  uncle  to  Dr.  Kirk,  was  in  early 
life  the  amanuensis  of  Prescott,  the  historian, 
later  the  editor  of  Lippincott's  Magazine,  the 
writer  of  the  History  of  Charles  the  Bold,  and 
the  reviser  of  Allihone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 
He  is  now  engaged  upon  the  revisal  of  Worces- 
ter's Dictionary.  The  wife  of  John  Foster 
Kirk  is  the  well-known  author,  Ellen  Olney 
Kirk. 

FJeanor  Hall  Stimpson  Was  on  the  eve  of 
going  South  to  take  charge  of  a  school  of  col- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


257 


ored  children  in  Alabama,  when  Josej))!  Kirk 
|)roposed  for  her  hand  and  was  accepted,  their 
marriage  taking  place  October  11,  1855.  They 
had  three  chihh-en,  namely:  Joseph,  born  Au- 
gust 12,  1856,  who  died  July  15,  1886;  Lucy 
Anne,  the  subject  of  this  biography;  and  Elea- 
nor Hubbard,  born  July  15,  1861,  who  is  now 
an  esteemed  instructor  in  the  branch  of  the 
Washington  University  at  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
known  as  Mary  Institute.  Mrs.  Kirk  was 
born  in  Boston,  May  10,  1836.  She  died  July 
8,  1876. 

Dr.  Kirk's  maternal  grandparents  were  John 
and  Lucy  Richards  (Davies)  Stimpson.  James 
Stimpson,  who  came  from  England  and  set- 
tled on  Cowdrey's  Hill,  in  that  part  of  the  old 
town  of  Reading,  Mass.,  which  is  now  Wake- 
field, was  a  physician.  He  married  in  1661 
Mary  Leffingwell  (sometimes  spelled  Leping- 
well).  From  Dr.  James  Stimpson  Dr.  Kirk 
traces  her  descent  through  John  Stimpson, 
who  married  Mary  Wadsworth,  of  Milton,  and 
died  in  the  town  in  1732;  their  .son,  Recompense 
Wadsworth  Stimpson,  born  in  Milton  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1728,  who  married  Susanna  Blodgett 
in  1759;  Charles  Stimpson,  born  in  Boston  in 
1766,  who  married  Eleanor  Hall,  and  was  the 
father  of  John,  above  named,  whose  wife  was 
Lucy  R.-  Davies. 

Eleanor  Hall,  the  wife  of  Charles  Stimpson, 
was  a  daughter  of  Captain  Lsaac  and  Abigail 
(Cutter)  Hall.  Her  father  was  son  of  Andrew 
and  Abigail  (Walker)  Hall  and  grandson  of 
John,  Jr.,  and  Jemima  (Syll)  Hall.  John  Hall, 
father  of  John  Hall,  Jr.,  came  from  England 
with  his  widowed  mother,  Mary  Hall,  who 
joined  the  church  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1662, 
and  received  land  from  the  town.  In  1675 
John  Hall  bougiit  land  in  Medford.  He  mar- 
ried Elizabeth  Green.  Jemima  Syll,  the  wife 
of  John  Hall,  Jr.,  an;l  mother  of  Andrew  Hall, 
was  a  daughter  of  Captain  Joseph  and  .Jemima 
(Belcher)  Syll.  Her  father,  whose  name  was 
sometimes  spelled  Sill,  was  an  ofhcer  in  King 
Philip's  War.  Her  mother  was  a  daughter 
of  Andrew  Belcher,  and  as  sister  of  Andrew 
Belcher,  Jr.,  was  aunt  to  his  .son.  Governor 
Jonathan  Belcher. 

Isaac  Hall,  of  Medford,  father  of  Eleanor, 
the  wife  of  Charles  Stimpson,   was  an  active 


patriot  during  the  struggle  for  American  in- 
dependence. His  record,  as  printed  in  "  Mas- 
sachusetts Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,"  vol.  vii.,  is  as  follows;  "Captain 
of  a  CO.  in  (late)  Col.  Thomas  Gardner's  regt., 
which  assembled  April  19,  1775;  service  5  days; 
also  Captain,  same  regt.,  list  of  officers  in  said 
regt.  recommended  by  Committee  of  Safety 
to  be  connnissiQned  by  Congress;  ordered  in 
Provincial  Congress,  June  2,  1775,  that  com- 
missions be  delivered  to  said  officers;  also  Cap- 
tain, Lt.  Col.  William  Bond's  (late  Col.  Gard- 
ner's) 37th  regt.,  company  return  dated  Camp 
Prospect  Hill  Oct.  6,  1775,  represented  dis- 
chargetl  Sept.  1775;  also  Captain,  service  4 
days;  company  marched  from  Medford,  by 
order  of  Gen.  Washington  at  the  time  of  the 
taking  of  Dorchester  Heights,  March,  1776." 

It  is  related  of  Captain  Hall  that  the  com- 
pany that  he  connnanded  l)efore  the  Revo- 
lution had  been  formed  by  himself,  and  that 
it  was  his  custom  to  supplement  the  meagre 
pay  received  by  his  men  from  the  government 
by  supplies  of  clothing  paid  for  out  of  his  own 
pocket. 

John  Stimpson,  son  of  Charles  and  Eleanor, 
was  born  in  1795  in  Richmond,  Va.  He  mar- 
ried in  Boston,  May  29,  1825,  Lucy  Richard 
Davies,  who  was  born  in  Boston  in  1799.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Joshua  Gee  Davies  and 
his  wife,  Lucy  Richards,  and  on  the  paternal 
side  grand-daughter  of  the  Rev.  Nathan  and 
Susanna  (Gee)  Davies. 

The  Rev.  Nathan  Davies  was  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Dracut,  Mass.,  from  1765  to  1781. 
Susanna  Gee,  whom  he  wedded  April  3,  1766, 
was  born  in  Boston,  November  18,  1740,  and 
baptized  in  the  Second  Church,  November  23, 
when  she  was  five  days  old.  She  was  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  Joshua  Gee  by  his  third  wife, 
Sarah  Gardner.  Her  father  served  for  twenty- 
five  years  (1723-48)  as  minister  of  the  Sec- 
ond Church  in  Boston,  as  colleague  of  Cotton 
Matlier  till  1729  antl  afterward  as  his  succes- 
sor. Born  in  Boston  in  1698,  son  of  Joshua 
and  Elizalieth  (Thornton)  Gee,  he  was  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  College  in  1717. 

His  father,  Joshua  Gee,  was  son  of  Peter 
Gee,  an  inhabitant  of  Boston  in  early  colonial 
times.     A  family  tradition  has  it  that  Joshua 


258 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Gee  "woukl  have  been  a  dangerous  man  if  he 
had  not  been  a  very  lazy  one."  By  occupa- 
tion he  was  a  boat-builder.  It  is  related  of 
him  that  he  was  once  captured  by  Algerines, 
that  he  escaped  from  captivity  by  the  agency 
of  an  Algerine  woman,  and  that  thereafter 
he  celebrated  the  anniversaries  of  the  event 
with  a  dinner,  at  which  a  turkey  was  served 
bound  in  links  of  sausage,  as  a  reniinder  of 
the  chains  he  wore  in  Algiers. 

Judge  Sewall  in  his  Diarj',  under  date  Jan- 
uary II,  1714-5,  states  that  he  dined  at  Mr. 
Gee's  on  that  day  in  company  with  Drs.  In- 
crease and  Cotton  Mather,  Mr.  Thornton,  Mr. 
Wadsworth,  and  others,  and  says:  "It  seems 
it  was  in  remembrance  of  his  landing  this  day 
at  Boston  after  his  Algerine  captivity.  Had 
a  very  good  treat." 

At  an  earlier  date,  October  31,  1688,  he  re- 
cords :  "  Joshua  Gee  launches  to-day,  ami  his 
ship  is  called  the  Prince." 

And  1692,  Friday,  September  30:  "Go  to 
Hog  Island  with  Joshua  Gee  and  sell  him  three 
white  oaks  for  thirty  shillings.  I  am  to  cart 
them  to  the  water  side." 

The  Gee  tomb  in  Copp's  Hill  Burial  Ground 
bears  the  family  name  and  coat  of  arms. 

Fatherless  since  the  age  of  four  years.  Dr. 
Kirk  is  indebted  to  her  mother  almost  exclu- 
sively for  her  moral  and  mental  development 
throughout  the  period  of  her  life  preceding 
that  of  womanhood.  Her  elementary  educa- 
tion was  received  in  the  public  schools  of  Dor- 
chester, while  further  instruction  was  given 
her  at  home  by  her  mother  personally.  Of 
a  keenly  sympathetic  nature  from  infancy, 
a  tendency  to  relieve  suffering  became  a  marked 
characteristic  of  her  girlhood. 

When  she  was  eleven  years  old,  she  announced 
to  all  whom  it  might  concern  that  she  intended 
to  become  a  nurse.  When  of  suitable  age  she 
entered  the  training-school  for  nurses  at  the 
Hartford  (Conn.)  Hospital;  and  after  her  grad- 
uation, in  1883,  she  spent  the  ensuing  years 
in  Hartford,  employed  in  her  chosen  calling. 

Later,  desiring  to  attain  the  highest  degree 
of  her  girlhood's  ambition,  she  took  the  course 
in  homoeopathy  at  the  Medical  School  of  Boston 
University,  and  received  her  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Medicine  in  1893.     Dr.  Kirk  will  be  readily 


remembered  by  her  classmates  at  the  univer- 
sity by  her  successful  advocacy  of  the  adoption 
of  the  cap  and  gown,  which  they  were  the  first 
to  wear,  or  as  being  the  writer  of  the  class  poem 
entitled  "Cap  and  Gown,"  delivered  at  a  class 
supper  and  afterward  published  in  the  Medical 
Student.  After  receiving  her  tliploma  Dr. 
Kirk  went  to  New  York  ami  pursued  a  post- 
gratluate  course  in  the  New  York  Post-gradu- 
ate School  of  Medicine.  Then  she  returned 
to  Boston,  and,  establishing  her  residence 
in  the  Dorchester  district,  entered  upon  the 
tluties  of  her  new  profession. 

She  has  ac(juired  a  lucrative  ])ractice,  cov- 
ering a  territory  extending  to  Neponset  and 
Marblehead  on  one  side  and  to  Cambridge  and 
Maiden  on  the  other.  Her  physical  fitness  for 
her  work  is  testified  by  her  excellent  health. 

For  .several  years  she  was  associated  with 
Dr.  Alonzo  Boothby  in  the  Boothby  Hospital, 
Boston,  wherein  her  duties  included  the  de- 
livery of  lectures  to  nurses.  Her  income  is 
far  from  being  an  adequate  measure  of  her 
professional  work.  Following  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  the  profession,  she  frequently  gives 
her  services  gratuitously  to  needy  patients. 
She  has  been  on  the  staff  of  the  Homoeopathic 
Medical  Dispensary  of  Boston  since  1894, 
and  by  the  request  of  school-teachers  of  Dor- 
chester she  has  given  hygienic  talks  to  mothers 
in  Dorchester. 

Dr.  Kirk  is  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Homoeopathic  Society,  of  the  Boston  Homoeo- 
pathic Society,  of  the  Massachusetts  Surgical 
and  Gyna'cological  Society,  and  of  the  Twen- 
tieth Century  Medical  Society.  Her  religious 
affiliations  are  with  the  Episcopal  church.  She 
is  a  patron  of  the  Girls'  Friendly  Society.  In 
1897  she  was  admitted  to  membership  in  the 
patriotic  society  known  as  the  Daughters  of 
the  Revolution. 


FLORENCE  GARRET1>50N  SPOONER, 
President  of    the  Massachusetts   Prison 
Reform  League,  has   been  a  resident  of 
Boston    the  past   thirty-two  years,  her 
home  being  in  a  quiet  corner  where  West  End 
and  Back  Bay  meet,  at  the  lower  end  of  Pinck- 
ney  Street. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


259 


Flurt'iicc  (ianvttsou  Spoouur  was  horn  in 
Baltimore.  On  lier  mother's  side  she  is  de- 
scen(l(>(l  IVom  one  of  the  most  noted  families 
of  colonial  history  in  Marj'land.  Her  ancestors 
were  of  the  Dorsey,  Worthington,  Howard,  and 
Hammond  connection,  which  united  the  best 
blood  of  the  State.  One  of  her  great-furand- 
fathers  was  William  liall,  closely  related  to 
the  mother  of  \\'ashiiigton.  The  (iarrettsons, 
on  her  father's  side,  weie  among  the  earliest 
settlers  of  Maryland  and  New  York.  In  the 
year  1752  the  Rev.  Freeborn  Garretson  gave 
up  his  grants  of  land,  an<l  freed  his  slaves 
through  religious  convictions.  He  became  a 
missi(jnary  of  the  Methodist  J'4)isc()])al  Ohurch, 
travelling  from  the  Oarolinas  to  Nova  Scotia 
on  horseback.  His  wife,  Katherine  Livingston, 
was  a  daughter  of  .ludge  Livingston  and  sister 
to  Robert  R.  Livingston,  the  first  Chancellor  of 
New  York. 

Mrs.  Spooner  in  girlhood  and  early  woman- 
hood was  devoted  to  music,  using  her  rare 
voice  in  many  choirs  as  a  gift  of  love,  and  be- 
longing to  the  most  exclusive  musical  clubs. 
Her  natural  talent  for  organization  made  her 
a  centre  of  attraction,  where  she  stood  at  the 
helm  of  many  church  and  society  functions. 
With  further  knowledge  and  experience  her 
life  broadened  and  character  developed.  She 
served  on  philanthrojjic  conunittees,  thus  turn- 
ing into  practical  channels  her  symiiathetic 
and  over-al)undant  compassion  for  the  sorrows 
and  needs  of  unfortunates.  An  earnest  and 
enthusiastic  worker  in  her  chosen  fiekl  of  re- 
form, efficient  in  many  ways,  she  has  been  de- 
scribed as  "a  religious,  consuming  .soul,  always 
in  communication  with  the  authorities  of  Church 
and  State,  goin<j;  straight  -on,  radiating  in  a 
hundred  directions,  bringing  forces  to  bear  on 
the  whole  circumference  of  unusual  cruelties. 
The  doors  have  fallen,  and  light  has  illuminated 
dark  places:  and  she  will  succeed  in  what  she 
undei'takes  because  she  has  just  that  faith  that 
will  remove  mountains,  the  mountains  of  [Heju- 
dice  and  persistence."  Time  and  the  Hour  says: 
"  Florence  Spooner's  name  has  become  as  fam- 
ous as  Elizabeth  Fry  and  Dorothea  Dix,  antl 
her  charity  has  taken  the  form  of  divine  fire." 

Mrs.  Spooner  has  studied  untiringly  the 
prison  system  in  America.     Her  huuiane  and 


practical  rtniuests  lunc  .seldom  been  denied. 
She  has  succeeded  in  getting  notable  people 
together  at  important  houses  and  in  the-chapels 
of  leading  churches.  Bishops,  governors,  and 
other  officials  have  so  recognizeil  her  great 
earnestness,  sincerity,  anil  simplicity  that  they 
have  been  moved  to  say  the  right  word  at  the 
right  time:  and  for  this  reason  she  insists  that 
the  credit  for  the  successful  agitation  and 
awakening  of  the  public  conscience  to  the 
evils  existing  in  the  prisons  belongs  to  the  wise 
men  of  a  marvellous  century. 

In  1894  Governor  Greenhalge  gave  his  sup- 
port to  her  cau.se  by  presiding  at  a  meeting 
wlieic  three  subjects  were  especially  advocated 
— al)olition  of  dungeons  (dark  cells),  the  in- 
determinate sentence,  and  the  supplanting  of 
hou,ses  ol  correction  by  reformatories.  Prison 
conuni.ssioners  and  representatives  of  the  l-'rison 
Association  and  other  organizations  participated 
in  the  discussion.  This  meeting,  the  first  held 
by  the  Prison  I^etorm  League,  was  arranged  by 
Mrs.  Spooner,  .Mrs.  .James  T.  Fields,  and  Miss 
Mason.  Among  other  conferences  held  by  Mrs. 
Spooner  and  her  co-workers  was  one  at  Trinity 
Church  Chapel,  presided  over  by  Mayor 
Quincy. 

The  successful  work  accomplished  by  Mrs. 
Spooner  toward  the  abolishment  of  dark  cells 
in  the  city  prisons  and  the  gootl  done  by  her 
was  specially  commended  by  Dr.  Alfred  B. 
Heath,  Conunissioner,  Institutions  Department 
of  the  City  of  Boston,  in  1896.  Penal  Com- 
missioner Ernest  .C.  Marshall  has  also  officially 
endorsed  her  beneficent  work.  The  League 
has  agitated  the  subject  of  tlie  present  system 
of  fines  for  drunkenness,  which  they  consider 
as  indefensible.  Tlie  Police  Conunission  re- 
sponded pn-mptly  to  their  request  for  co-oper- 
ation, and  Chairman  Martin  invited  Mrs. 
Spooner,  Mr.  Piobert  Treat  Paine,  Conunissioner 
Marshall,  and  a  Sister  of  St.  Margaret's  to  make 
a  midnight  toiu'  of  inspection  of  station-house 
cells  as  a  stii<ly  of  the  subject. 

In  1896-97,  under  the  guidance  of  leading 
men,  wise  and  con.servative,  she  engaged  in 
the  movement  to  aliolisli  capital  punishment, 
resulting  in  the  substitution  of  the  electric  chair 
for  the  scaffold.  She  oi-ganized  the  Anti-Death 
Penalty   League   in   1897,   and,   after  the  first 


260 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


twenty  signatures  were  obtained,  names  were 
forwarded  her  in  such  numbers  that  it  was 
impossible  for  one  person  to  keep  the  records. 
Mrs.  Spooner  wrote  numerous  letters  to  experts 
throughout  the  country,  and  secured  valuable 
facts  that  resulted  in  the  formation  of  this 
League.  The  following  triljute  to  her  work  is 
co]ji(Ml  from  an  editorial  in  a  Boston  paper:  — 

"The  brave  attacks  that  have  been  made 
by  a  Massachusetts  woman  against  prison  evils 
interfering  with  physical,  moral,  and  mental 
improvement,  have  not  merely  been  approved 
in  this  country,  but  they  have  attracted  at- 
tention on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  Now, 
through  her  efforts,  a  tour  of  investigation  is 
being  made  through  the  South  to  in([uire  into 
prison  systems  and  the  measures  that  are  used 
to  reform  criminals  of  both  sexes.  The  camp 
life,  for  instance,  with  its  vicious  environments, 
offers  little  chance  for  t)etter  living  or  enil)rac- 
ing  any  religious  instruction.  The  men  in  chain 
gangs  who  are  hired  out  for  work  and  exposed 
to  the  public  gaze  and  cruel  criticism  do  not, 
as  a  rule,  know  the  meaning  of  the  word  '  en- 
couragement.' Their  existence  is  often  a  hell 
on  earth,  and  the  wonder  is,  they  survive  its 
degradation  as  long  as  they  do.  The  hope  of 
improving  and  elevating  inmates  of  prisons 
may  be  fallacious,  sentimental:  but,  unless  im- 
provement is  achieved  l^y  some  such  endeavor, 
humanity  hapjiier  in  its  surroundings  must  be 
the  sufferer.  It  is  to  vigilant  reform  that  North, 
South,  East,  and  West  now  look  for  inspiration 
for  the  ways  and  means  that  will  elevate 
character,  even  when  paying  its  penalty  for 
crime.'' 

The  League  does  not  rest  content  that  the 
agitation  has  abolished  the  long-approved 
gallows,  nor  does  it  accept  as  true  that  elec- 
trocution is  one  step  in  advance. 

Mrs.  Spooner  has  presented  able  arguments 
before  the  Joint  Judiciary  Committee  of  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature,  has  arranged  many 
hearings,  distributed  literature,  and  written 
hundreds  of  articles  upon  the  subject  so  near 
her  heart.  She  has  received  numerous  requests 
from  libraries  for  copies  of  her  sociological 
writings. 

No  higher  estimate  of  this  work  of  charity 
can  be  found  than  in  the  annual  report  of  the 


penal  institutions  commissioner  to  the  mayor 
of  the  city  of  Boston  in  1899,  under  the  head 
of  "Reform  of  Women  Inmates."  "A  most 
encouraging  work  has  been  done  by  Mrs.  Flor- 
ence Garrettson  Spooner,  the  President  of  the 
Prison  Reform  League.  Recognizing  her  earn- 
est sympathy  for  female  prisoners,  I  appointed 
her  in  the  early  part  of  1898  to  do  such  work 
as  missionary  among  the  female  inmates  of 
the  House  of  Correction  as  she  might  think 
proper  looking  toward  their  reformation.  I 
have  been  nuich  jiieased  with  hei'  work  there. 
The  most  hardened  women  have  softened  under 
the  beneficent  influence  with  which  she  has 
surrounded  them.  No  better  measure  of  her 
work  can  be  shown  than  the  decrease  in  the 
punisliments  among  the  class  with  which  she 
works." 

In  literary  work  and  on  the  platform  as  a 
lecturer  she  is  straightforward  aiul  perfectly 
at  ease  in  discussing  all  phases  and  points  of 
prison  reform.  Because  of  her  tact,  amiability, 
and  encouragement  to  prisoners  she  has  the 
confidence  of  officials  and  special  privileges  to 
study  human  nature  from  the  inside  of  the 
prison,  accorded  to  no  other  woman  in  the 
State,  prison  commissioners  excepted. 

She  was  appointed  by  Governor  Greenhalge 
one  of  the  colonial  conmiittee  of  twelve  from 
Massachusetts  to  the  Cotton  States  and  Inter- 
national Exposition  at  Atlanta,  Ga.  Mrs. 
Spooner  is  now  in  the  prime  of  life  and  in  active 
service.  She  has  received  the  spontaneous  co- 
operation of  others  in  her  noble  work. 

Her  husband,  Henry  T.  Spooner,  a  studious, 
busy  man,  devoted  to  his  books,  gives  cordial 
sym])athy  and  practical  suj)port  to  the  work 
in  which  his  wife  is  engaged.  Mr.  Spooner  was 
boni  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  son  of  Henry  Pierson 
and  Emma  (Brittan)  Spooner.  His  father  was 
a  descendant  of  the  Aldens,  Germaynes,  and 
Cottons.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of 
Thomas  Standfast  Bi'ittan,  a  clergyman  who 
left  England  and  became  rector  of  a  church  in 
Brooklyn. 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  ])enal  institutions 
commissioner,  Alpheus  Sanford  writes  to  the 
Hon.  Patrick  A.  Collins,  Mayor  of  the  city  of 
Boston,  that  Mrs.  Spooner  was  known  through- 
out the  House  of  Correction  as  the  "women's 


HELEN    I.  DOHERTY 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


261 


missionary  friend,"  rcconunonding  that  the 
results  of  her  work  be  recof^nized  in  future 
and  designated  the  Florence  Spooner  Prison 
Mission. 

"The  initial  and  dominant  impulse,  abiding 
power,  and  persistent  energy  which  characterize 
the  reform  work  of  Mrs.  Spooner  are  not  merely 
the  result  of  humanitarian  feelings  and  ijhilan- 
thropic  tendencies.  They  are  largely  due  to  her 
vivid  conception  of  the  religious  duty  of  helping 
the  weak  and  erring  in  the  spirit  and  purpose 
of  the  great  evangelical  teacher  and  model  of 
brotherly  love,  all-embracing  charity,  and  zeal 
for  the  happiness  of  human  souls  in  time  and 
eternity." 


HELEN  ISABEL  DOHERTY,  M.D., 
whose  noble  and  efficient  service 
in  the  Spanish-American  War  has 
made  her  widely  known  and  loved, 
was  born  in  Boston,  October  24,  1871.  She 
is  the  daughter  of  Colonel  Thomas  Francis 
and  Mary  (Kerwin)  Doherty,  both  natives  of 
Boston.  She  received  her  early  education 
in  the  city's  public  schools,  being  graduated 
when  very  young  from  the  high  school  and 
immediately  entering  upon  the  advanced  course. 
Her  desire  to  adopt  the  medical  profession  was 
not  at  first  encouraged  by  her  parents,  but, 
as  Colonel  Doherty  perceived  that  the  longing 
was  no  whim  but  a  steadfast  purpose,  he  ex- 
amined the  workings  of  various  colleges,  and 
placed  his  daughter  in  the  Women's  Medical 
School  of  Philadelphia,  where  she  was  grad- 
uated in  1895,  the  youngest  in  her  class.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  on  her  mother's 
side  of  the  family  there  is  a  long  line  of  physi- 
cians. 

Dr.  Doherty  began  practice  at  the  South  End 
in  Boston  in  1896,  and  probably  few  physi- 
cians so  young  as  she  have  had  the  varied  and 
wide  experience -that  is  hers  to-day.  She  does 
a  large  amount  of  examining  for  insurance 
companies,  and  was  the  first  woman  to  be 
employed  by  the  leading  fraternal  societies. 
She  is  examiner  and  visitor  for  the  patients 
in  the  Free  Home  for  Consumptives  in  Dor- 
chester. Boston  was  the  first  city  to  build 
free  gynmasia  for  women  and  children,  and  the 


first  medical  director  appointed  in  any  of  these 
was  Dr.  Doherty. 

In  August,  1898,  the  Spanish  War  being 
practically  over,  typhoid  and  Cuban  fever 
were  raging,  and  "pestilence-stricken  troops  to 
the  number  of  forty-five  thousand  were  quar- 
antined at  Montauk  Point,  Long  Island. 
Skilled  treatment  was  necessary.  There  was 
need  of  woman's  care  and  wit.  In  answer  to 
telegrams  sent  by  General  W^heeler,  Drs.  Laura 
A.  Hughes  and  Helen  I.  Doherty  directly  re- 
ported for  duty,  taking  with  them  some  thirty 
or  forty  nurses.  At  Detention  Camp  and 
the  general  hospital  on  the  bleak  hill-top 
this  yovmg  woman,  fresh  from  a  home  of  re- 
finement and  luxury,  lived  the  life  of  the  com- 
mon soldier,  ate  from  the  same  rations,  and 
proved  every  hour  of  the  day  that  the  oath 
of  allegiance  she  had  taken  was  no  empty  vow. 
She  did  all  the  desk  work,  answering  letters 
and  telegrams,  preparing  all  the  official  rec- 
onls  for  the  Major,  to  be  sent  to  Washington. 
Beside  taking  charge  of  the  Red  Cross  sup- 
plies, distributing  fruit,  and  receiving  visitors, 
she  kept  herself  accurately  informed  of  every 
man's  name  and  condition,  for  she  had  fre- 
quently to  identify  mothers'  sons  for  them, 
so  sadly  changed  were  they  by  the  ravages  of 
disease.  So  perfectly  did  she  have  this  work 
in  hand  that,  as  each  captain  came  to  the  hos- 
pital, she  could  lead  him  to  his  own  men. 
Naturally  systematic  and  possessed  of  more 
than  ordinary  executive  ability,  she  was  surely 
the  right  woman  in  the  right  place.  She  was 
always  practical;  and  Moffett,  in  his  maga- 
zine "Camp  Stories,"  thus  spoke  of  her  re- 
sourcefulness and  her  varied  activities :  "  She 
not  only  nursed  the  sick,  but  looked  after  ac- 
counts, made  out  bills,  was  clerk,  dressmaker, 
and  laundress,  and  kept  such  a  mass  of  detail 
in  her  head  that  the  nurses  all  went  to  her  for 
all  sorts  of  things,  from  a  tooth-brush  to  a 
bottle  of  ginger  ale." 

She  kept  at  her  post  so  long  as  a  patient 
remained,  and  unfortunately  brought  with 
her  to  Boston  the  seeds  of  typhoid.  Weak- 
ened by  constant  work  day  and  night,  she  was 
brought  very  low  by  the  illness,  and  for  weeks 
it  looked  as  if  her  devotion  to  duty  was  to  cost 
her    her    life,     liul    youth    and    vitality     con- 


262 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


quered,  and  she  is  to-day  actively  engaged  in 
her  profession,  which  she  loves,  and  in  which 
she  has  already  made  for  herself  a  name. 


SARAH  PRATT  McLEAN  GREENE  was 
born  in  Simsbvuy,  Conn.,  in  1856,  daugh- 
ter of  Dudley  Bestor  and  Mary  (Payne) 
McLean.  Her  father  was  a  son  of  the 
Rev.  Allan  McLean  and  his  first  wife,  Sarah 
Pratt,  and  a  descendant  in  the  fourth  genera- 
tion of  Allan'  McLean,  a  native  of  the  island  of 
Coll,  Argyleshire,  Scotland,  who  sailed  from 
Glasgow  in  1740,  arrived  in  Boston  in  Septem- 
ber, and  settled  in  Connecticut. 

Allan'  McLean  married  in  1744  Mary  Loomis, 
a  descendant  of  Joseph'  Loomis,  of  Windsor, 
Conn.  Their  son.  Captain  Alexander^  McLean, 
married  in  1768  Johanna  Smith,  and  resided 
in  North  Bolton,  now  Vernon,  Conn.  Their 
fifth  child,  the  Rev.  Allan  McLean,  born  in 
1781  (Yale  College,  1805),  was  pastor  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  in  Simsbury  for  fifty  years. 
He  was  a  man  of  wealth  for  those  days.  But 
he  loved  his  worldly  possessions  only  as  they 
benefited  others.  After  a  busy  and  useful  life 
he  died  in  1861,  "full  of  years"  and  greatly 
beloved. 

Mrs.  Mary  Payne  McLean,  the  mother  above 
named,  now  a  widow,  residing  in  Simsbury, 
was  born  in  Canterbury,  Conn.,  being  the  daugh- 
ter of  Solomon  and  Hannah  (Bishop)  Payne. 
On  the  paternal  side  she  is  a  descendant  of 
Thomas  Paine,  of  Eastham,  Mass.,  and  num- 
bers among  her  ancestors  Stephen  Hopkins 
and  his  daughter  Constance,  who  both  came 
in  the  "Mayflower"  in  1620,  and  Nicholas 
Snow,  who  came  in  the  "Ann"  in  162.3. 
Through  these  early  colonists  she  is  akin  to 
not  a  few  Cape  Cod  folk  of  the  present  day. 

Thomas  Paine  came  over  when  a  lad  of  ten 
or  twelve  years  (tradition  says,  with  his  father, 
of  the  same  name).  He  married,  about  1660, 
Mary,  daughter  of  Nicholas'  and  Constance 
(Hopkins)  Snow.  Their  son,  Elisha'^  Paine, 
married  Rebecca^  Doane,  grand-daughter  of 
Deacon  John'  Doane,  of  Plymouth  and  luist- 
ham,  who  served  seven  years  as  Deputy  to  the 
General  Court,  .\bout  the  year  1700  Elisha" 
Paine  removed  to  Canterbury,  then  a  pai't  of 


Plainfield,  Conn.  (Some  of  his  descendants, 
as  seen  below,  have  spelled  the  name  Payne.) 
His  son  Solomon,'  horn  in  Eastham,  was  or- 
dained in  1746  as  pastor  of  the  Separate  church 
in  Canterbury.  Solomon,''  born  in  1733,  son 
of  the  Rev.  Solomon'  and  his  second  wife, 
Priscilla  Fitch,  was  a  farmer  in  Canterliury.  He 
married  Mary  Bacon  and  was  father  of  Elisha,'^ 
born  in  1757  (Yale  College,  1780),  who  married 
Anna  Dyer.  Elisha^  Payne  and  his  wife  Anna 
were  the  parents  of  Solomon,"  named  above, 
father  of   Mrs.   McLean. 

Mrs.  Priscilla  Fitch  Payne  was  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  Rev.  James  Fitch,  of  Say- 
brook  and  Norwich,  Conn.,  and  his  second 
wife,  Priscilla  Mason,  daughter  of  Major  John 
Mason,  of  Norwich,  for  many  years  com- 
mander of  the  colonial  forces  and  nine  years 
(1660-69),  Deputy  Governor  of  Connecticut. 

Dudl(>y  B.  and  Mary  P.  McLean  had  five 
children,  all  born  at  the  McLean  homestead  in 
Simsbury.  The  eldest  child,  Hannah  Bishop 
McLean,  married  William  H.  Greeley,  and  for 
some  years  resided  in  Lexington,  Mass.  She 
is  now  a  widow  living  in  Cambridge,  her  son 
being  a  student  at  Harvard.  Charles  Allen 
McLean  (deceased)  is  survived  by  his  wife  and 
two  children.  John  Bunyan  McLean,  educa- 
tor, is  now  a  professor  in  the  Westminster 
School  in  Simsbury.  (ieorge  Payne  McLean, 
lawyer,  born  in  October,  1857,  was  Governor 
of  Connecticut  in  1901  and  1902. 

Sarah  Pratt  McLean,  the  fourth  child  in  this 
family  of  five,  grew  up  under  careful  home 
training.  She  attended  both  district  and  pri- 
vate schools  during  her  childhood,  but  studied 
far  more  with  her  mother,  a  woman  of  broad 
culture.  The  old  Pvu'itan  ideas  and  ideals  pre- 
vailed in  the  McLean  household.  The  sacred- 
ness  of  th(>  Sabbath  was  impressed  on  the 
children's  minds,  and  the  parents  strove  to 
have  all  the  influences  of  that  home  good  and 
elevating.  Books  there  were  in  plenty,  and 
wlien  Sarah,  or  Sally,  as  .she  was  called,  was  sent 
to  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  she  was  well 
equipped  to  do  good  work.  Her  mind  was 
stored  with  general  reading.  She  knew  and 
loved  nature,  and  was  frankly  interested  in 
all  her  new  experiences.  The  rules  were  rigid 
at  Holyoke,  and  some  of  the  regulations  seemed 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


263 


irksome,  even  to  one  brought  up  in  a  Presby- 
terian minister's  family.  But  she  stood  well 
in  her  classes,  and  made  warm  friends  of  girls 
anil  teachers.  Even  at  this  time  her  literary 
talent  showed  itself,  and  one  of  the  poems 
which  she  handed  in  as  a  composition  was  sent 
away  by  her  teacher  for  publication.  The 
verses  called  "De  Massa  ob  de  Sheepfol"  she 
wrote  when  she  was  only  a  young  girl,  though 
they  were  never  printed  until  they  were  put 
into  the  mouth  of  Mxanna,  a  character  in  her 
second  book,  "Towhead." 

She  remained  at  Mount  Holyoke  two  years. 
A  classmate  who  had  left  school  earlier  to 
teach  on  Cape  Coil,  being  unable  to  continue 
with  the  work,  urged  Miss  McLean  to  take  the 
school.  She  decided  to  do  so,  nmch  to  the  sur- 
prise of  her  family;  and,  almost  before  they 
could  accustom  themselves  to  the  idea,  she  had 
gone  to  the  scene  of  her  labors.  She  found  her- 
self amid  surroundings  that  were  full  of  strange- 
ness. Sailors  on  .shore  were  a  new  type  to  her. 
The  idioms  of  the  people,  their  customs  and 
traditions,  impressed  her  with  their  novelty. 
For  five  months  she  taught  and  learned  at 
Cape  Cod.  After  reaching  home,  she  used,  at 
odd  moments,  to  put  upon  paper  recollections 
of  these  months,  until  they  took  on  the  form 
and  sequence  of  a  book.  Since  this  was  done 
simply  for  her  own  entertainment  and  with  no 
thought  that  the  manuscript  would  meet  other 
eyes  than  her  own,  she  used  the  familiar  names ; 
and,  when  the  story  seemed  finished,  .she  put 
it  in  a  box,  and  shoved  it  away  on  an  ujiper 
shelf  in  her  grandfather's  library,  dismissing 
the  matter  from  her  mintl.  A  kinsman  living 
in  Boston,  in  touch  with  the  makers  of  books, 
happening  to  express  the  desire  that  Miss 
McLean  would  write  .something  for  publication 
(since  he  had  noticed  that  she  was  a  most 
clever  letter-writer),  she  took  the  manuscript 
down  from  the  library  shelf,  and,  without  con- 
sulting any  one,  nailed  a  cover  on  the  same 
little  wooden  box  which  had  held  the  loose 
sheets  all  this  time,  and  drove  to  the  village 
express  office  to  speed  the  literary  venture  on 
its  way.  Then  she  returned  home  to  await 
the  verdict.  The  suspense  was  brief .  The  pub- 
lisher sat  all  night  over  the  manuscript,  and 
wrote  the  next  morning  that  he  wished  to  bring 


it  out  at  once.  Miss  McLean  informed  him 
that  the  names  were  familiar  in  the  locality 
where  she  had  been;  but  he  was  a  young  mem- 
ber of  the  hrm,  and  it  was  his  first  venture  in 
publishing,  as  it  was  hers  in  novel-writing. 
The  story,  moreover,  was  ideal  and  not  intended 
to  be  taken  literally.  For  these  reasons  suffi- 
cient importance  was  not  attached  to  the  fact 
that  local  names  were  used.  The  book  met 
with  great  favor,  passing  from  edition  to  edi- 
tion. But  presently  the  people  on  the  Cape 
began  to  show  that  they  felt  themselves  ag- 
grieved. This  caused  the  author  the  keenest 
pain.  She  could  not  forgive  henself  then,  nor 
can  she  now.  Still  there  was  "naught  set  down 
in  malice,"  and  surely  the  gracious  pictures  of 
their  deeper  experiences  are  depicted  with  so 
gentle  a  touch  that  it  would  seem  the  sketcher 
and  the  sketched  might  still  across  "the  narrer 
neck  o"  land"  clasp  friendly  hands.  Her  pub- 
lishers were  desirous  to  have  something  further 
from  her  pen,  and  she  hurriedly  prepared  a 
second  book,  "Towhead."  Stories  under  her 
name  appeared  at  intervals  in  various  maga- 
zines, and  a  compilation  of  these  formed  her 
third  volume,  which  was  called  "  Some  Other 
Folks."  She  had  written  two  others,  "Last- 
chance  Junction"  and  "Leon  Pontifex,"  when 
in  1887  she  became  the  wife  of  Franklin  Lynde 
Greene,  a  Westerner,  educated  at  Annapolis. 
In  the  West,  where  she  spent  her  married  life 
of  a  few  brief  years,  twin  boys  were  born  to 
her,  but  of  these  she  was  soon  bereft.  In  1890 
Mr.  (ireene  died,  and,  widowed  and  childless, 
Mrs.  Cireene  returned  to  New  England.  Several 
ensuing  years  were  passed  in  rest  and  travel. 
She  took  a  European  trip,  and  subseiiuently 
tarried  at  different  points  in  Nova  Scotia,  vis- 
iting also  various  parts  of  Maine.  It  was  after 
these  summers  in  Maine  that  she  wrote  "  Vesty 
of  the  Basins,"  a  book  that  has  had  phenomenal 
success.  In  this  ca.se,  though  local  characters 
are  sketched  with  a  free  hand,  and  the  ilwellers 
in  a  small  place  know  that  their  own  manners 
and  lives  furnish  the  basis  of  the  story,  they 
read  its  pages  with  delight,  and  their  frequent 
letters  of  appreciation  show  the  deep  love  they 
bear  the  author.  A  well-known  Engli,shman 
says  of  "Vesty" :  "  I  have  read  it  a  dozen  times, 
and   1   shall   probably   read   it   a  dozen   times 


264 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


more.  A\"ith  each  ic-reading  I  am  struck  anew 
with  its  wonderfully  strong  portrayals  of  char- 
acter and  the  sjiarkling  wit  and  humor  that 
alternate  so  subtly  with  the  writer's  (lee|-i, 
pathetic  insight  into  life's  mysteries.  To  my 
mind  it  is  the  great  American  novel."  "  Vesty," 
as  well  as  "Cape  Cod  Folks,"  has  been  recently 
dramatized. 

In  fairly  rapid  succession  Mrs.  Greene  wrote 
"Stuart  and  Bamboo,"  "The  Moral  Imbeciles," 
and  "Flood  Tide."  In  1902  was  published  by 
Harper  &  Brothers  "Winslow  Plain,"  a  pict- 
ure of  life  in  a  quaint  New  England  village 
fifty  years  ago,  a  story  "told  as  Mrs.  Greene 
alone  can  tell  it,  with  the  brightest  ojitimism." 
In  this  book  are  found  some  rare  poetic  gems. 
One  special  charm,  indeed,  of  all  this  writer's 
works  consists  in  the  many  beautifvil,  helpful 
pa.ssage.s — (juite  aside  from  the  enthralling  in- 
terest of  the  story  itself — that  one  desires,  to 
read  again  and  again.  Said  a  certain  apprecia- 
tive critic,  "  I  never  i-ead  any  of  Mrs.  Greene's 
stories  without  longing  to  see  all  these  fine, 
quotable  extracts  collected  in  a  volume  by 
themselves,  a  volume  to  which  I  could  turn 
whenever  I  feel  'the  blues'  coming  on." 

.Mrs.  Cireene  is  a  woman  of  fine  presence, 
with  a  face  which  bears  beauty,  merriment,  and 
tenderne.ss.  She  tells  a  story  with  exceptional 
skill,  in  a  voice  so  rich  toned  and  musical  that 
it  might  belong  to  a  Southerner. 


SARAH  P:LIZABETH  FIELDING, 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Woman's 
Relief  Corps  of  Somerville,  is  a  native 
of  Andover,  Mass.  The  daughter  of 
Charles  Nathan  and  Hannah  Ja(|uith  (Abbot) 
Ingalls,  she  is  a  descendant  in  the  ninth  gen- 
eration of  Edmund  Ingalls,  who,  with  his 
brother  Francis,  came  from  England  to  Massa- 
chusetts in  1629,  and  in  1638  went  to  Lynn, 
where  they  had  a  grant  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  of  land.  They  were  among  the 
first  settlers  of  that  now  prosperous  city,  and 
were  successful  as  farmers,  stock-raisei-s,  and 
tanners  of  leather.  The  home  of  Francis  was 
in  that  part  of  Lynn  which  is  now  Swampscott. 
He  finally  removed  to  Boston,  where  he  died, 
leaving    no    male    heirs.     Edmund    Ingalls,    as 


stated  in  Lewis's  History  of  Lynn,  was  drowned 
in  March,  1648,  by  falling  with  his  hor.se  through 
the  old  Saugus  River  Bridge  on  Boston  Street. 
His  estate  was  valued  at  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  pounds,  eight  shillings,  ten  pence. 

He  had  nine  children:  and  Mrs.  Fielding's 
father  descended  from  Henry,*  the  sixth  child, 
who  had  the  house  and  lot  "  bought  of  Goodwin 
West"  and  land  in  what  is  now  the  city  of 
Chelsea,  Mass.  Henry,'^  born  in  1627,  married 
.luly  6,  1653,  Mary  Osgood,  of  Andover,  Mass. 
She  died  in  1686,  ami  he  afterward  married 
Sarah,  widow  of  George  Abbot.  He  had  twelve 
children.  The  second  child,  Henry,'  born  in 
December,  1656,  died  at  Andover  in  1699. 
He  married  June  6,  168S,  Abigail,  daughter  of 
.John  Emery,  .Ii'.,  of  Newbury,  Ma.ss.  Francis,* 
their  fourth  child,  was  born  in  December,  1694, 
and  died  January  26,  1759.  His  first  wife  was 
Lydia  Ingalls,  his  cousin,  whom  he  married  in 
1719.  After  her  death  in  1743,  he  married 
Lydia  Stevens,  of  Andover.  He  hail  eleven 
chiklren.  Francis,^  the  fifth  child,  who  was 
born  January  26,  1731,  and  died  April  3,  1795, 
married  November  12,  1754,  Eunice  Jennings, 
and  .settled  in  Andover.  They  had  nine  chil- 
dren, the  fifth  being  Jonathan,"  who  was  born 
February  25,  1762,  and  died  July  9,  1837.  He 
married  in  1792  Sarah  Berry,  of  Andover. 
Francis,'  born  August  IS,  1793,  the  eldest  of 
their  four  chiklren,  dk'd  at  his  home  in  North 
Andover  in  November,  1S50.  He  married  in 
1815  Elizabeth  Barker  Foster,  daughter  of 
Nathan"  Foster,  of  North  Andover,  Mass. 
Nathan"  was  a  descendant,  through  Stephen,'' 
John,"  Ephraim,^  Abraham,-  of  Reginald'  P\)ster, 
an  early  settler  of  Ijxswich,  Mass.  (For  further 
particulars  concerning  Reginald  and  other  Foster 
immigrants  in  colonial  days,  and  their  descentl- 
ants,  see  "  Foster  Genealogy,"  by  F.  C.  Pierce.) 
John  Foster,  printer,  of  Boston,  was  son  of 
another  early  colonist,  Ho])estilF  Foster,  of 
Dorchester;  and  Elizabeth  Foster,  who  married 
Isaac  Vergoo.se  in  1692,  was  the  daughter  of 
Captain  William'  Foster,  of  Charlestown. 

The  second  child  of  Francis  and  Elizabeth  B. 
(Foster)  Ingalls  was  Charles  Nathan,'  born  in 
North  Andover,  Mass.,  July  9,  1820.  Enlist- 
ing in  1861,  he  served  in  the  Union  army  six- 
teen months,  when  he  was  honorably  discharged 


REPRESENTATIVE   WUMEN    OF   NEW   ENUIANU 


265 


on  account  of  illness  resulting  from  sunstroke 
at  Ball's  Bluff.  He  was  an  ardiitect  and 
buikler,  and  previous  to  the  Civil  War  had 
charge  of  the  construction  of  important  works 
on  the  Connecticut  River  and  of  public  build- 
ings elsewhere.  In  1864  he  superintended 
government  work  in  Tennessee,  and  was  pres- 
ent at  the  battle  of  Nashville. 

Returning  to  Danvers,  he  was  appointed 
master  carpenter  of  the  Eastern  Railroad, 
which  position  he  held  fifteen  years,  when  he 
accepted  a  similar  appointment  on  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad,  antl  removed  to  Dakota. 
He  subsequently  went  to  the  Yellowstone  Park, 
and  erected  the  large  hotel  at  Mammoth  Hot 
Sjirings.  He  consti'ucted  m.any  bridges  and 
buiklings  on  the  branches  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad.  His  last  work  was  on  the 
Duluth  and  Manitoba  Railroad,  with  head- 
quarters at  Hawlev,  Minn.,  where  he  died  in 
1886. 

He  was  a  prominent  Free  Mason,  a  member 
of  Amity  Lodge  and  Holten  Royal  Arch  Chap- 
ter, of  Danvers,  of  Pilgrim  Connnandery,  of 
Lowell,  Mass.,  and  was  also  a  thirty-.second 
degree  Mason,  Scottish  Rite.  His  funeral  was 
conducted  by  the  Rev.  Ceorge  J.  Sanger,  of 
Essex,  and  he  was  buried  at  Danvers  with  .Ma- 
sonic honors.  He  married .  Hannah  .Jaquith 
Abbot,  of  Andover,  by  whom  he  had  four  chil- 
dren, namely:  Sarah  l"]lizabeth,  the  subject  of 
this  sketch;  George  W.:  Frank;  and  Albert. 
His  wife  died  in  1868,  and  he  married  Mi.ss 
Mary  J.  Morse,  of  Andover,  Me.,  by  whom  he 
had  one  son,  Charles. 

It  may  be  added  as  worthy  of  mention  that 
Jonathan  Ingalls,  grandfather  of  Charles 
Nathan,  was  brother  to  Theodore  Ingalls, 
grandfather  of  the  late  John  J.  Ingalls,  of 
Kansas,  United  States  Senator. 

Sarah  Elizabeth  Ingalls  was  born  in  Andover, 
November  8,  1846.  Her  parents  .subset [uently 
removed  to  Danvers,  and  she  was  graduated 
from  the  high  school  of  that  town.  She  mar- 
ried July  9,  1874,  George  Washington  Fielding, 
and  settled  in  Bangor,  Me.  They  have  also 
lived  in  Connecticut  and  New  York,  and  in 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  but  have  resided  in  Som- 
erville  for  the  past  twenty-five  years. 

Mrs.  Fielding,  on  her  mother's  side,  descended 


from  the  Jaquiths  of  Billerica,  the  hoase  in 
which  her  grandmother  was  born  and  married 
having  been  usetl  as  a  garri.son  house. 

Two  of  the  family  united  with  the  old  church 
in  Charlestown,  in  1649. 

Mrs.  Fielding  is  a  member  of  the  Prospect 
Hill  Congregational  Church,  and  is  deeply  in- 
terested in  all  its  work.  She  is  deaconess 
of  the  church,  has  been  a  teacher  in  its  Sunilay- 
school  during  the  past  eleven  years,  and  is  an 
active  worker  in  the  home  missionary  depart- 
ment, of  which  she  has  charge.  She  is  also 
vice-president  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary,  anil 
conducts  monthly  meetings,  which  have  been 
atldressed  by  prominent  speakers.  The  various 
charities  and  missions  connected  with  the  local 
church  have  been  aidetl  by  her  efforts,  and  she 
has  contributed  to  the  educational  and  other 
cnter])rises  of  the  denomination  at  large,  in 
all  of  which  she  takes  a  special  interest. 

When  the  Associated  Charities  of  Somerville 
began  its  beneficent  work,  Mrs.  Fielding  ac- 
cejjted  an  invitation  to  serve  as  agent  for  Ward 
Two,  and  for  nearly  four  years  devoted  her 
time  and  energy  to  its  tluties  without  compen- 
sation. With  heartfelt  sympathy  for  the  un- 
fortunate, anil  with  excellent  judgment  and 
ability,  she  contlucted  the  work  in  a  zealous 
manner;  and  regrets  were  expressed  when  she 
felt  obliged  to  decline  a  reappointment. 

In  1878  a  Relief  Corjjs  was  organized  in  Som- 
erville  by  Willard  C.  Kinsley  Post,  No.  139, 
G.  A.  R.,  and  Mrs.  Fiekling  was  chosen  secre- 
tary, serving  until  the  corps  was  reorganized, 
three  years  later,  as  one  of  the  corps  of  the 
Department  of  Massachusetts,  W.  R.  C,  when 
she  was  elected  to  the  office  of  treasurer.  She 
has  continued  her  membershi]5,  and  is  inter- 
ested in  all  Grand  Army  work,  having  inher- 
ited a  patriotic  spirit  from  her  father,  who 
joined  the  Andrew  Sharp-shooters  in  August, 
1861.  She  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  on 
Information  during  National  Convention  week 
in  Boston  in  1890,  and  is  a  member  of  the 
Press  Committee  for  the  National  Convention 
in  Boston  in  1904. 

Mrs.  Fielding's  husband,  who  is  a  member 
and  past  officer  of  Willard  C.  Kinsley  Post,  No. 
139,  G.  A.  R.,  enlisted  in  Company  A,  Forty- 
fourth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  connnanded  by 


266 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Colonel  Francis  L.  Lee,  and  was  in  continuous 
active  service  in  the  campaigns  in  North  Caro- 
lina under  General  Foster  and  General  Burn- 
side  in  1862  and  1S63. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fielding  reside  on  Berkeley 
Street,  near  Spring  Hill,  Somerville.  They  have 
no  children. 


ELEANOR  LOUISE  SWAIN  was 
born  in  Blackburn,  Lancashire,  F>ng- 
lantl,  November  6,  lcS68,  came  to 
America  at  the  age  of  five  years, 
anil  is  a  decitled  New  Englander  in  her  tastes 
and  manners.  She  is  the  daughter  of  John 
and  Sarah  (Plunkett)  Conway.  Her  father 
was  a  soldier  in  the  English  army.  Her  child- 
hood and  youth  were  passetl  in  Lawrence,  Mass., 
and  she  received  her  education  in  that  city.  On 
December  24,  1S90,  she  married  Eugene  Henry 
Swain,  of  Waltham,  Mass.,  residing  at  Martin 
Square.  They  have  two  children:  Grace 
Abbott,  born  February  11,  1892;  and  Eugene 
Conway,  born  January  19,  1895.  In  the 
Deborah  Rebecca  Lodge,  I.  0.  0.  F.,  of  Wal- 
tham, she  has  filled  the  following  offices — 
Warden,  Vice-Grand,  Noble  Grand,  Past 
Noble  Grand,  Chaplain,  and  Special  Deputy 
of  the  Grand  Master  of  the  State.  She  is 
a  member  of  the  Wf)man's  Club  and  the  Em- 
erson Browning  Club  and  an  active  worker 
in  the  L'niversalist  church.  Mrs.  Swain  en- 
tered the  Emerson  School  of  Oratory  in  1898, 
and  was  graduated  with  high  honors  in  1901. 
She  then  took  a  post-graduate  course,  winning 
class  honors,  and  is  now  a  teacher  of  elocution, 
oratory,  and  physical  culture  in  Waltham, 
conducting    large    classes    also    in    Boston. 

Mr.  C.  W.  Emerson,  ])roprietor  of  the  Em- 
erson College  of  Oratory,  says  of  Mrs.  Swain: 
".vShe  has  accomplished  much  during  her 
three  years'  course,  and  has  proved  herself 
to  be  a  student  of  unusual  power.  Possessing 
a  mind  responsive  to  high  ideals,  she  has 
been  an  inspiration  both  to  her  teachers  and 
her  classmates.  I  have  great  confidence  in 
her  teaching,  and  extend  to  her  our  cordial 
recommendation. ' ' 

Besides  having  a  fine  presence,  Mrs.  Swain 
is    gifted     with     much     personal     magnetism, 


which  is  no  doubt  one  of  the  reasons  why 
the  meets  with  such  marked  success  in  both 
jniblic  work  and  teaching.  Mrs.  Swain  and 
her  husband  rank  among  the  active,  influ- 
ential citizens  of  \\'altham,  Mr.  Swain  being 
the  proprietor  of  the  Waltham  Horological 
School. 


EUNICE  DRAPER-KINNEY,  M.D.,  who 
has  attained  a  gratifying  success  in  her 
]3rofession  and  in  educational  work,  was 
born  in  Southampton,  York  County, 
N.B.,  daughterof  James  and  Catherine  (Schriver) 
Draper. 

She  is  a  great-grand-daughter  of  Isaac  Draper, 
an  Englishman  who  settled  in  Ireland  in  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  en- 
gaged there  in  manufacturing  industries.  He 
was  for  a  time  very  successful,  owning  several 
linen  factories  and  over  fifty  houses,  but  was 
completely  ruined  by  the  invention  of  the 
spinning-jenny  in  1767. 

His  son,  James  Draper,  Sr.,  born  May  22, 
1781,  was  married  October  22,  1814,  in  the 
cathedral  chui-ch  of  St.  Finbarr,  in  the  liberties 
of  the  city  of  Cork,  and  according  to  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England  and 
Ireland,  to  Eliza  Homan,  who  came,  it  is  said, 
of  a  long  paternal  ancestry  dating  from  the  time 
of  William  the  Conqueror.  The  Homans  in 
general  were  a  tall  and  spare  race,  the  Norman 
blood  evidently  predominating,  while  the  Smiths 
(her  maternal  ancestors)  were  large  and  heavy, 
most  of  the  men  being  six  feet  or  more  in  height. 

James  Draper,  Sr.,  after  losing  all  his  prop- 
erty owing  to  the  rapid  change  in  industrial 
conditions,  migrateil  to  New  Brunswick.  Here 
for  some  years  his  wife  supported  the  family  by 
keeping  a  ])rivate  school.  In  course  of  time 
they  attained  to  more  comfortable  circum- 
stances, though  not  to  wealth,  and  resided  for 
many  years  in  the  country  of  their  adoption. 
James  Draper,  Sr.,  died  February  9,  1866,  and 
his  wife  Eliza  on  February  5,  1872,  when  eighty- 
three  years  old.  They  are  buried  at  South- 
ampton, York  County,  near  the  St.  John  River. 

James  Draper,  Jr.,  son  of  James,  Sr.,  and 
Eliza  Draper,  an<l  father  of  Dr.  Kinney,  learned 
the   baker's   trade,   wliich,   however,   he  aban- 


EUNICE    D.   KINNEY 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


267 


donecl  at  the  age  of  twenty-oae  to  become  a 
pioneer  farmer  anil  lumberman.  He  was  pos- 
sessed of  considerable  inventive  talent,  and  ex- 
hibited at  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Phila- 
delphia a  vessel  entirely  of  his  own  construc- 
tion. The  house  in  which  he  died,  at  Brooke 
Station,  Stafford  County,  Va.,  October  2S,  1877, 
is  said  to  have  been  the  one  in  which  Mrs. 
E.  D.  N.  Southworth  wrote  ''The  Hidden 
Hand."     He  was  buried  at  Fredericksburg,  Va. 

His  wife,  Catherine  Schriver,  to  whom  he 
was  married  Novemi)er  i;^,  1S51,  was  partly  of 
Dutch  ancestry,  her  paternal  grandparents 
coming  to  America  from  Amsterdam,  Holland. 
In  this  immigration  four  l)r()thers  were  con- 
cerned, two  of  whom — Tobaldo,  or  Baltus,  as 
he  was  sometimes  called  (Dr.  Kinney's  great- 
grandfather), and  Nathaniel — fought  as  loyal- 
ists for  England's  cause  in  the  Revolutionary 
\\'ar.  In  one  battle  or  skirmish  of  that  war 
Tobaldo  Schriver  nai'rowly  escaped  death,  a 
bullet  hitting  a  button  of  his  coat  over  the 
breast.  After  the  war  Nathaniel  returned  to 
Amsterdam.  Tobaldo  and  his  son  Abraham 
became  pioneer  farmers  in  New  Brunswick, 
having  been  assigned  a  large  tract  of  forest  land 
as  the  reward  of  their  loyalty.  Of  the  other 
two  brothers,  both  of  whom  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  colonists,  all  trace  has  been  lost.  Cath- 
erine Schriver  Draper  died  December  13,  1S66, 
and  is  buried  at  Southampton,  York  County, 
N.B.  Her  mother  was  Eunice  Hillman,  a 
daughter  of  Tristram  and  Angel  (Lindup)  Hill- 
man,  English  immigrants  in  New  Brunswick, 
who  resided  at  Southampton  and  at  Canter- 
bury. The  grandfather,  Tristram  Hillman,  who 
was  a  sea  captain,  lived  to  the  great  age  of  one 
hundred  and  six  years. 

Eunice  Draper  Kinney,  the  direct  subject  of 
this  sketch,  was  born  and  passed  her  early  years 
in  a  log  cabin.  Her  educational  opportunities 
were  so  limited  that  up  to  attaining  the  age  of 
twenty-one  she  had  attended  school  but  two 
years  and  a  half.  On  August  31,  1S71,  she 
became  the  wife  of  JoJin  Gartley,  of  Magagua- 
davic,  York  County,  N.B.,  who  died  June  16, 
1874,  leaving  no  property.  In  alluding  to  her 
subsequent  experiences  Dr.  Kinney  says:  "After 
the  death  of  my  first  husband,  my  first  start  in 
life  began  at  the  time  I  picked  a  two-gallon  pail 


of  wild  strawberries,  which  I  carried  seven  miles 
to  the  railroad  station  and  sold  for  one  dollar. 
With  that  sum  I  boarded  the  train  for  Bangor, 
Me.,  having  no  idea  of  the  cost  of  travelling. 
When  I  told  the  conductor  my  destination,  he 
demanded  more  fare;  but  I  stated  that  my 
brother  was  in  the  employ  of  the  road,  and 
when  I  gave  his  name  he  knew  him,  and  allowed 
me  to  pass  to  that  city,  where  I  obtained  em- 
ployment as  a  general  housework  servant.  As 
I  was  childless  and  so  very  young,  I  was  ad- 
vised by  my  employers  to  resume  my  maiden 
name,  which  advice  I  followed  and  found  de- 
cidedly to  my  advantage  in  after  years.  I  then 
began  to  realize  by  comparison  with  others  .how 
very  ignorant  I  was,  and,  being  resolved  not 
to  continue  so,  I  devotetl  all  my  spare  moments 
to  study,  until,  much  to  my  surprise,  I  found 
my.self  regarded  as  a  woman  of  education.  My 
medical  education  came  about  through  force  of 
circumstances,  and  not  from  any  premeditation 
on  my  part." 

Coming  to  Boston  to  prepare  herself.  Miss 
Draper  entered  the  Boston  Training  School  for 
Nurses  at  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital, 
and  after  pursuing  the  prescribed  course  was 
graduateil  June  8,  1881.  For  some  years  she 
followed  that  profession  in  Boston,  showing 
great  efficiency. 

On  August  6,  1884,  she  married  the  Hon. 
John  Mozart  Kinney,  a  well-known  citizen,  who 
had  been  three  times  elected  to  the  Massachu- 
setts House  of  Representatives  and  twice  to  the 
State  Senate,  besides  having  helil  other  import- 
ant offices,  Init  who  lost  his  property  through 
financial  reverses.  Dr.  Kinney  had  completed 
her  hospital  service  and  was  in  college  at  the 
time  of  her  second  marriage,  but  continued  her 
studies.  This  did  not  at  first  meet  with  the 
approval  of  Mr.  Kinney,  but  before  his  death, 
which  took  place  January  25,  1897,  he  learned 
to  appreciate  her  attainments,  and  benefit  from 
them.  She  obtained  her  medical  degree  April 
16,  1890,  from  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  Boston,  and  has  been  a  practising 
physician  in  Revere,  Mass.,  during  most  of  the 
time  since,  ^\'hile  establishing  a  self-support- 
ing practice  she  engaged  to  some  extent 
in  literary  work.  In  June,  1895,  she  was 
graduated  from  Tufts  College  Medical  School, 


268 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


which  she  had  ontcred  for  a  post-graihiate 
course. 

Dr.  Kinney  has  attained  a  higli  standing  in 
her  profession;  and  her  practice,  which  is  in- 
creasing, yields  her  a  hheral  income.  She  says: 
"My  work  is  very  insjiiring  to  me.  To  stand 
face  to  face  witli  Deatii,  and  witii  cool  deter- 
mination to  stand  between  him  and  his  chosen 
victim,  and  come  out  the  victor,  brings  its  own 
reward,  and  does  not  become  tiresome  or  mo- 
notonous." 

Dr.  Kinney  is  meilical  examiner  for  the 
United  Order  of  the  Golden  Cross,  press  cor- 
respondent of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  a 
member  of  the  Count  Rumford  Historical  So- 
ciety and  of  the  Mycological  Club  of  Boston, 
and  also  holds  the  offices  of  vice-president  and 
superintendent  of  narcotics  in  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temjierance  Union  at  Revere.  She  is 
also  a  member  of  the  New  England  Woman's 
Press  Association,  Medical  Examiner  of  the 
United  Order  of  the  Golden  Star,  and  is  also 
a  member  of  three  Aiunuii  A.ssociations, — 
Tufts  College  Medical  Alumni  Association,  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation, and  that  of  the  Massachu.setts  General 
Hospital  Training  School  for  Nurses.  She  was 
formerly  editor  of  a  journal.  The  A'i/r<e,  and 
was  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Medical  Time^i 
and  Register,  a  progressive  medical  publication 
with  influence  an(l  international  circulation. 
From  her  parents  Dr.  Kinney  has  derived  a 
punctilious  regard  for  honor  and  integrity.  Her 
love  of  music  and  her  ((uiet,  firm,  fearless,  and 
self-contained  manner  are  a  direct  ancestral  in- 
heritance. She  is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal 
church  and  an  active  church  worker  at  Revere. 


MARY  GRAY  DEANE,  Past  National 
Insjiector  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  is  the  wife  of  Major  John  M. 
Deane,  of  Fall  River,  Mass.  She 
was  born  in  Norwich,  Conn.,  November  16, 
1S46,  and  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Abner  T. 
Pearce,  a  contractor,  who  built  the  first  rail- 
road in  South  America.  During  the  Civil  War 
she  was  a  school-girl  in  Providence,  R.I.,  and 
her  Ieis\u'e  hom'S  were  spent  in  scraping  lint 
and  in  other  work  for  the  Union  soldiers.     In 


1865  her  parents  moved  to  Freetown,   Mass., 
and  a  year  later  her  marriage  took  place. 

Mrs.  Deane  has  been  identified  with  relig- 
ious and  charitable  work  in  Fall  River  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  having  served  on  ac- 
tive committees  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  of  which  she  has  been  a  meml)er  since 
186.S.  Dm'ing  the  teni[)erance  revival  in  Fall 
River  several  years  ago  Mrs.  Deane  was  a 
member  of  the  I'^xecutive  Board  of  the 
AVoman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  and, 
as  treasurer  of  the  "Coffee  House"  which 
was  establisheil  anil  conducted  on  a  large 
stale  by  the  Union,  she  rendered  valuable  aid. 

She  has  taken  an  interest  in  the  Woman's 
Auxiliary  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation, and  for  more  than  twenty  years  was 
one  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Children's 
Home  at  Fall  River.  A  large  brick  building 
was  dedicated  in  1895,  in  which  many  desti- 
tute orphans  receive  the  comforts  of  home 
life.  Mrs.  Deane  co-operated  in  the  efforts 
for  the  erection  of  this  building.  She  is  a 
regular  visitor  to  the  home,  and  is  especially 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  children.  She 
is  a  meniljer  of  Miimehaha  Lodg(%  Daughters 
of  Rebekah,  of  Fall  River. 

For  the  past  thirteen  years  she  has  devoted 
her  energies  largely  to  work  for  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Rep\i!ilic.  Through  the  efforts 
of  Major  Deane,  a  Relief  Corps  was  organized 
in  1888  as  an  auxiliary  to  Richard  Borden 
Post,  No.  46,  with  Mrs.  Deane  as  a  charter 
member.  She  was  chosen  its  President,  and 
was  r(>-elected  three  years  in  succession.  Dur- 
ing the  nearly  four  years  of  her  service  as 
President,  Mrs.  Deane  met  with  success  in 
her  efforts  to  make  the  corps  one  of  the  best 
in  the  State.  Upon  retiring  from  the  chair 
she  accepted  the  office  of  Treasurer,  a  position 
she  has  held  continuously,  with  the  exception 
of  one  year  when  other  official  duties  pre- 
vented. She  was  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  National 
(■Convention  held  in  Boston  in  1890,  and  has 
participated  in  nearly  all  the  subsequent  Na- 
tional Conventions. 

In  1891  she  was  Department  Inspector  of 
Massachusetts,  and  at  the  annual  convention 
the    following    year    was    elected    Department 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN    OF    NEW    ENGLAND 


269 


President.  She  immediately  sought  to  famil- 
iarize, herself  with  all  the  numerous  detads 
of  the  office,  and,  possessing  unusual  execu- 
tive ability,  conducted  a  very  able  adminis- 
tration. 

In  her  address  presented  at  its  close  she  said 
in  part:  "My  entire  time  has  been  given  to 
the  service,  and  I  have  endeavored  to  per- 
form the  varied  and  responsd)le  duties  in  a  just 
and  conscientious  manner.  In  my  first  gen- 
eral order,  issuetl  February  12,  the  assignment 
of  my  office  hours  at  headquarters  in  Boston 
was  announced;  but  two  afternoons  each  week 
have  not  been  sufficient  to  complete  the 
duties  given  to  my  charge.  Members  and  com- 
mittees seeking  advice  and  information,  re- 
ports to  be  examined,  correspondence  requir- 
ing immediate  attention,  copy  to  be  furnished 
the  printer,  and  other  tluties  have  required 
my  presence  many  days  at  headquarters. 
Whether  in  Boston  or  at  my  home  in  Fall 
River,  every  day  has  been  fully  occupied  with 
the  work  of  the  Department;  and  with  few  ex- 
ceptions my  evenings  have  been  devoted  to 
its  executive  or  public  duties. 

"I  have  issued  nine  general  orders,  thirty- 
eight  special  orders,  three  circular  letters  anti 
other  official  documents,  and  have  written 
several  thousand  letters.  I  have  accepted  all 
invitations  to  represent  our  order  at  gather- 
ings held  by  posts  or  corps,  wherever  possi- 
ble. By  special  request  I  have  personally 
instituted  four  corjis — namely,  at  Bourne, 
Williamstown,  Marshtield  Hills,  and  Weymouth; 
have  assisted  at  the  institution  of  corps  at 
New  Bedford,  Lee,  Warehani,  Ijeicester,  and 
Boston;  and  it  has  been  my  pleasant  duty  to 
install  the  officers  of  nine  corps.  By  invitation 
of  the  president  of  the  New  England  Chau- 
tauqua Assembly  I  presented  a  brief  history 
of  our  order  at  the  Grand  Army  Day  exercises 
held  at  South  Framinghani  July  25,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Assembly." 

The  following  resolution  offered  by  Mrs. 
Deane  was  adopted  by  the  convention:  "That 
a  plan  be  inaugurated  for  the  establishing  of 
a  home  in  Massachusetts  for  the  destitute 
widows  and  orphans  of  ovir  veterans  and  for 
dependent  army  nurses  on  oiu"  roll.  That  the 
home  be  dedicated  as  a  memorial  of   the   pa- 


triotism of  the  women  of  Massachusetts  iluring 
the  Civil  War  and  under  the  management  ol 
the  Department  of  Massachusetts,  \\'oman's 
Relief  Corps." 

Being  appointed  chairman  of  a  connnittee 
to  obtain  a  fund  for  this  purpose,  Mrs.  Deane 
issued  an  appeal  for  contributions.  In  re- 
sponse to  tiie  appeal  considerable  sums  were 
received  by  the  committee,  but  it  was  deemed 
axlvisable  to  render  immediate  relief  to  those 
in  need  rather  than  to  wait  for  the  erection 
of  a  building.  They  have  therefore  been  cared 
for  in  their  own  homes  and  received  continu- 
ous aid,  with  friendly  visits  and  encourage- 
ment. 

Mrs.  Deane's  portrait  hangs  upon  the  walls 
of  Department  headquarters,  placed  there 
by  the  contributions  of  the  corps  presidents 
of  1892.  A  large  and  haniLsomely  bound 
album  was  presented  tier  at  the  same  time, 
which  containetl  the  letters  expressing  the 
regard  of  the  tlonors.  E.  R.  Hopkins  Corps, 
No.  155,  of  Williamstown,  has  placed  her 
picture  in  its  Grand  Army  Hall. 

Mrs.  Deane  was  appointed  Department  Coun- 
sellor in  1893  by  her  successor  in  office,  Mrs. 
Emily  L.  Clarke,  and  has  continuetl  her  active 
interest  in  the  work.  She  is  again  serving 
Corps  106,  of  Fall  River,  as  treasurer,  and  as 
chairman  of  its  (executive  committee  has  added 
many  hundreds  of  dollars  to  the  corps  funds 
by  her  able  management  of  entertainments. 
She  was  elected  chairman  of  the  National 
Executive  Board  in  1897  and  appointetl  Na- 
tional Inspector  of  the  ^^'oman's  Relief  Corps 
in  1898.  At  the  Department  Convention  in 
Boston  in  January,  1899,  she  was  unanimously 
endorsed  as  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  Na- 
tional President,  and  a  circular  was  issued 
in  her  behalf,  with  official  endorsements  from 
the  Department  of  Massachusetts,  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  the  Sons  of  Veterans  and 
Daughters  of  Veterans  of  Massachusetts. 

At  the  National  Convention  in  Chicago  the 
following  September  her  name  was  presented 
for  the  office  by  Mrs.  Mary  L.  Oilman,  De- 
partment President,  who  made  an  earnest 
speech  in  her  behalf,  testifying  to  her  quali- 
fications for  leadership  and  the  "self-sacrifice 
in    the   noble   cause."     The   entire   delegation 


270 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


from  Massachusetts  rose  in  their  pkices,  to 
second  in  a  body  the  nomination  of  Mrs.  Deane. 
She  had  also  many  pledges  from  other  States. 
Her  withdrawal  in  favor  of  the  candidate  rep- 
resenting Colorado  and  Wyoming  was  a  great 
disappointment  to  her  many  friends. 

Mrs.  Deane  is  a  mendjer  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in  Massa- 
chusetts, also  of  Quequechan  Chapter,  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution. 

Her  husband,  wiio  is  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  her  work,  was  Major  of  the  Twenty- 
ninth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  and  has  re- 
ceived a  Congressional  medal  of  honor  for 
special  bravery  on  the  field.  He  was  in  many 
of  the  campaigns  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Major  Deane  was  appointed  Assistant  National 
Inspector  of  the  G.  A.  R.  by  Commander-in- 
chief  Lawler,  and,  after  filling  several  offices 
in  the  Department  of  Massachusetts,  G.  A.  R., 
was  elected  Department  Commander  in   1897. 

After  leaving  the  army  Major  Deane  fol- 
lowed the  profession  of  teacher,  but  for  sev- 
eral years  past  has  been  a  successful  merchant 
in  Fall  River.  Major  and  Mrs.  Deane  enter- 
tain many  friends  in  their  beautiful  home  in 
Assonet,  a  suburb  of  Fall  River.  They  have 
four  sons  and  one  daughter. 


FLORENCE  GERTRUDE  WEBER.- 
Florence  Gertrude,  the  only  child  of 
Charles  and  Henrietta  (Ingram)  Bick- 
ford,  was  born  in  Boston,  April  8,  1870. 
She  was  married  to  Emile  J.  Weber,  by  the 
Rev.  E.  Winchester  Donald,  September  22, 
1897.  Mrs.  Weber's  education  was  obtained 
at  the  Winthroj)  Grammar  School  and  the 
Girls'  Latin  School,  where  she  was  graduated 
in  1889.  Then  some  years  were  passed  in  the 
study  of  art — modelling,  drawing,  and  water- 
color  sketching — and  two  years  were  devoted 
to  the  historj'^  of  European  countries.  During 
this  season  of  study  she  became  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  development  in  the  Middle 
Ages  of  the  feminine  arts  of  embroidery,  weav- 
ing, and  lace-making.  By  inheritance  the  art 
of  the  needle  was  hers.  Curiously,  the  task  of 
reconstruction  always  possess(>(l  for  her  great 
charm.     In  the  mending  of  formidable  lent  in 


any  textile,  the  finer  the  stuff  and  the  larger 
the  hole,  the  more  absorbing  was  the  occupa- 
tion. A  gift  of  insight  into  the  construction 
of  things  was  also  coupletl  with  technical  skill, 
and  thus,  when  she  mended  a  fabric,  she  came 
to  understand  readily  how  it  had  been  woven. 
One  day,  while  she  was  mending  for  an  ac- 
quaintance a  point  lace  collar  which  had  met 
with  an  accident,  there  came  to  her  this  thought : 
"If  any  woman  can  make  that  lace,  I  must  be 
able  to  do  so  also."  Fine  laces  had  always  been 
dear  to  her  heart,  and  she  possessed  a  few 
simple  pieces  of  ^'alenciennes,  English  thread, 
and  Honiton. 

Like  all  well-onleretl  Boston  girls,  she  went 
first  for  information  to  the  Public  Library. 
There  were  many  volumes  on  the  history  of 
lace,  and  a  few  about  how  to  make  it,  most  of 
the  latter  being  in  German,  French,  Italian,  or 
Russian.  Here  the  Latin  School  training,  in 
going  to  the  root  of  matters,  came  in,  as  well 
as  the  instruction  in  French.  German  had 
been  learned  outside  of  the  school,  so  she  read 
all  the  German  and  the  French  books.  Then, 
as  some  Italian  books  contained  interesting 
illustrations,  she  set  herself  to  work  to  study 
Italian,  so  that  she  could  translate  these  also. 
In  the  meantime  she  began  to  produce  bits  of 
\>netian  ])oint  lace,  but  the  lack  of  proper 
thread  was  a  gi'eat  obstacle.  Securing  some 
little  balls  of  the  finest  to  be  hail  here,  she  cut  out 
a  few  inches  at  a  time  where  it  ran  fine,  and  re- 
jected the  rest;  but  even  this  was  not  suitable 
for  fine  mesh,  which  is  the  joiid  of  Brussels 
point. 

At  this  stage  of  her  progress,  pillow  lace 
making  began  to  invite  her  attention.  No 
materials  were  at  hand.  Torchon  lace  was  not 
what  she  .sought'  it  was  the  "piece  lace,"  such 
as  Honiton  and  Duchesse,  and  here  she  came 
to  a  halt.  Not  a  book  in  the  library  offered 
any  technical  information.  At  the  Arts  and 
Crafts  Exhibition  in  Copley  Hall  in  1899  was 
a  case  containing  laces  made  by  an  Italian 
woman,  whose  address  was  gi\-en  in  the  cata- 
logue. While  the  lace  was  of  the  torchon 
\'ariety,  Mrs.  Weber  felt  that  at  least  she  could 
ac(|uire  the  use  of  the  bol^bins,  and  the  next 
day  took  her  first  le.':.«on.  The  little  Italian 
woman   spoke   no   I]nglish,   and   Mrs.   Weber's 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


271 


Italian  at  that  time  was  not  of  tiie  oonversa- 
tional  kind.  The  whole  of  the  following  day 
was  spent  struggling  o\n-  that  narrow  ])attern 
of  torchon. 

"  It  was  quite  the  most  hopeless  thing  I  ever 
attemptetl,"  she  says.  "I  could  see,  however, 
how  it  should  be  done,  although  I  could  not  do 
it  myself.  At  night  my  s])irits  were  at  a  low 
ebb,  and  I  ached  physically  and  mentally.  The 
next  morning,  when  I  went  to  work  again,  the 
difficulties  vanished,  and  I  made  several  inches 
without  a  flaw.  I  took  another  lesson  and 
learned  a  new  pattern.  I  showed  my  teacher 
a  l)it  of  Duchesse  lace,  and  to  my  amazement 
she  failed  to  even  recognize  it  as  jiillow  lace. 
With  my  third  lesson  I  found  that  I  could  see 
'  how  to  make  every  pattern  my  Italian  lady 
had;  and  there  were  some  fifty  different  laces, 
frf)ni  half  an  inch  to  eight  inches  in  width.  I 
went  home  and  proceeded  to  cut  up  some 
Duchesse  lace  under  a  microscope.  I  cut  bliss- 
fully away,  as  the  days  went  by,  until  I  had 
sacrificed  several  dollars'  worth,  and  had  found 
out  all  but  one  thing — how  to  fasten  the  leaves 
together.  Although  they  were  not  sewed,  they 
were  firmly  joined;  and  still  they  were  made 
in  order,  one  at  a  time.  For  a  long  time  the 
way  was  hidden. 

"Next  I  turned  my  attention  to  strip  laces — 
Mechlin,  Valenciennes,  and  English  thread. 
Here,  more  than  ever,  I  felt  the  lack  of  proper 
material.  I  hatl  to  resort  to  ravelling  out  the 
finest  handkerchief  linen  and  using  the  threads 
to  acquire  the  technicpie  of  Mechlin  and  \'alen- 
ciennes.  I  made  the  lives  of  the  shopkeepers 
miserable  trying  to  get  fine  lace  thread.  Fi- 
nally one  shopman  asked  his  buyer  to  get  me 
some,  and  I  paid  him  eight  dollars  for  what 
now  costs  me  sixty  cents.  With  this  fine  thread 
I  succeeded  m  producing  all  kinds  of  fine  laces 
by  copying  those  I  owned  and  others  that  were 
very  kindly  lent  to  me.  I  set  about  finding 
out  where  in  Europe  I  could  send  for  materials, 
and  soon  began  to  import  all  kinds  of  fine 
threads,  bobbins,  and  pins." 

One  day,  while  Mrs.  Welier  was  lof)king  over 
an  old  I'lnglish  book  on  lace,  she  came  across 
a  list  of  tools  for  lace-making.  "  Among  them," 
she  says,  "was  a  tinj'  hook,  described  as  'useful 
in  drawing  the  threads  through  when  joining 


the  leaves.'  Here  was  the  clew  to  the  mystery 
which  for  three  years  I  had  been  unable  to  solve 
— how  the  leaves  and  scrolls  were  fastened  to- 
gether without  being  sewed." 

About  this  time  there  were  shown  to  Mrs. 
AVeber  laces  that  had  been  left  in  an  estate,  to 
be  sold  by  the  executors.  Among  them  was  a 
great  square  of  A'enctian  point  lace  and  a 
Duchesse  lace  skirt — a  flounce  four  yards  long 
and  a  yaril  and  an  eighth  deep,  with  twenty- 
four  point  lace  medallions  set  into  the  pattern. 
These  two  large  pieces  of  lace,  too  old-fashioned 
in  shape  to  use,  too  modern  to  be  of  interest 
to  collectors,  were  a  problem  to  the  trustees 
of  the  estate.  She  suggested  that  the  lace  was 
made  of  sniall  i)ieces,  and  could  be  remade  into 
small  articles,  making  it  salable.  She  was 
asked  to  figure  the  number  of  articles  possible, 
the  value  when  completed,  and  the  cost  of 
making  them,  and,  having  done  this,  was  given 
the  chance  to  do  as  she  had  suggested,  with 
])leasing  results  to  all  concerned.  This  brought 
her  curious  bits  of  mending  from  those  who 
bought  the  laces.  All  kinds  of  lace  work  came 
to  her,  and  she  began  to  collect  lace,  aiming 
to  make  a  representative  collection  of  laces 
made  at  the  present  day. 

The  Arts  and  Crafts  Society  attracted  her. 
She  knew  that  among  its  members  were  those 
who  had  struggled  with  technical  difficulties 
in  various  crafts.  She  applietl  for  membership, 
was  received  most  pleasantly,  listened  to  with 
interest,  and  at  length  w'as  asked  if  it  were 
possible  to  establish  a  lace  industry  here.  Miss 
Anne  Withington,  the  head  of  the  W^omen's 
Residence  of  the  South  End  Settlement,  had 
become  imbued  with  the  idea  of  establishing 
some  industries  for  girls  and  women,  to  be  co- 
operative in  plan  and  to  give  employment  to 
girls  of  fine  taste  and  ability,  wdio  would  in 
this  way  be  saved  from  hopeless  drudgery  in 
factories  and  shops.  The  industries  were  to 
be  a  refining  influenc(>  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
lace  was  to  be  one  of  them.  She  applied  to  the 
Arts  and  Crafts  Society  for  a  lace-maker  the 
same  week  that  Mrs.  Weber  joined  the  society. 

After  much  advice  from  persons  already 
versed  in  industrial  work,  also  after  several 
generous  givers  had  furnished  the  money,  with 
the  Arts  and  Crafts  Society  to  influence  it,  Mrs. 


'279 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGIAND 


Weber  to  introihicc  it,  and  the  Women's  Resi- 
dence of  the  South  Knd  to  house  it,  the  first 
■lace  industry  in  this  country  was  hegun  I<>1)- 
ruary  18,  1901,  with  one  pupil.  Miss  ICli/.ahetli 
Feely.  Her  progress  was  watched  with  inter- 
est, and  in  the  first  week  was  begun  a  simple, 
narrow  insertion  of  English  thread  lace,  that 
was  salable  at  sixty  cents  a  yard.  Other  girls 
came,  but  either  they  were  not  adapted  or  cir- 
cimistances  took  them  away.  In  six  weeks, 
however,  another  lace-maker  had  conie  to  stay, 
Miss  Alice  Riorden;  and  the.se  two  girls  for 
many  months  carried  on  ''the  induahy."  Their 
progess  was  encouraging.  They  began  at  once 
with  the  very  fine  thread,  and  learned  first  tf) 
make  the  beautiful  lace  known  as  the  P^nglish 
thread.  Then  they  were  taught  to  make  sep- 
arate figures  and  to  ornament  them  with  deli- 
cate fillings  peculiar  to  old  Honiton.  Small 
things  were  turned  out — at  first,  tie  ends, 
doilies,  little  collars.  Then  orders  came  for 
more  pretentious  articles.  The  girls  learned 
to  clean  laces  in  the  I'AU'opean  manner.  Rare 
things  came  to  Mrs.  Weber  to  be  restored,  from 
Portsmouth,  N.H.,  Fitchhurg,  from  St.  T>ouis 
even.  New  girls  joined  the  industry,  and  it 
began  to  pay  its  own  way.  Since  the  first  six 
months  of  its  existence  there  has  not  been  a 
day  when  there  were  not  orders  ahead  to  be 
filled.  At  present  six  lace-makers  are  busy  all 
the  time,  and  several  outside  the  shops  lU'e 
filling  orders  for  special  varieties  that  can  be 
made  at  home. 

So  nuich  has  been  accomplished  by  one  New 
England  woman  in  the  face  of  great  difficulties. 
American  girls,  absolutely  untrained,  have  in 
one  year  been  taught  to  make  the  finest  laces, 
equal,  it  is  claimed,  to  any  produced  in  the 
world  at  the  present  day  by  workers  whose 
families  have  been  lace-makers  for  generations. 


HELEN  COFFIN  BEEDY  was  born 
in  Harrington,  Washington  County, 
Me.,  November  9,  1840,  the  daugh- 
ter of  John  B.  and  Ruby  fStrout) 
Coffin.  Her  maternal  grandparents,  Benja- 
min and  Joanna  (Roberts)  Strout,  were 
pioneer  settlers  of  Harrington.  Benjamin 
Strout   was   a   man   greatly   respected   for   his 


sterling  integrity.  He  traced  his  descent 
from  a  long  line  of  English  ancestors.  His 
wife  Joanna,  a  native  of  Portland,  Me.,  was 
a  famous  housekeeper.  Her  receipts  and  her 
instructions,  her  chiklren  say,  have  never 
been  improved  upon  by  the  inventions  of 
modern  domestic  science.  She  was  also  nuich 
given  to  works  of  charity. 

Mrs.  Beedy's  father,  John  B.  Coffin,  by 
occupation  a  ship-builder,  was  one  of  the 
leading  citiz(>ns  of  Harrington  in  his  day. 
He  u.sed  to  .solemnize  marriage,  and  he  often 
representetl  the  town  in  the  State  Legis- 
lature. In  politics  he  was  a  Democrat.  Both 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Coffin  were  members  of  the 
Baptist  church.  Many  of  his  ancestors  and 
their  kindred  were  Quakers  or  Friends,  and 
Mrs.  Beedy  is  proud  to  be  allied  to  Lucretia 
Mott  and  the  Rev.  Phciebe  Hanaford.  The 
Coffin  lineage  in  America  extends  back  to  Tris- 
tram Coffin,  who  came  to  New  England  in  1642, 
and  diwl   in  Nantucket   in   1681. 

Mrs.  Beedy's  mother.  Ruby  Strout  Coffin, 
was  from  early  girlhood  highly  religious. 
Her  diary  gives  a  record  of  her  many  interest- 
ing experiences  as  a  teacher,  which  ])rofe.ssion 
she  adojited  at  the  early  age  of  .seventeen. 
She  describes  her  long  journeys  on  horseback 
through  the  woods  to  her  school.  After 
her  marriage  Mrs.  Coffin  became  the  first 
president  of  the  Martha  Washington  Society 
at  Harrington,  and  in  one  of  her  addresses, 
the  paper  of  which  is  now  j'ellowed  with 
time,  we  find  she  advocated  the  founding 
of  a  village  library — advocated  it  so  pertinently 
that  it  was  soon  in  operation,  being  hou.sed 
for  .some  years  in  the  homes  of  the  members, 
who  alternately  assumed  the  obligation. 

Mrs.  Beedy's  early  training  was  of  the  best. 
Her  mother's  i-eligious  teaching  took  deep 
root  in  her  heart,  and  her  father's  coun.sels 
were  for  her  practical  good.  He  frecpiently 
.Slid:  "Helen,  you  have  neither  beauty  nor 
wealth.  If  you  accomplish  anything  in  the 
world,  you  nmst  work  for  it."  And  work 
she  did.  By  her  grandmother  Strout,  with 
whom  she  went  to  live  at  the  age  of  nine, 
after  her  mother's  death,  she  was  taught 
skilled  hou.sek(>(>ping.  Being  a  vigorous  child, 
she   kept    constantly   at    school   in   her   native 


M.  CLARA   KIRBY 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


273 


town,  later  uttending  the  academy  at  Cherry- 
field,  Me.,  as  well  as  that  at  East  Machias. 
In  1863  she  was  graduated  from  the  Bridge- 
water  Normal  School,  anil  afterward  she 
studied  French,  German,  and  painting  under 
private  instructors.  She  was  a  mendx-r  of 
Professor  Agassiz's  school  at  Penikese  during 
the  two  years  of  its  existence.  She  subsequently 
took  the  full  Chautauqua  course,  ami  at  llad- 
cliffe  College  in  the  year  1897  she  took  a  special 
course  in  English  composition.  She  is  still 
a  student,  and,  except  when  the  press  of  duties 
forbids,   is  never  long  away  from   her  books. 

In  the  Farmington  State  Normal  School 
she  is  rememberetl  as  a  conscientious  and 
enthusiastic  instructor,  one  whose  personal 
interest  in  her  pupils  extended  beyond  the 
walls  of  the  class-room. 

The  marriage  of  Miss  Helen  Coffin  and  Mr. 
Daniel  Beedy  took  place  in  1875  at  Castine, 
Me.  For  a  number  of  years  Mr.  Beedy  was 
one  of  the  more  jirominent  citizens  of  Farm- 
ington, where  they  made  their  home,  and 
where  since  Mr.  Beedy's  death,  in  1889,  Mrs. 
Beedy,  when  not  travelling  abroad,  has  con- 
tinued to  reside. 

Mrs.  Beedy  lias  been  president  of  the  Frank- 
lin County  W.  C'.  T.  U.  ever  since  its  organ- 
ization. She  is  an  active  member  of  the 
Methoilist  I'^piscopal  chui'ch,  has  been  officially 
connected  with  the  State  Suffrage  Clul)  and 
the  State  Federation  of  Clubs,  and  has  served 
as  president  of  the  National  Dorothea  Dix 
Memorial  Association  since  its  inauguration 
in  1899.  But  her  duties  as  president  are 
but  a  small  part  of  her  work  along  this  line. 
She  has  written,  spoken,  and  travelled,  ai'- 
ranged  fairs,  interested  ])eople  to  contribute, 
and  has  appeared  in  Congress  to  plead  sjiecially 
for  an  appropriation  toward  erecting  a  monu- 
ment to  the  memory  of  Miss  Dix. 

A  comprehensive  volume,  entitled  "Mothers 
of  Maine,"  bears  Mrs.  Beedy's  name  upon 
the  title-page.  The  compilation  of  facts  was 
a  long  but  delightful  task  to  her,  and  so  well 
did  she  succeed  in  her  work  that  this  history 
of  remarkable  Maine  women  covers  a  period 
of  more  than  two  centuries. 

Thus  author,  educator,  lecturer,  phihinthro- 
pist,   may   all   be   written   after  Mrs.   I^eedy's 


name.  And  t(j  such  as  know  her  there  will 
come  to  mind  unwritten  achievements  of 
daily  life  which  stand  for  true  courage  and 
integrity. 

Note. — As  this  article  was  about  to  go  to  press,  we 
received  the  news  of  Mrs.  Beedy's  death,  which  oc- 
curred June  14,  1904. 


MARY  (T.ARA  WARE  KIRBY.— The 
\\'are  family,  to  which  Mrs.  Kirby 
ijelongs,  has  been  represented  in 
Massachusetts  nearly  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years.  Its  founder  in  this  coun- 
try Was  Robert  \\'are,  who  came  from  Devon, 
England,  in  1664.  He  was  given  a  grant  of 
land  in  Dedham,  and  two  years  later  was 
made  "freeman."  A  man  of  imi)t)rtance  in  the 
connnunity,  the  second  largest  tax-payer  in 
the  town,  and  a  member  of  the  artillery  com- 
pany, he  was  a  good  neighbor,  a  kind  husband 
and  father.  He  died  in  1698.  His  will,  drawn 
tlie  year  previous,  shows  more  than  usual  jus- 
tice and  thoughtfulness  toward  the  wife  he  was 
leaving  to  the  care  of  his  children.  The 
breadth  of  vision  and  mental  strength  of  this 
their  first  American  ancestor  .seem  to  have  been 
transmitted  in  large  degree  to  his  ilescendants. 
In  1775  Joseph  ^^'are,  a  great-grandson  of 
the  innnigrant,  was  one  of  the  soldiers  hi  Ar- 
nokl's  famous  expedition  against  Quebec,  and 
won  promotion  for  his  bravery.  His  Journal 
of  the  Expedition  (published  in  1884  by  Joseph 
Ware,  of  Needham,  a  great-grandson)  is 
historically  valuable,  containing  among  other 
data  a  complete  list  of  the  Americans  killed, 
wounded,  and  taken  prisoners  on  the  fateful 
day  of  December  31,  1775. 

l^nitarian  for  generations  in  their  religious 
preferences,  the  Wares  have  numbered  in  their 
ranks  many  distinguished  clergymen  and 
scholars.  Ralph  A\'are,  a  great-grandson  of 
the  Revolutionary  hero  and  the  father  of  the 
subject  of  this  .sketch,  was  of  the  liberal  school 
of  thought,  and  when  he  married  Mary  Jordan, 
the  daughter  of  an  English  rniversalist  clergy- 
man, it  is  small  woiuler  that  in  their  home  all 
matters  of  advanced  thought  and  scientific 
research  should  have  been  given  im]nirtial  con- 
sideration. 


274 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


There  were  nine  chiklren,  seven  living  to 
attain  their  majority,  yet  the  mother  could 
always  find  time  to  help  a  neighbor  or  friend 
in  illness  or  distress,  and  her  house  was  at  all 
times  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  troubled  and 
weary.  She  finished  her  work  here,  as  her 
well-rounded  life,  patterned  after  that  of  Him 
who  "went  about  doing  good,"  came  to  an 
earthly  close  late  in  the  year  of  1893;  but 
its  influence  can  never  be  calculated,  nor  will 
it  ever  cease  to  be. 

Of  such  parentage  was  born  Mary  Clara 
Ware  in  Dorchester,  Mass.  As  the  eldest  of 
four  sisters,  she  was  always  ready  to  give 
assistance  to  the  younger,  and  at  school  the 
unfortunate  found  in  her  a  friend  quick  to 
sympathize,  with  a  judgment  far  beyond  her 
years.  The  timid  little  ones  sought  lier  hand 
for  protection,  the  slow  ones  brought  the  prob- 
lems they  could  not  solve,  and  the  friend- 
less looked  toward  her,  sure  of  a  smile.  So 
even  and  true  was  she,  and  still  is,  that  some 
one  who  has  known  Mrs.  Kirby  all  her  life  said 
recently:  "Oh,  well!  It  is  no  effort  for  her 
to  be  afTable  and  kind.  She  never  seemed  to 
want  to  be  any  other  way."  But,  since  no 
life  is  free  from  its  trials,  and  as  every  heart 
knoweth  its  own  bitterness,  some  credit  is 
surely  due  this  woman  who  never  seemed  to 
want  to  be  anything  but  agreeable. 

The  spirit  of  humauitarianism  grew  with  her 
growth,  fostered  by  the  home  training,  and 
kept  with  her  when  she  entered  more  actively 
into  the  joys  antl  cares  of  life.  Ambition 
ruled  strongly,  and  the  pride  of  self-respect 
prompted  her  to  do  everything  well.  Possessed 
of  more  than  ordinary  business  ability,  she 
has  used  that  masculine  quality  most  success- 
fully, planning  with  the  "brain  of  a  man  and 
the  intuition  of  a  woman."  From  the  gratifi- 
cation of  self  in  the  enjoyments  of  social  life, 
which  claimed  her  attention,  she  grailually 
turned  to  the  higher  pleasure  of  giving  her  time 
and  energies  for  the  good  of  others. 

With  a  thirst  for  wisdom,  desirous  of  learning 
the  reason  of  things  and  finding  a  more  excel- 
lent way  of  life,  she  has  devoted  nmch  time 
and  thought  to  psychic  and  mystic  studies,  anil 
through  such  research  .she  feels  confident  that 
she  has  come  nearer  to  the  needs   of   human 


beings.  Her  eyes  have  been  opened  to  see  God's 
children  as  they  are,  and  yet  to  feel  that  it  is 
possil)le  for  them  to  become  in  truth  His  image 
and  likeness.  It  has  taught  her  to  see  tiie 
"good  in  everything  save  sin"  and  to  love  the 
sinner  while  condemning  and  rebuking  the 
transgression.  The  pure  and  literal  interpre- 
tation of  the  Christ  principle  has  become  her 
simple  but  comprehensive  creed,  and  the  com- 
mandment, "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens," 
a  daily  precept. 

On  August  2,  1886,  she  was  married  to 
Daniel  Henry  Kirby,  of  Boston.  Mr.  Kirby, 
until  his  death  (May  4,  1901)  was  a  reatly  sym- 
pathizer and  a  helper  in  all  her  work  for  others. 
His  only  solicitude  was  lest  enthusiasm  should 
be  in  excess  of  bodily  endurance,  the  willing 
spirit  make  too  serious  demand  upon  the  flesh, 
and  cut  .short  a  life  useful  to  others  and  dear  to 
him. 

In  the  fall  of  1894,  on  her  return  home,  after 
a  summer,  spent  rather  idly  for  her,  in  the  coun- 
try, where  the  daily  changes  were  an  object 
lesson  of  God  in  nature  and  a  continual  proof 
of  a  divine  hand  that  brought  in  turn  seed- 
time and  harvest,  Mrs.  Kirby  with  others 
helped  to  organize  and  form  the  Procojieia 
Club.  As  is  the  meaning  of  the  name,  the  object 
of  the  club  was  to  provide  for  the  needy  of  all 
classes  and  conditions  just  the  mental,  moral, 
physical,  and  spiritual  help  each  might  need 
— a  tremendous  undertaking,  and  not  en- 
tered into  lightly  nor  with  any  sjMrit  of  rivalry 
toward  the  already  established  charities,  either 
]iul)lic  or  private,  but  to  reach  by  the  personal 
aid  of  a  loving  haml  and  ilevoted  attention 
those  who  were  repelled  by  the  idea  of  alms- 
taking. 

The  society's  rooms  were  on  St.  Botolph 
Street,  Boston,  and  there  every  day  in  the  week 
from  eleven  .\.m.  until  three  p.m.  Mrs.  Kirby 
might  be  found,  giving  a  willing  ear  and  thought- 
ful attention  to  all  sorts  of  people  asking  all 
sorts  of  aid.  All  this  time  and  thought  were 
given  freely  on  her  part,  but  with  what 
a  cost  to  her  .sympathies  and  nerve  tissue,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  whole  body  physical!  None 
were  ever  turned  away  unhelped,  though  many 
were  not  given  exactly  what  they  asked  for; 
for  the  plan  of  the  society  was  to  study  the 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


275 


individual  imd  prescribe  for  his  need  rather 
than  to  his  wants.  Many  a  poor  creature,  dis- 
couraged and  heart-sick,  as  well  as  miserably 
poor  of  this  world's  goods,  could  testify  to  the 
ministration  to  both  bodily  and  spiritual  needs; 
and  scores  in  want  of  employment  or  perhaps 
unfitted  to  their  present  employment  could  tell 
of  a  changed  burden,  that  from  its  lightness 
and  because  it  better  fitted  their  shoulders 
seemed  no  burden  at  all.  To  bring  the  mind 
of  man  in  accord  with  Gad's  great  plans  for  the 
human  race,  and  thus  bring  the  universe  in 
concord  with  the  Creator,  is  the  tremendous 
aim  of  those  who  planned  the  Procopeia  Club. 

In  1895  "Mrs.  Helen  \an  Anderson,  seeking 
to  establish  a  new  and  unsectarian  church, 
afterwanl  named  by  Professor  Trine  the  Church 
of  the  Higher  Life,  came  to  Mrs.  Kirby  for  the 
executive  aid  she  felt  that  lady  was  capable 
of  giving.  It  was  incorporated  the  same 
year,  with  Mrs.  Kirby  as  its  president.  Later 
a  service  was  held  in  Allen  Hall,  ordaining 
and  installing  with  impressive  ceremony  Mrs. 
Van  Anderson  as  its  minist(>r,  among  the  clergy- 
men to  officiate  being  the  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage, 
the  Rev.  Antoinette  Blackwell,  and  others  of 
note. 

With  all  this  puljlic  work  Mrs.  Kirby  still 
founil  time  to  attend  to  'social  duties,  to 
be  at  home  to  her  friends,  antl  to  put  her 
thoughts  on  paper  in  the  form  of  essays  and 
poems.  These,  published  as  the  result  of  her 
experiences  in  philanthropic  work,  brought  to 
her  a  huge  correspondence  in  the  shape  of 
questions  and  requests  for  spiritual  aid,  and 
entailetl  an  impossible  amount  of  writing.  This 
also  provetl  even  more  conclusively,  if  that  weie 
necessary,  that  a  great  number  of  people  were 
reaching  out  for  a  strength  and  hope  they 
longed  for,  but  did  not  know  how  to  obtain. 
Under  each  question,  beneath  every  inquiry, 
was  the  spirit  of  unrest — a  lack  of  conununion 
and  understanding  of  God's  plans  for  his  creat- 
ures. How  was  that  cry  to  be  answered,  and 
those  needs,  how  were  they  to  be  met  ? 

The  Faith  and  Hope  Fund,  planned  by  Mrs. 
Kirby,  was  a  step  in  the  right  (lirection.  It  ac- 
complished enough  to  lead  to  tlie  present 
Faith  and  Hope  Association,  formed  in  Sep- 
tember, 1896,  and  incorporated  in  October  of 


the  same  year.  The  present  home  of  the  asso- 
ciation is  at  the  new  Boylston  Chambers, 
Boylston  Street,  Boston.  Mrs.  Kirby  is  its 
president,  assisted  by  a  board  of  directors. 

Perhaps  no  better  idea  of  the  work  can  be 
given  than  in  the  words  of  the  president  her- 
self, dedicated  to  the  association  and  i.ssued 
Christmas,  1901:— 

"  Love  thouglits  on  angels'  wings  do  fly 
Forever  through  the  azure  sky. 
With  Faith  they  touch  the  hearts  of  all, 
While  Hope  awakens  at  their  call. 

"  Love  will  redeem  and  set  aside 
All  prejudice,  thus  open  wide 
The  door  of  sunshine  and  of  peace, 
To  bid  unrest  forever  cease. 

"  For  Ixjve,  which  is  Life's  golden  key, 
Heljis  to  unlock  all  mystery  ; 
While  Truth  will  ever  point  the  way, 
If  Love  we  have  as  guest  alway. 

"  Faith,  Hope,  and  Love  will  guide  us  on, 
Until  the  victory  we  have  won. 
Discouraged  thoughts  we'll  bid  away, 
That  happier  ones  may  come  to  stay. 

"  So  let  us  all  in  love  unite 
Through  harmony,  with  music  bright. 
We'll  lift  the  souls  now  sick  and  sad. 
And  manv  wearv  hearts  make  glad." 


The  motto  of  the  .society  is,  "  Love  conquers 
the  world,"  ami  the  organizers  of  the  Faith  and 
Hope  Association  are  putting  heart  and  soul 
into  the  work  of  such  branches  as  have  alreaily 
been  established.  They  do  not  "beg"  for  their 
charities,  but  state  the  case,  and  feel  confident 
that  the  case  will  recommend  itself. 

Sin  antl  want  are  the  foes  they  propose  to 
fight  and  comiuer — sin  of  any  kind,  and  want 
in  whatever  'nature  it  manifests  itself.  It  is 
often  want  of  proper  knowledge  that  plunges 
the  soul  over  its  first  moral  precipice.  Igno- 
rance of  the  laws  of  nature  is  sin  to  the  third 
and  fourth  generation. 

Like  the  Procopeia  Club,  the  Faith  and  Hope 
Association  enileavors  to  fit  the  needy  to  the 
neeil.  The  rooms  of  tlie  as.sociation  at  Christ- 
mas time  resemble  nothing  so  much  as  the 
home   of   a   Santa   Clans   determined    to   give 


276 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


every  one  some  useful  ami  desirable  present; 
and,  though  the  number  reaches  up  into  the 
lunidreds,  more  could  and  would  be  given,  were 
there  more  to  give.  Besides  this,  hospitals, 
prisons,  antl  reformatory  institutions  are  re- 
membered with  boxes,  and  on  holidays  bands  of 
singers  and  entertainers  are  sent  to  bring  behinil 
the  gates  of  these  places  a  share  of  the  joy  that 
pervades  the  outside  world.  At  the  Easter  sea- 
son, also,  the  message  of  the  resurrection,  borne 
by  beautiful  flowers,  is  carried  into  hospitals  and 
homes. 

The  association,  knowing  that  the  affairs 
of  city  and  State  will  -some  day  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  lioys  now  being  brought  up,  and  some 
of  them  under  wrong  influences,  are  going  out 
into  the  highways  and  hetlges  to  find  the  neg- 
lected and  those  under  vicious  and  unhealthy 
moral  conditions,  and  are  trying  by  means  of 
pleasant  allurements  of  boyish  sports  and 
healthy  games  to  secure  their  attention  and  win 
them  to  ways  of  virtue. 

A  floiwisliing  sewing  society  is  maintained  in 
connection  with  the  association,  and  hundreds 
of  warm  garments  are  made  each  year  antl  dis- 
tributed. Homes  have  been  found  in  institu- 
tions foi'  those  having  moral  or  ])hysical  neetls, 
and  judicious  loans  have  been  matle  to  meet 
pressing  demands.  All  this  work,  however,  has 
been  made  subservient  to  spiritual  needs,  and 
the  chief  aim  has  been  to  show  that  a  right  use 
of  spiritual  gifts  will  !)reclude  much  of  the 
physical  suffering  of  the  world.  All  the  ofh- 
cers  of  the  association,  it  may  here  be  said,  are 
working  for  the  love  of  doing  good,  there  being 
no  salaries. 

No  pen  portrait  of  Mrs.  Kirby  could  convey 
to  those  unacquainted  with  her  any  idea  of 
the  personality  that  wins  and  keeps  her  many 
friends. 

The  Spanish  have  a  maxim  that  he  who  eats 
fruit,  and  does  not  plant  the  seed,  is  ungrate- 
ful to  the  generation  before  him,  and  deals 
unjustly  toward  those  who  follow.  In  the 
great  garden  of  God's  world  some  sow,  never 
expecting  to  reai):  and,  judged  by  the  standard 
of  the  Spanish  maxim,  a  sower  like  Mrs.  Kirljy 
is  fulfilling  her  duty  to  both  the  generation 
before  and  to  those  who  follow  her. 

.John  II.  Guttkuson. 


MABEL  LOOMIS  TODD,  author  and 
lecturer,  the  wife  of  Professor  David 
P.  TocUl,  of  Amherst  College,  was 
born  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  the  only 
child  of  Eben  Jenks  and  Mary  Alden  (Wilder) 
Loomis. 

Her  first  American  ancestor  on  her  father's 
side  was  Joseph'  Loomis,  who  came  from  Brain- 
tree,  Englantl,  in  1638,  and  settled  at  Windsor, 
Conn.,  in  1640.  The  sixth  ancestor  in  that 
line  was  her  father's  grandfather,  the  Rev. 
Josiah"  Loomis,  of  Stafford,  Coim.,  and  Ashfield, 
Mass. 

Her  maternal  grandparents  were  the  Rev. 
.John  Wilder,  Jr.,'  and  his  wife,  Mary  Wales 
Folies  Jones.  The  Rev.  John  Wilder,  Sr.," 
(Dartmouth  College,  1784),  her  great-grand- 
father, was  for  many  years  minister  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  in  Attleboro,  Mass.  His 
wife,  Esther  Tyler,  was  daughter  of  Colonel 
Sanmel  Tyler,  of  Preston,  Conn.,  a  Revolution- 
ary officer  of  note.  The  Wilder  line  is  traced 
back  through  Jonas,^^  John,^^  to  Thomas' 
Wilder,  who  became  a  member  of  the  church  in 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  in  1640,  and  some  years 
later  removed  to  Lancaster,  Mass.  (See  book 
of  the  Wilders.) 

The  Rev.  John  Wilder,  Jr.'  (Brown  L'ni.'er- 
sity,  182.3),  was  settled  in  1833  as  pastor  of  the 
Trinitarian  Congregational  Church  in  Concord, 
Mass.,  where  he  remained  six  years.  Three 
fine  elms  still  standing  in  front  of  the  old  par- 
sonage in  Concord  were  pl.anted  by  him,  one 
for  each  of  his  three  children.  He  died  in  1844. 
His  wife,  Mary,  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Loomis 
and  grandmother  of  Mi's.  Todd,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Nehemiah  and  Polly  (Alden)  Jones,  of 
Raynham,  Mass. 

Through  the  last  named  ancestor  Mrs.  Todd 
is  a  tlescendant  in  the  ninth  generation  of  John 
Alden,  who  as  proxy  for  Myles  Standish  wooed 
Priscilla  Mullins,  "the  Mayflower  of  Plymouth" 
in  the  poet's  talk,  and  won  her  for  himself. 
The  line  from  John  and  Priscilla  continued 
through  their  son  Joseph,^  who  married  Mary 
Simmons;  John,'  married  Hannah  White;  Jo- 
seph,^ married  Hannah  Hall;  Ebenezer,'^  mar- 
ried Ruth  Fobes;  Polly  (or  Mary),"  married  Ne- 
hemiah Jones;  Mary  Wales  Fobes,'  married  the 
Rev.  John   \\'ilder,  Jr.;    Mary   Alden   AVilder," 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


277 


married  Eben  Jenks  Looini.s;  to  their  daughter, 
Mabel"  Loomis  Todtl. 

Eben  Jenks  Loomis  was  ecUicated  in  the 
Lawrence  Scientific  School,  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. When  a  young  man,  he  entered  upon  the 
active  duties  of  his  chosen  profession,  as  an 
astronomer  in  the  office  of  the  Nautical  Alma- 
nac  at  Cambridge.  The  office  a  few  years  later 
being  removed  to  Washmgton,  D.C.,  he  went 
with  it,  and  in  the  United  States  Naval  Obser- 
vatory hcUl  the  position  of  Senior  Assistant, 
American  Ephemeris,  for  forty  years,  tendering 
his  resignation  in  1900,  after  rounding  out  a 
half-century  of  astronomical  service.  In  1889 
Professor  Loomis  was  a  member  of  the  United 
States  eclipse  expedition  to  the  west  coast  of 
Africa.  He  is  the  author  of  a  volume  of  "  W^ay- 
side  Sketches,"  1894;  "An  Eclipse  Party," 
1896;  and  a  l^ook  of  poems,  recently  published. 
With  Mrs.  Loomis  he  is  passing  the  present 
winter  (1903-1904)  in  her  native  town,  Con- 
cord, Mass.  His  own  birthplace  was  Oppen- 
heim,  N.Y. 

The  education  of  Mabel  Loomis,  received 
largely  at  the  Georgetown  Seminary,  was  sup- 
plemented by  two  or  three  years'  study  in  Bos- 
ton, her  special  attention  being  given  to  Ger- 
man* painting,  and  music,  vocal  and  instru- 
mental, inchuling  a  thorough  course  in  har- 
mony under  Stephen  A.  Emery.  After  spend- 
ing one  winter  in  the  gay  society  of  Washington, 
she  was  married  March  5,  1879,  to  David  P. 
Todd,  then  connected  with  the  Unitetl  States 
Naval  Observatory  in  that  city.  Soon  after- 
ward Mr.  Todd  received  a  call  to  the  chair  of 
astronomy  in  Amherst  College  (his  Alma 
Mater),  being  made  director  of  its  observatory 
and  also  professor  of  the  higlier  mathematics  at 
Smith  College. 

Mrs.  Todd  has  always  taken  nmch  interest 
in  her  husband's  work.  In  1887  and  again  in 
1896  she  accompanied  him  to  Japan  to  observe 
the  eclipses  of  the  sun.  The  second  eclipse 
they  viewed  from  Yezo,  the  most  northern 
island  of  the  empire.  Here,  in  a  little  fishing 
village  bordering  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk,  she  made 
a  study  of  the  Ainu,  tlie  barbarian  aborigines 
of  Japan,  in  a  region  never  before  visited  by 
a  foreign  woman.  She  made  a  collection  of 
their  utensils,  garments,  and  ornaments,  for  the 


Peabody  Musemn  in  Salem.  In  the  spring  of 
1900  she  joined  the  Professor  at  Tripoli,  in 
Barbary,  whither  he  had  gone  to  observe  the 
sun's  eclipse  of  May  28.  Early  in  1901  Profes- 
sor and  Mrs.  Todd,  this  time  accompanied  by 
their  daughter,  Millicent,  then  a  stu<lent  at 
\'assar  College,  sailed  for  Singapore,  afterward 
locating  the  Amherst  College  Eclipse  Expedi- 
tion on  the  island  of  Singkep^  in  the  Dutch 
East  Indies,  where  the  phenomenon  was  ob- 
sei-ved  on  May  18.  Trips  were  made  later  to 
Siam  and  Borneo,  and  several  weeks  were  spent 
in  the  Philippines,  where  with  General  Corbin 
they  made  a  tour  of  the  archipelago.  A  visit 
to  China,  a  third  visit  to  Japan,  and  a  short 
stay  at  the  Hawaiian  Islands  completed  the 
circuit  of  the  globe  for  this  expedition.  Mrs 
Todd  has  contributed  many  articles  to  the  Na- 
tion, the  Outlook,  St.  Nicholas,  the  Century,  and 
other  magazines.  "  Footprints,"  her  first  book, 
was  publishetl  in  1883.  In  1890  she  edited  the 
first  volume  of  the  posthumous  poems  of  Emily 
Dickinson,  which  met  with  instant  success,  and 
in  1891  she  edited  a  second  volume.  In  1894 
slie  edited  two  volumes  of  Miss  Dickinson's 
letters,  and  also  published  a  volume  upon  "Total 
Eclipses  of  the  Sun,"  the  only  standard  popular 
work  upon  that  subject.  In  the  autumn  of 
1896  a  third  volume  of  Emily  Dickinson's  poems, 
as  well  as  "A  Cycle  of  Sonnets"  by  an  anony- 
mcjus  author,  appearetl  under  her  editorship. 

In  1898  appeared,  published  by  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  "Corona  and  Coronet,"  a  narra- 
tive of  the  unique  yachting  trip  to  Japan  in 
search  of  the  eclipse  of  1896.  Her  revised  ver- 
sion of  Steele's  "  Fourteen  Weeks  in  Astronomy  " 
was  published  in  1900. 

"  Mrs.  Todd,"  as  well  remarked  by  one  who 
speaks  not  idly,  "is  a  woman  of  many  talents. 
A  student  of  art  and  science,  she  is  also  a  viva- 
cious and  attractive  speaker,  welcome  every- 
where on  the  platform,  as  in  society."  Each 
season  for  several  years  she  has  given  more 
than  fifty  drawing-room  talks,  and  addresses  in 
halls,  churches,  schools,  and  club  parlors,  upon 
subjects  coimected  with  popular  astronomy, 
Japan  in  various  aspects,  the  Ainu,  the  Hawai- 
ian Islands,  Siam,  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  the 
PhilipjMnes,  the  Alhambra,  Carthage,  the  Ober- 
ammcrgau  Passion  Play,  Tripoli,  and  on  other 


278 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


topics,  many  of  her  lectures  being  profusely 
illustrated  with  stereopticon  slides.  Among  the 
clubs  ;ui(l  colleges,  more  than  ohe  hundred  in 
number,  before  which  she  has  spoken,  a  few 
may  bo  mentioned,  merely  to  show  the  eccen- 
tricity of  her  comet-like  wanderings:  the  New 
England  Women's  Club  and  Appalachian,  of 
Boston;  Century  Club,  San  Francisco;  Woman's 
Club,  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt.;  Kosmos  Club,  Wake- 
field, Mass.;  New  Century  Club,  Philadelphia; 
A^'oman's  Club,  Waterbury,  Conn. ;  Rhode 
Island  Woman's  Club,  Providence;  Contempo- 
rary Club,  Trenton,  N.J.;  the  Fortnightly,  Bath, 
Me.;  Va'^sar  College;  Amherst  College;  Adelbert 
College  (Cleveland,  Ohio) ;  and  Bryn  Mawr. 
Mrs.  Todd  does  not  care  for  the  kind  of  activity 
involved  in  holding  official  positions  of  any 
kind,  and  never  accepts  one  without  genuine 
protest.  She  has  served  as  one  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Committee  of  the  General  Federation 
of  W^omen's  Clubs,  for  three  years  as  a  director 
in  .the  Massachusetts  State .  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs,  and  in  other  places  of  respon- 
sibility in  connection  with  club  work.  She  is 
now  Regent  of  the  Mary  Mattoon  Chapter, 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  and 
President  of  the  Amherst  Historical  Society. 


OlAYE  E.  DANA  has  won  an  enviable 
reputation  as  story-teller,  essayist,  antl 
poet.  Her  first  published  article  ap- 
peared in  1S77.  "Untler  Friendly 
Eaves"  is  a  volume  of  short  stories,  revealing 
the  natural  and  wholesome  atmosphere  and 
at  the  same  time  the  romantic  and  heroic 
spirit  which  pervade  the  true  New  England 
life.  This  book,  as  one  reviewer  has  fitly  said, 
"brings  the  reader  into  ]ileasant  places  and 
among  honest  'kintra'  folk  of  the  sterling 
kind  such  as  may  be  found  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts with  which  Mrs.  Stowe  first  began  to 
make  us  familiar."  Through  Miss  Dana's 
character  sketches  the  reader  is  introduced 
to  genuine  country  and  village  people;  and,  if 
the  crabbed,  miserly  old  man  and  the  melan- 
choly and  morbid  woman  occasionally  appear, 
they  are  portrayed  as  exceptions,  not  as  types. 
The  iiifluenc(>  of  her  stories,  imbu(»d  as  they 
are   with    the   spirit   of   cheery   helpfulness,   is 


eimobling  and  ui)lifting.  Many  of  her  stories 
are  for  children  and  young  people.  In  ad- 
dition to  her  rare  gifts  as  a  story-teller.  Miss 
Dana  jiossesses  the  poet's  instinct  and  power 
of  interjM'etation.  Her  publi.shed  verses,  among 
them  being  such  poems  as  "The  Summons," 
"  I'vXplanation,"  "For  Light,"  "Shakespeare's 
Day,"  and  "It  Always  Comes,"  which  di.sclose 
a  deep  spiritual  insight  into  nature  and 
humanity,  have  been  widely  copied.  Miss 
Dana  has  also  contributed  to  the  Journal  of 
Education,  and  other  similar  publications,  ar- 
ticles which,  with  her  critical  and  literary  es- 
says and  her  able  and  discriminating  V)ook 
reviews,  disclose  a  scholarly  and  cultured  mind, 
originality  of  thought,  and  the  keen  instinct  of 
the  critic. 

In  her  literary  work,  as  well  as  in  her  per- 
sonal character,  Miss  Dana  shows  her  rich 
New  England  heritage.  There  have  been  nu- 
merous instances  in  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try which  prove  that  literary  al)ility  is  the 
])roduct.  not  alone  of  individual  talent,  but 
also  of  family  inheritance;  and,  in  view  of  this 
un(|uestione(l  fact.  Miss  Dana  comes  right- 
fully by  her  mental  strength  and  versatility 
of  talent.  She  is  a  direct  descendant  of  Rich- 
ard Dana,  whose  name  appears  upon  the  rec- 
ords of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1640,  and  who 
was  the  founder  of  a  family  which  has  con- 
tributed in  a  marked  degree  to  the  social, 
literary,  and  political  advancement  of  our 
country.  Patriots,  soldiers,  preachers,  edi- 
tors, authors,  scientists,  college  [iresidents  and 
professors,  are  all  found  in  the  annals  of  the 
family  bearing  the  old  and  honored  name  of 
Dana. 

The  immigrant  Dana  was  of  English  birth; 
but  it  is  believed  that  there  was  a  strain  of 
French  blood  in  his  family,  and  this  may  have 
given  to  the  Danas  something  of  the  vivacity 
and  brilliancy  which  is  noted  in  the  work  of 
many  authors  who  have  French  as  well  as 
English  blood  in  their  veins.  It  is  certain 
that,  with  all  those  stanch  and  heroic  qualities 
which  have  made  the  Danas  eminent  for  gen- 
erations, the  members  of  this  family  have  also 
inherited  an  intellectual  brilliancy  which  has 
made  them  a  recognized  power  in  our  civic 
and    literary    history.     It    is    therefore    but   a 


HARRIET  W.  FOSTER 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


279 


natural  and  happy  result  that  the  subject  of 
this  sketch  should  have  entered  upon  her 
life  work  endowed  with  those  mental  qualifi- 
cations by  the  cultivation  of  whicli  she  has 
developed  into  a  versatile  and  charming  writer. 
But  she  is  not  indebted  to  the  Danas  alone  for 
her  inheritance. 

Her  great-grandfather,  Phineas  Dana,  a 
descendant  of  Joseph  Dana,  the  second  son 
of  the  original  Richard,  settled  in  Oxford, 
Mass.  He  married  Mehitabel  AVolcott,  of  that 
town,  daughter  of  Josiah^  Wolcott  (Henry,' 
of  Windsor,  Conn.)  and  his  wife  Isabella, 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Campbell.  This 
eminent  divine,  who  for  forty  years  was  be- 
loved anil  revered  as  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Oxford,  Mass.,  where  many  traditions  of  his 
scholarship  and  godly  character  still  remain, 
was  a  native  of  Scotland  and  ■  a  graduate  of 
Edinburgh  University.  An  early  ancestor  of 
Miss  Dana's  on  the  maternal  side  was  Major 
Thomas  Savage,  who  came  from  England  to 
Boston  in  1633,  ami  who  was  the  founder  of 
a  family  distinguished  by  integrity,  inilustry, 
great  determination,  and  unusual  physical 
endurance.  Of  this  typical  New  England 
stock  was  James  Savage,  one  of  the  earliest 
and  most  prominent  settlers  of  Augusta,  Me. 
His  wife,  Eliza  Bickford,  of  Alton,  N.H.,  is 
still  remembered  as  a  woman  of  devout  thought 
and  benignant  presence.  Sarah  W.  Savage, 
the  daughter  of  James  and  Eliza  Bickford 
Savage,  married  James  Wolcott  Dana,  and 
became  the  mother  of  Olive  E.  Dana,  who 
was  born  in  Augusta,  December  24,  1859. 

With  her  refined  and  charming  personality, 
her  forceful  and  sympathetic  character,  and 
her  remarkalale  mental  endowments,  Miss  Dana 
has  exerted  a  wide  infiuence  in  her  large  circle 
of  friends  and  among  the  many  reatlers  whom 
she  has  never  .seen.  During  the  last  twenty 
years,  while  constantly  contributing  to  the 
press,  Miss  Dana  has  generously  given  of  her 
time  and  ability  to  all  good  works.  She  has 
been  interested  and  active  in  the  church  and 
in  the  philanthropic  and  educational  move- 
ments of  the  day.  She  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Current  Events  Club  of  Augusta,  and 
was  for  two  years  its  honored  and  efficient 
president.     She   has   also   been   a   member   of 


Unity  Club;  and  one  of  her  most  beautiful 
poems,  "The  Laggard  Land,"  was  written  for 
a  Ixinquet  of  this  old  and  well-known  literary 
society. 


HARRIET  W^OOD  FOSTER,  second 
daughter  of  the  late  David  Wood 
Foster,  formerly  a  well-known  and 
public-spirited  citizen  of  this  city, 
and  his  wife,  Sarah  E.  Abbott,  was  born  in 
Boston,  as  were  most  of  her  ancestors  for  sev- 
eral generations.  On  the  paternal  side  she  is 
descended  from  Hopestill  Foster  (son  of  Rich- 
ard Foster,  of  Biddenden,  County  Kent,  Eng- 
land), who  arrived  at  Dorchester,  Mass.,  with 
his  mother,  Mrs.  Patience  Bigg  Foster,  in  1635. 
The  name  of  Hopestill  Foster  appears  on  the 
Dorchester  records  of  many  years,  he  serving 
as  Treasurer,  Selectman,  Deputy  to  the 
General  Court,  and  commissioner  for  small 
causes. 

John  Foster,  one  of  his  sons,  was  graduated 
from  Harvard  College  in  1667,  excelling  in  math- 
ematics. In  1675  he  established  the  first 
printing-press  in  Boston.  He  compiled  an 
almanac  for  that  year,  which  was  printed  by 
Samuel  Green,  and  he  was  author  and  printer 
of  the  Boston  Almanacs  for  1676-81.  He  also 
made  the  seal  of  the  colony.  He  died  in  1681, 
and  his  gravestone,  bearing  a  curious  device, 
can  still  be  seen  in  the  old  cemetery  at  Up- 
ham's  Corner,  Dorchester.  He  left  no  chil- 
dren. 

Miss  Foster's  paternal  grandfather,  John 
Hancock  Foster,  son  of  Hopestill  Foster  of  the 
fourth  generation  (Hopestill,^  James^)  and  his 
wife  Susan,  daughter  of  David  Wood,  was 
born  in  a  house  that  formerly  stood  at  the 
south-east  corner  of  Hollis  and  Washington 
Streets,  Boston,  which  he  afterward  inherited. 
In  this  house,  in  1814,  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Elizabeth  Allen,  of  Boston,  and  within  its  walls 
both  he  and  his  wife  died.  The  property  was 
]xn'chased  from  Governor  Belcher  over  two 
hundred  years  ago,  and  is  still  in  the  posses- 
sion of  John  Hancock  Foster's  heirs.  In  this 
house  was  held  the  first  meeting  relative  to 
the  formation  of  the  Hollis  Street  Church. 

On  the  maternal  side  Miss  Foster  claims  de- 


280 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


scent  from  Matthew  I.oring,  who  in  DecenilxT, 
1773,  assisted  in  throwing  tlie  ten  from  tiie 
Hritish  ships  into  Boston  Harlior.  Mattliew 
Loring  (Hed  in  1N29,  and  was  l)in'ied  in  the  Old 
(iranary  Craveyard  on  Troinont  Street.  His 
wife  was  a  memliei'  of  one  of  the  Bhike  famiUes 
of  Boston.  Their  daughter,  Hannah  Bhike 
Loring,  married  Tlieodore  Abbot,  and  was  tlie 
motiier  of  nine  eliil(h-en,  one  of  them  Ix'ing 
Sarali  K.,  who  married  DaA'id  Wood  l''oster. 
Mrs.  Foster  and  lier  ihiugh.ters,  Sarah  Iv  and 
Harriet  W.  Foster,  live  in  the  south  part  of  the 
eity,  in  the  house  wliieh  has  been  their  home 
for  tiiirty  years.  In  this  aliode  is  much  to  please 
the  eye  and  ear,  for  both  the  father  and  mother 
were  nuisieal  and  lovecl  the  beautiful,  as  do 
their  daughters. 

Miss  I'"oster  is  nuieh  iidei'csted  in  musie,  is 
a  painter  of  considerable  note,  also  an  author, 
something  of  a  club  woman,  and  member  of 
various  societies,  of  which,  i)erhaps,  Ium'  favor- 
ite ones  are  the  i^ostonian,  of  which  she  is  a 
life  meml)er,  the  Massachusetts  Society  for 
the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  of 
which  also  she  is  a  life  member,  and  the 
Actors'  Church  Alliance.  Her  heart  is  large, 
and  can  hold  a  great  deal,  as  her  friends 
will  testify.  She  is  never  happier  than  when 
doing  something  for  others.  It  was  through 
jier  kind  solicitude,  a  lunnber  of  years  ago, 
that  seats  were  ])rovided  beliind  store  counters 
for  the  salesgirls.  Though  nevcn-  having  taken 
active  part  in  the  mo\'emeiit,  she  is  a  stanch 
woman  suffragist,  and  believes  in  the  rights 
of  the  eilucated  woman  of  tf)-day.  Of  a  re- 
tiring natiu'c  and  always  remaining  somewhat 
in  tlie  background,  she  is  a  true-hearted  Amer- 
ican,  anil   interested   in   everv  good   cause. 


HA  U  R  1 1']  T  P  1']  A  S  L  !■;  K  S  1  .M  P  S  ( )  \, 
vice-president-general  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution, 
is  the  wife  of  (ireenlief  Wadleigh 
Sim|)son,  of  Brookline,  Mass.,  and  a  woman 
of  prominence  in  jihilaidhropic  and  patriotic 
woi'k  of  Boston.  She  claims  Maine  as  her 
native  State,  her  birthplace  being  the  towMi 
of  .lefferson,  f.incoh\  Coimty.  Her  parents 
were     Alden     Bradfoid     and     lOmiiv    (Ililton) 


Chancy.  Her  first  Chaney  (or  Cheney)  an- 
cestor in  America  was  John  Cheney,  who  came 
fi-om  iMigland  in  1635,  settled  in  Newbury, 
Mass.,  and  died  in  1666.  The  line  of  descent 
is  through  his  son  Peter,''  born  in  1639;  John,^ 
born  May  10,  1666;  .John,^  born  in  1705; 
Ralph,''  born  in  (Jeorgetown,  Me.,  October  4,  . 
1750:  and  Ralph,"  born  in  Wiscasset,  Me., 
in  July,  1775. 

Ralph  Cheney  served  as  a  "private  in 
Captain  John  Blunt's  company:  service  from 
September  27,  1779,  to  November  10,  1779, 
one  month,  fifteen  days,  with  Major  William 
Lithgow's  detachment,  defending  frontiers  of 
Lincoln  County"  (''Massachusetts  Soldiers 
and  Sailors  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution," 
vol.  iii.). 

Alden  Bradford'  Chaney,  son  of  Ralph"  and 
father  of  Mrs.  Simpson,  was  born  in  Alna,  Me., 
in  August,  1816.  He  died  August  15,  1866,  in 
Savannah,  (ia.  He  was  a  captain  in  the 
merchant  marine  servic(>,  a  Whig  in  politics, 
and  a  Bajjfist  in  his  religious  belief.  His  wife, 
Emily  Hilton,  born  in  Jefferson,  Me.,  Febru- 
ary i,  1821,  died  in  Bath,  Me.,  September  19, 
1863.  She  was  the  daughter  of  James  and 
Harriet  (Hilton)  Hilton.  Her  parents  were 
married  in  May,  1820.  Her  father,  James 
Hilton,  died  in  London,  England,  February 
2,  1821;  and  her  mother  married  in  1822  his 
half-brother,  Reuel  Peaslee.  James  Hilton  and 
his  w-ife  were  both  descendants  in  the  seventh 
generation  of  William  Hilton,  who  came  over 
from  I'^ngland  in  the  ''Fortune,"  arriving  at 
Plymouth  in  November,  1621.  The  lines  of 
descent    were:    ^^'illiam,' ■ ''  Stilson,*    Samuel,'' 


John,"     James';     and     William, 


Captain 


James,''  Deacon  John,"  Harriet.' 

.lohn,"  born  in  Alna,  Me.,  in  1765,  son  of 
Sanuiel'^  and  his  wife,  Judith  Carter,  and 
father  of  .lames,'  mari'ied  Jane,  daughter  of 
Captain  Jame.s'  and  sister  of  Deacon  John" 
(born  in  1767),  who  married  Sally  Blunt  and 
was  fathei-  of  Harriet.'  From  this  it  appears 
that  James'  and  Harriet'  had  five  Hilton  an- 
cestors in  common,  namely,  the  four  A\'illiams 
and  Cai)tain  James.' 

William.'  the  immigrant,  died  in  York,  Me., 
in  1655  or  1656.  His  son,  William,'  a  mariner 
at    York,   died   about    1700.     William''   Hilton, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


2S1 


who  was  engaged  in  fisheries  and  tlic  coasting 
trade  at  Muscongus,  Me.,  and  Manchester, 
Mass.,  tUed  in  Manchester  in  1723.  He  married 
in  Marblehead,  in  1699,  Ahirgaret,  daugliter 
of  James  Stilson.  The  eldest  child  l)orn  of 
this  union  was  named  Stilson.  In  1723  Stilson 
Hilton  and  his  wife  Hannah  joined  the  churcli 
in  Marblehead.  Their  son,  Samuel,'  born  in 
Manchester,  Mass.,  in  1741,  died  at  Alna,  Me., 
in  1809. 

Samuel''  Hilton  was  in  Colonel  \\'illiani 
Allen's  regiment  and  afterward  in  Cajjtain 
Gidding's  company,  Colonel  Jonathan  Bag- 
ley's  regiment  of  provincial  troops,  raised  for 
the  invasioit-of  Canada  in  1759.  He  removed 
to  Alna,  Me.,  in  1763. 

In  the  Revolutionary  War  Samuel  Hilton 
served  as  private  in  Captain  Benjamin  Lc- 
niont's  company.  Colonel  Samuel  McCobl/s 
regiment,  and  in  Captain  John  Blunt's  com- 
pany, Colonel  Prim's  regiment,  under  Briga- 
dier General  Wadsworth  in  17.S().  Company 
raised  for  the  defence  of  Ivistern  Massachusetts. 
James  Hilton,  of  Bristol,  Me.,  was  chosen 
Captain  of  the  Seventh  Company  (Third 
Bristol)  of  the  Third  Lincoln  County  Regiment 
of  Massachusetts  militia,  and  was  commis- 
ioned  on  May  S,  1776,  as  ordered  in  covmcil. 
He  was  one  of  the  men  raised  to  serve  in  the 
Continental  army  from  the  Seventh  Company, 
Third  Lincoln  County  Regiment,  a<  returned 
by  said  Hilton,  Captain,  agreealile  to  order  of 
council,  November  7,  1777. 

The  marriage  of  Harriet  Peasley  Chaney 
and  Greenlief  A\'adleigh  Simpson  took  place 
May  29,  1866,  in  Bath,  Me.  Her  home  has 
since  been  in  Massachusetts.  Mrs.  Simpson 
is  a  graduate  of  the  public  .schools  of  Batli,  Me., 
including  the  high  school. 

Mr.  Simpson,  a  Boston  merchant,  was  born 
in  Alna,  Me.  He  is  a  lineal  descendiuit  of 
William'  Simpson,  of  Brunswick,  Me.  The 
following  is  a  brief  ancestral  record: — 

William'  Simpson  was  born  in  Scotland  in 
1691.  AMien  a  young  man  he  removed  to 
the  north  of  Ireland  with  his  wife,  Agnes 
Lewis,  and  their  small  children,  .^bout  the 
year  1728  he  came  to  America,  and  settled  at 
New  Wharf,  Brunswick,  Me.,  now  known  as 
Simpson's  Point.     About  seven  years  later  his 


wife  came  with  tlieir_  two  daughters,  .Mary 
and  Jane,  leaving  one  son,  David,  with  his 
uncle.  In  this  countiy  were  born  to  them  si.\ 
children — Sanmel,  William,  .Ir.,  Robert.  James. 
Lewis,  and  Josiah. 

Robert'  Simpson,  born  October  30,  1740, 
married  Margaret  Spear,  Jaiuiarv  19,  1769. 
He  married  a  second  wife,  .lane  Given,  ( )c- 
tober  25,  1783.  He  .settled  at  Balltown,  now 
Whitetield,  Me.  His  children  were:  Nancy, 
Mary,  Elizabeth,  Jane,  Margaret,  and  Robert, 
Jr.  I{()bert'  Simpson,  Ji'.,  married  Bertha 
Ford  and  had  ten  children — John,  Lewis, 
George,  Abner,  Nancy,  Mary,  Lydia.  Eliza- 
beth, Julia,  and  Abbie.  John^  Simpson 
married  Sophronia  Dole  m  July,  1839. 
They  had  four  children — Myrick.  (ireenlief  \\' .f' 
Hannah  E.,  and  Thomas  A. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Simpson  have  five  children  — 
Carohne  K.,  Clarence  W.,  Harry  J.,  Edna  H., 
and  Charles  F.  Their  residence  at  Brookline 
is  enriched  hy  many  art  treasures  collected 
during  their  visits  to  foreign  countries,  and 
also  by  many .  ancestral  relics,  among  them 
choice  pieces  of  furniture,  invaluable  for  age 
and  family  associations.  While  sincerely  d(>- 
voted  to  her  home  and  family,  Mrs.  Simpson, 
with  the  generous  co-operation  of  her  conge- 
ni;d  and  sympathizing  hu.sband,  has  been  able 
to  do  more  than  an  ordinary  amount  of  public 
work:  and  her  efforts  and  success  in  both 
walks  of  life  may  well  he  a  lesson  and  exam])l(' 
to  younger  women,  stalling  out  with  many 
im])ul.ses  and  untried  pui'poses. 

Mr.  ami  Mrs.  Simp.son  are  niend)ers  of  the 
Baptist  church,  and  have  labored  zealous!}' 
to  promote  its  influence  in  the  conimvmity. 
Mrs.  Simpson  is  one  of  the  five  ladies  on 
the  executive  board  of  the  Tremont  Tcnnple 
Church,  Boston.  She  has  been  for  many 
years  a  director  of  the  Benevolent  Society  of 
the  church  and  a  member  of  the  Home  and 
Foreign  Mission  Society'.  She  is  a  constant 
attendant  at  Tremont  Temple  Cluu'ch,  an 
active  working  member  of  its  various  char- 
ities and  .societies,  and  prominent  in  its  coun- 
cils. She  is  a  charter  member  and  director 
of  the  Baptist  Social  Cnion,  which  s])ecially 
appeals  to  her  kindly  nature,  as  the  aim  of 
the    society   is   the  encouragement    of   a   more 


282 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


friendly  interest  luul  association  among  Bap- 
tist women,  the  promotion  of  a  more  general 
Christian  fellowshi]!,  and  the  development  of 
larger  social  and  mental  qualities.  She  is 
a  charter  member  and  trustee  of  the  Home  for 
the  Aged  in  Somerville,  a  director  of  the  Bap- 
tist Home  in  Cambridge,  a  member  of  the 
Benevolent  Social  Union  of  the  Union  Scjuare 
Baptist  Church  of  Somerville,  of  the  Somerville 
Hospital  Association,  of  the  Associated  Charities 
of  Somerville,  and  associated  member  of  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  of  Bos- 
ton and  Somerville.  She  gives  her  name, 
money,  and  influence  to  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  to  the  Helping 
Hand  Society,  and  the  Charity  Club  of  Boston. 
Her  latest  philanthropic  work,  and  one  in 
which  her  heart  is  deeply  interested,  and  to 
which  she  has  given  herself  without  stint,  is 
the  Somerville  Day  Nursery,  of  which  she  is 
one  of  the  founders,  being  also  a  vice-presi- 
dent. 

While  Mrs.  Simpson  finds  her  most  conge- 
nial work  in  her  own  beautiful  home  life  and  in 
her  many  charitable  enterprises,  she  is  not 
neglectful  of  the  plea.sant  demands  of  society 
and  friends.  She  is  one  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  Daughters  of  Maine  Club, 
and  is  actively  interested  in  promoting  the 
objects  of  the  society.  She  is  one  of  the 
charter  members  of  the  Heptorean  Club  of 
Somerville. 

Into  patriotic  work  Mrs.  Simpson  puts 
great  love  and  interest.  For  several  years  she 
has  been  an  efficient  member  of  thf  board  of 
management  of  the  John  Adams  Chapter, 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution.  At 
the  Eleventh  Continental  Congress  of  tlie 
National  Society,  Daughters  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  held  in  W'ashington,  D.C., 
in  February,  1902,  she  was  elected,  by  a  very 
large  and  flattering  vote,  to  the  office  of  vice- 
president-general  for  Massachusetts.  She  now 
belongs  to  some  of  the  most  im])ortant  stand- 
ing committees  of  the  National  Board,  namely: 
on  Finance,  on  Continental  Hall,  on  Building 
Conunittee,  on  Ways  and  Means,  on  the  Loui- 
siana Purchase  Exposition,  and  on  the  Ameri- 
can Monthly  Mar/azitie.  To  her  arduous  of- 
ficial  duties   she   has   attended  in  such  a  way 


as  to  conunand  the  respect  and  admiration  of 
all  concerned,  discharging  them  promptly, 
ably,  and  thoroughly. 


ELLEN  BEALE  MOREY  was  born  in 
Orfonlvillc,  Grafton  County,  N.H., 
tlaughter  of  Royal  and  Josephine 
(Johnson)  Beal.  Through  her  father 
she  claims  descent  from  Jonathan  Carver, 
the  traveller,  who  ex])lored  in  1766-68  the 
region  immetliately  .west  and  north-west  of 
the  Great  Lakes,  then  inhabited  only  by 
Indians,  with  whom  he  was  in  most  friendly 
relations.  The  story  of  his  receiving  from 
them  the  gift  of  a  large  tract  of  land,  including 
the  sites  of  the  present  cities  of  St.  Paul  and 
Minneapolis,  though  not  found  in  the  sketches 
of  Mr.  Carver  in  tiie  biographical  cyclopaedias, 
has  in  recent  years  been  given  newspaper  pub- 
licity. The  deed  is  said  to  have  been  re- 
corded upon  a  rock  in  a  cave  near  the  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony.  Jonathan  Carver  died  in 
London  in  1780.  He  had  gone  there  to  make 
arrangements  for  the  publication  of  a  book 
giving  an  account  of  his  travels  and  explora- 
tions (a  few  copies  of  which  are  now  in  exist- 
ence), and  also,  it  is  said,  to  try  to  secure  a 
regular  deed  of  the  land  granted  to  him  by  the 
Indians. 

On  her  mother's  side  Mrs.  Morey  is  a  descend- 
ant of  Colonel  Thomas  Johnson,  of  Newbury, 
Vt.,  who  .served  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution, 
and  who  was  in  official  correspondence  with 
General  Washington,  autograph  letters  from 
whom  are  still  preservetl  in  the  family. 

Very  early  in  life  Ellen  Beale  manifested  that 
power  and  individuality  of  thought  which  led 
her  to  differ  materially  with  her  family  and 
teachers  in  matters  of  opinion  and  practice. 
Born  into  a  pro-slavery  family  who  had,  in 
earlier  times,  been  slave-holders,  she  espoused 
the  anti-slavery  cause  at  a  time  when  it  meant 
disgrace  and  ostracism  to  do  so.  When  a  mere 
child,  she  evinced  that  passion  for  music  which 
has  been  the  dominating  influence  in  her  life, 
playing  from  memory  at  four  years  of  age  selec- 
tions from  the  gr(>at  composers  which  she  had 
heard  her  father  jilny  upon  the  pipe  organ,  then 
as  now  a  part  of  tiie  family  establishment. 


M. 


'^-  (^ 


ELLEN   BEALE   MOREY 


ELLEN    BEALE   MOREY 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


283 


At  eleven  she  became  organist  of  tlie  vil- 
lage church,  and  since  that  time  she  has  played 
some  of  the  largest  organs  in  this  country 
and  in  Europe.  Her  mother  was  her  instructor 
in  the  higher  mathematics,  literature,  and  Latin; 
and  her  father  was  her  first  teacher  in  music. 
It  was  the  custom  of  the  family  to  gather  in 
the  nmsic  room  at  evening  time  to  sing,  and 
on  these  occasions  tlie  old  mansion  would  ring 
with  the  strains  of  anthem  and  oratorio,  to 
the  accom]ianiment  of  organ,  piano,  violin,  and 
violoncello,  performers  upon  each  instrument 
being  found  in  the  family  circle.  To  her  famil- 
iarity with  music  of  the  best  cla.ss  in  hei' 
chihlhood,  ^Irs.  Morey  attributes  nmch  of  her 
success. 

At  eighteen  years  of  age  she  commenced  study 
with  Junius  W.  Hill,  of  Boston,  and  remained 
with  him  until  her  marriage  to  Herbert  Iv  Morey 
in  1874.  Of  this  miion  there  have  been  five 
children — Eleanor  Stevens,  Ernest  Manuel  (now 
deceased),  Hilda  Evangeline,  David  Beale,  and 
Laura  Carver. 

David  B.  and  Almira  (Bailey)  Morey,  parents 
of  Herbert  E.  Morey,  were  prominent  among 
the  abolitionists,  contributing  of  their  means 
to  the  support  of  the  movement :  and  their 
house  was  a  station  on  the  underground  rail- 
road. David  B.  Morey  was  closely  associated 
with  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips, 
Parker  Pillsbury,  and  other  prominent  anti- 
slavery  leaders.  On  one  occasion  he  protected 
Parker  Pillsbury  from  a  mob,  holding  them 
off  at  the  ])oint  of  a  pistol,  ^\'hen  the  war  broke 
out,  and  troops  were  starting  for  the  front,  the 
town  illuminated.  He  refused  to  illuminate  his 
house  until  he  knew  whether  the  Union  was 
to  be  with  or  without  .slav'ery.  And  in  this 
he  persisted,  although  notified  by  the  town 
authoi'ities,  who  were  at  that  time  pro-slavery 
in  .sentiment,  that  they  could  not  promise  him 
protection.  At  the  time  of  John  lirown's  raid 
he  with  others  hired  Tremont  Temple  and  per- 
sisted in  occupying  it  in  spite  of  the  opjjosition 
of  a  pro-slavery  mob  encourageil  by  police 
assistance.  He  was  a  charter  member  of  the 
Theodore  Parker  Fraternity. 

David  B.  Morey  was  a  cousin  of  Samuel 
Morey,  from  whom  it  is  said  that  Fulton  got 
his  itleas  of  the  steamboat.     His  wife,  Almira 


liailey,  was  daughter  of  Timothy  Bailey,  the 
first  president  of  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Maiden. 

In  1876  Mrs.  Morey  went  abroad  to  pur- 
sue her  studies  in  piano,  organ,  anil  theory 
with  Reinecke  and  Paul,  of  Leipsic,  and  Dr. 
Theodore  Kullak,  of  Berlin.  Subsequent  seasons 
were  spent  in  Rome,  Florence,  Milan,  and  Lon- 
don, in  the  study  of  vocal  music  and  instru- 
mentation. Mrs.  Morey  in  1879  organized 
a  chorus  and  orchestra,  which  she  lierself  con- 
ducted, being  the  first  woman,  sij  far  as  is 
known,  to  use  the  conductor's  baton.  Her  skill 
as  a  director  and  chorus  leader  is  well  known 
to  the  nuisical  world;  and,  hail  it  not  been  for 
her  extreme  modesty  and  disinclination  for 
pul)lic  life,  her  name  and  fame  would  have  been 
world-wide.  There  are  few  men,  it  has  been 
said,  among  those  famous  in  the  world  to-day, 
who  have  the  skill  to  teach,  or  the  magnetic 
personality  to  control  and  get  results  from  a 
body  of  singers,  which  she  i)o.ssesses.  She  has 
spent  several  seasons  at  Baireuth,  and  has  been 
a  close  student  of  Wagner  and  his  methods. 
Indeed,  music  has  meant  a  life  work  to  this  re- 
markable woman.  Through  it  she  has  striven 
to  ennoble  mankind  by  bringing  to  it  a  con- 
sciousness of  those  great  thoughts  which  she 
conceives  to  be  embodied  in  all  art.  As  she 
says:  "Music  was  never  either  an  anuisement 
or  an  a?stheticism  to  me,  but  that  solenm  and 
ineffable  voice  in  the  .soul  which  has  been 
proclaiming  its  messages  down  through  the  ages 
in  all  true  art,  whether  in  form,  color,  or  sound." 
This  .sentiment  she  brings  out  most  emphatically 
in  her  lectures  upon  music,  of  which  she  has 
several. 

Mrs.  Morey  has  always  ke])t  herself  in  the 
background,  but  her  jjupils,  who  are  scattered 
throughout  the  land,  can  testify,  as  did  one  who 
has  achieved  fame  in  a  large  city:  "I  was  one 
of  Mrs.  Morey's  earliest  pupils,  and  I  have 
never  forgotten  either  the  impetus  to  work,  the 
emulation  of  high  ideals  which  .she  instilled  into 
me,  or  the  inspiration  which  made  study  with 
her  a  delight." 

AVhile  she  was  director  of  music  and  organist 
of  the  First  Church  in  Maiden,  the  musical  critic 
of  one  of  Boston's  leading  ])apers  wrote  the 
following  in  a  report  of  one  of  the  church  scr- 


284 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


vices:  "Ak-ntion  has  not  been  inade  of  tlic 
organ  jirclude  nor  of  the  handling  of  the  organ 
throughout  the  solo  and  chorus  work  tiu'ough 
failure  to  ai)i)reciate  the  versatility  and  skill 
required  in  their  execution.  The  gifted  woman 
who  has  brought  the  music  in  this  cluuch  to 
rank  with  the  first  in  the  land,  and  who  in 
the  last  ten  years  has  done  more  to  ennoble 
antl  spiritualize  the  work  of  music  in  the  church 
than  any  one  within  the  writer's  knowledge, 
brhigs  to  her  position  not  only  special  aptitude, 
but  skill  acquired  by  intense  and  unrenutting 
study,  an  artistic  style  born  of  acf}uaint- 
anceshi])  with  the  best  music  of  many  ]ieo]iles 
and  lands,  and,  what  is  still  more  im])ortant, 
a  realization  of  the  soul  of  things  whicli  finds 
utterance  in  the  majestic  strains  of  Te  Deum 
and  oratorio.  .  If  the  musical  attractions  of 
this  church  are  sufficient  to  call  the  attention 
of  musicians  from  Boston,  who,  like  myself, 
come  on  all  extra  occasions  and  frequently 
at  other  times,  purposely  to  hear  its  chorus 
singing,  it  is  safe  to  say  it  nuist  possess  somc^ 
distinguishing  excellence.  I  am  only  one  of 
several  who  have  expressed  the  opinion  that, 
were  this  choir  within  Boston  limits,  the  present 
church  edifice  would  be  entirely  inadecjuate  to 
seat  the  peojjle  who  would  throng  there  to 
hear  its  music.  Mrs.  Morey  combines  genius 
and  physical  strength  to  a  degree  seldom  found 
in  woman,  and  from  this  union  we  expect  and 
find  great  things." 

Mrs.  Morey's  extensive  travel  has  brought 
her  in  touch  with  the  musical  and  artistic 
centres  of  Europe.  Her  summers  for  twenty 
years  have  been  spent  among  the  Alps  of 
Switzerland,  Northern  Italy,  and  the  Tyrol, 
into  who.se  very  fastnesses  she  has  penetrated. 
She  has  made  her  abode  with  peasants  and 
princes  alike,  from  the  humblest  chalet  of 
Switzerland  to  the  abodes  of  I'^ngland's  aris- 
tocracy; amid  the  sand-dunes  and  windmills 
of  the  Low  Countries  and  the  castles  of  the 
.Rhine;  in  the  wastes  of  the  Sahara  and  under 
the  shadow  of  Egypt's  great  monuments. 

Cosmo])olitan  alike  by  travel  and  tempera- 
ment, finding  home  and  friends  in  many  lands, 
her  heart,  never thele.ss,  remains  loyal  to  the 
granite  hills  of  the  land  of  her  birth — the 
Switzerland  of  America. 


ETTA  HALEY  OSGOOD,  the  first  Presi- 
dent of  the  Maine  PVderation  of  Clubs, 
was  born  in  Chatham,  Carroll  County, 
N.H.  When  she  was  two  years  old, 
her  parents,  Thomas  Jewett  and  Lucrctia  lOaton 
(Colby)  Haley,  removed  acro.ss  the  bordc-r  to 
the  town  of  Stow,  Oxford  County,  Me.,  and, 
having  been  a  resident  of  that  State  ever  since, 
.she  felicitates  herself  on  being  a  Maine  woman. 

She  was  educated  in  the  public  schools,  at 
Fryeburg  Academy,  and  at  Mount  Holyoke 
Seminary,  where  she  was  enrolled  as  a  student 
vmder  her  maiden  name,  Etta  Haley,  in  the 
school  years  1S7-1-75  and  1S75-76.  P]tta 
Haley's  early  lessons  were  conned  in  the  town 
school  of  Stow,  kejit  in  the  little  red  school- 
house.  That  she  appreciated  the  opportuni- 
ties afTorded  by  the  higher  institutions  of  learn- 
uig  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  the  age  of 
sixteen,  in  order  to  secure  them,  she  began 
teaching  school.  She  continued  to  teach  at 
intervals  until  her  marriage  in  October,  1877, 
to  lidward  Sherburne  Osgood,  of  Portland. 

Mr.  Osgood  was  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
Portland  Arfius,  and  he  encouraged  his  wife  to 
enter  the  profession  of  joui'nalism.  She  began 
by  reporting  conventions,  society  events,  and 
so  forth,  and  in  recent  years  has  devoted  the 
greater  part  of  her  time  to  this  work.  She  is 
now  on  the  editorial  staff  of  tlie  Evening  Ex- 
press and  Sunday  Telegram. 

^^dlen  the  club  movement  began,  Mrs.  Os- 
good was  one  of  the  pioneers.  She  has  assisted 
in  founding  several  clubs,  and  is  considered  an 
authority  in  matters  relating  to  i)arliamentary 
law,  her  lectures  on  this  subject  being  one  of 
the  results  of  her  club  and  newspaper  work. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  offices  she  has 
held  in  various  organizations;  fii'st  i)resident  of 
the  International  Health  Protective  League; 
first  president  of  the  Maine  Federation  of 
Clubs:  founder  of  the  Mount  Holyoke  Alumna' 
Association  of  Maine:  first  chairman  of  Corre- 
spondence for  Maine  of  General  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs  and  one  of  the  directors;  secre- 
tary of  the  Suffrage  Association  (serving  ten 
years),  also  its  vice-president  and  State  organ- 
izer: a  member  of  the  New  England  Woman's 
Press  Club;  parliamentarian  of  the  Maine  Fed- 
eration; conunissioner  from   Maine  to  the  x\.t- 


'-■»Ws.„ 


ALICE   M.  STEEVES 


REPRESEiNTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


285 


lanta  Exposition :  vice-presidfiit  of  the  \\'omaii's 
Literary  L'nion;  fouiuler  and  president  of  tlie 
Civic  Club:  State  nienil)cr  of  tlie  Executive 
Coniniittee  of  the  National,  and  also  of  the 
New  England  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Osgootl  have  had  three  chil- 
dren— one  son,  who-  died  in  infancy,  and  two 
daughters.  The  elder  daughter  is  a  graduate 
of  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  and  the  younger 
daughter  is  in  the  Portland  High  School.  Al- 
though Mrs.  Osgood  has  had  many  calls  upon 
her  time  hi  organizations  and  in  lier  professional 
and  business  career,  she  has  been  a  devoted 
wife  and  mother.  She  has  a  wide  circle  of 
friends. 


ALICE  MARY  STEKVES,  D.D.S.,  was 
/  \  born  September  13,  1869,  in  Upper 
X  A.  Coverdale,  in  the  county  of  Albert, 
Province  of  New  Brunswick,  Canada. 
Her  parents,  William  Whitfield  and  Almyra 
Ann  (Wallace)  Sleeves,  are  still  living  at  the 
homestead.  The  Sleeves  family  of  New  Bruns- 
wick is  of  Pennsylvania  Dutch  extraction,  the 
original  form  of  the  name  having  been  Stief. 

In  May,  1763,  as  stated  in  a  book  of  New 
Brun.swick  biographies,  Hendrick'  Sleeves  with 
his  wife  Rachel  and  seven  sons — Jacob,  John, 
Christian,  Frederic,  Ludwig  (or  Lewis),  Henry, 
and  Matthias — came  from  Pennsylvania  to 
New  Brunswick,  and  was  one  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  Albert  County. 

Dr.  Steeves's  paternal  grandi)arents  were 
Abel  and  Leah  (Sleeves)  Sleeves,  and  her  great- 
grandfathers on  that  side  were  Hendrick,  Jr. 
(or  Henry),  and  his  brother,  Ludwig  (or  Lewis) 
Sleeves,  sons  of  Hendrick'  Steeves. 

On  her  mother's  side  Dr.  Steeves  is  partly 
of  Scottish  blood,  her  grandparents  being  John 
and  Sarah  (Chapman)  A^'allace,  both  native 
residents  of  Albert  County,  New  Brunswick. 
Her  grandfather  Wallace,  was  a  large  land- 
owner. He  gave  each  of  his  three  sons 
a  farm.  Her  grandmother's  mother,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Sarah  Black,  belonged  to 
that  branch  of  the  Black  family  in  America 
whose  home  for  many  years  was  on  the  site 
of  the  present  city  of  Halifax,  where  some  of 
their  dc^scendants  still  live. 


Robert  Black  and  William  Chapman,  ances- 
tors of  Dr.  Steeves,  were  granted  large  tracts 
of  land  in  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  for 
services  to  the  British  crown,  and  were  among 
the  pioneers  of  the  new  country,  formerly 
Acadie. 

Alice  M.  Steeves  was  the  eldest  daughter  in 
a  family  of  twelve  children.  She  received  her 
education  in  the  conmion  schools  and  high 
school;  and  by  her  two  aunts,  Mrs.  Morton  and 
Mrs.  Vaughan,  her  mother's  sisters,  was  so  well 
trained  in  the  domestic  arts  of  housekeeping 
and  needlework  that  at  the  age  of  fourteen  she 
managed  the  affairs  of  the  faniily  for  her 
mother,  who.se  health  at  this  time  was  not  good. 

The  greatest  character-forming  factor  in  her 
early  training  was  her  association  with  her 
uncle,  Judge  Finemore  Morton,  who  carefully 
drilled  her  in  practical  affairs  of  life,  and  who 
tried  to  have  her  study  law  with  him.  The 
law  being  considered  by  Mrs.  Morton,  her  aunt, 
a  very  unwomanly  ])rofession,  its  study  had 
to  be  given  up.  Early  in  1889,  having  decided 
to  become  a  nurse,  she  came  to  Boston  and  en- 
tered for  a  two  years'  course  of  study  the  Train- 
ing School  for  Nurses  connected  with  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Hospital.  Capable,  efficient, 
and  mature  beyontl  her  years,  she  gained  the 
respect  and  good  will  of  all  with  whom  .she  asso- 
ciated, and  at  the  end  of  eighteen  months  was 
promoted  to  a  head  nurseshijx  She  was  grad- 
uated in  February,  1891,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  that  year  she  resigned  her  ])osition  to  take 
a  similar  one  in  the  Garfield  Memorial  Hospital 
in  Washington,  D.C.,  where  she  remained  only 
a  short  time,  when  she  resigned  to  do  private 
work  in  that  city.  In  October,  1892,  she  was 
appointed  resident  nurse  at  Talcott  Hall,  (_)ber- 
lin  College,  Oberlin,  Ohio,  and  while  there  did 
special  work  on  the  classics.  Resigning  in 
1893,  she  went  to  Chicago  to  attend  the  World's 
Fair  and  to  conduct  special  work  in  that  city. 
In  October,  1894,  after  many  unsuccessful  at- 
tempts to  be  admitted  to  the  Northwestern 
University  Dental  School  on  an  equal  footing 
with  men,  she  matriculated  at  the  American 
College  of  Dental  Surgery  in  Chicago,  which 
in  1895  became  amalgamated  with  the  North- 
western University  Dental  School.  From  that 
institution,  which  had   thrice  refused  her  ad- 


286 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


mittance,  she  was  graduated  in  1897,  in  a  class 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six,  with  highest 
honors.  One  of  the  professors  speaking  of  her 
at  this  time  said,  "She  carries  with  her  the 
confidence  of  the  faculty,  the  highest  esteem  of 
her  fellow-students,  and  possesses  strong  ele- 
ments of  character  that  will  win  success  in  any 
calling." 

In  1898  she  was  appointed  assistant  to  the 
chair  of  oral  surgery  in  the  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity Dental  School,  being  the  first  woman 
to  serve  on  its  faculty  She  was  also  appointed 
clinical  instructor  in  stomatology  in  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  of  Northwestern  University  in 
the  same  year,  while  also  pursuing  the  practice 
of  dentistry. 

Through  special  work  ilone  in  the  interest  of 
a  broader  medical  edvication  for  dental  practice 
Dr.  Steeves  became  a  member  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  and  has  made  a  good  record 
in  this  society.  She  is  also  an  active  member 
in  the  Chicago  Dental  Society,  Massachusetts 
Dental  Society,  and  of  her  various  alumni 
associations. 

Although  perhaps  all  that  fortune  could  give 
in  so  short  a  time  had  fallen  to  our  heroine's 
lot  in  the  busy  city  of  Chicago,  she  longed  for 
the  more  sedate  and  settled  atmosphere  of  New 
England.  She  therefore  passed  the  Board  of 
Dental  Examiners  of  Massachusetts  in  March, 
1902,  and  removed  her  office  from  Chicago  to 
Commonwealth  Avenue,  Boston,  on  the  first 
of  May  following.  She  was  appointed  consult- 
ing dentist  to  Trinity  Dispensary,  June,  1902, 
and  attending  dentist  to  the  Academy  of  the 
Assumption,  of  Wellesley,  Mass.,  in  October, 
1902.  She  is  also  dentist  to  the  Homoeopathic 
Dispensary,  Boston,  and  has  recently  been  ap- 
pointed attending  dentist  to  the  Industrial 
School  for  Girls  at  Lancaster,  Mass.  She  is 
much  interested  in  securing  proper  oral  condi- 
tions in  children  of  the  public  schools. 

Dr.  Steeves  is  a  strong  advocate  of  co-etluca- 
tion,  believing  that  women  should  have  the 
same  opportunities  for  mental  training  and  for 
development  of  character  and  capacity  from 
childhood  up  as  men.  And  with  her  it  is  once 
a  student,  always  a  student:  it  never  enters  her 
mind  to  be  satisfied  witii  present  attainments, 
to  forego  an  opportunity  for  original  research. 


ANNE   PILSBURY.— Within  a  few  years 

/  \  there  has  coni(>  into  existence  what  is 
X  jLfc  known  as  the  new  school  of  photog- 
ra])hy,  for  which  P'.  Holland  Day, 
Mrs.  Kasebier,  Francis  Watts  Lee,  and  others 
have  won  wide  recognition.  Among  the 
younger  members  of  this  school,  Miss  Pilsbury, 
during  the  four  years  she  has  been  at  work  as 
a  photogra])her,  has  made  for  herself  a  rather 
enviable  place.  Older  photographers  of  the 
new  school  have  s])oken  warndy  of  her  work, 
while  what  has  perhaps  pleased  her  most  has 
been  praise  from  men  who  are  working  in  the 
conventional  way,  but  who  speak  appreciatively 
of  what  she  is  iloing. 

She  has  had,  of  course,  to  meet  the  criti- 
cism which  has  very  natui'ally  greeted  all  this 
new-school  photography,  or  artistic  photogra- 
phy, as  it  has  been  called.  This  term  lias  been 
used  to  cover  nuich  work,  both  good  and  bad, 
and  has  become  a  term  of  reproach  to  many 
people.  To  them  it  means  simply  a  picture 
out  of  focus,  and  either  very  shadowy  or  with 
those  strong  contrasts  of  light  and  shade  sup- 
posed by  some  to  give  a  truly  Remlirandt 
effect;  for  they  often  seize  upon  extravagances 
connnitted  in  the  name  of  artistic  photography 
as  its  worthy  representatives.  A  photograph 
to  be  good  in  their  eyes  must  be  sharply  fo- 
cussed,  with  all  its  details  distinct.  They 
hardly  realize  that  there  is  room  for  another, 
method.  At  the  recent  caricature  show  in 
Boston  was  exhibited  an  almost  invisible  picture 
of  a  baby  mounted  in  one  corner  of  a  large 
card,  bearing  the  notice,  "Special  attention 
given   to  ]:)hotographs  of  children." 

Miss  Pilsbury  began  lier  work  five  years  ago 
by  studying  with  .Miss  WcW,  of  Philadelphia. 
In  the  spring  of  1S99  she  came  to  Boston,  rented 
a  studio  on  Boylston  Street,  in  what  was  once 
an  old  dwelling-house,  and  courageously  began 
business  among  a  host  of  well-known  ])ho- 
tographers.  The  original  ciiaracter  of  her  work 
gradually  brought  her  into  notice,  and  her 
reputation  spread.  While  Miss  Pilsbury  lays 
no  claim  to  high  artistic  achievement,  she  has 
made  it  her  .aim  in  her  professional  work,  by 
the  substitution  of  simple  nietliods  for  the  older 
stilted  methods,  to  .secure  for  parents  records 
of    the    unconscious   charm   of    their   children. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


287 


and  in  Ikt  portraits  of  older  people  has  worked 
for  natural  and  at  the  same  time  slightly  ideal- 
ized results. 

It  is  in  her  portraits  of  children  that  she  es- 
pecially excels:  children,  feeling  that  she  un- 
derstands them  and  sympathizes  with  them, 
are  at  ease  with  her.  She  sometimes  uses  a 
simple  flat  lighting,  suggesting  Boutet  de 
Monvel's  pictures  of  children.  Her  best  por- 
traits are  noticeable  for  their  unstudied  pose, 
softness  of  outline,  and  interesting  lighting, 
an  excellent  example  being  a  picture  of  an  old 
lady  seated  by  a  window,  the  play  of  light  and 
shade  over  her  face  softening  it  very  charm- 
ingly. 

Miss  Pilsbury  has  made  a  distinct  advance 
each  year  in  the  character  of  her  work.  She 
is  not  content  to  stand  still  or  to  follow  in  one 
beaten  track.  This  spirit  of  experiment  antl 
revolt  from  the  conventional  has  made  her 
work  uneven.  She  has  perhaps  attempteil  more 
than  she  could  carry  out,  for  a  lens  has  many 
limitations.  But  the  mistakes  she  has  made 
have  been  just  so  many  encouraging  signs  of 
progress.     In  the  end  she  has  gained. 

Miss  Pilsbury  is  a  member  of  the  Arts  and 
Crafts  Society  of  Boston.  She  has  exhibited 
in  the  Photographic  Salon  of  Philadelphia,  in 
the  Salon  of  the  Linketl  Ring  in  London,  and 
in  several  other  cities. 


JOSEPHINE    ROACHE  was  born  in    the 
pretty   village   of   Beaver   River,   on  the 
shores     of    the   Bay   of    Fundy,   in    the 
country  of  Evangeline,  June  25,  LS45. 
Her  father,  Israel  Roache,  was  born  in  Gran- 
ville, N.S.,  being  a  son  of  Frederick  and  Eliza- 
beth (Ricketson)  Roache. 

His  father,  Frederick  Roache,  a  native  and 
lifelong  resident  of  Granville,  dietl  at  the  age 
of  ninety  on  the  farm  that  had  been  his  home 
for'  many  years.  He  was  a  man  of  indepen- 
dent opinions,  taking  an  active  interest  in  pub- 
lic affairs  and  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  the 
village.  His  ancestors  came  to  America  from 
Waterford,  Ireland,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

Israel  Roache's  mother  was  a  refined  and 
delicate  woman.     Her  ancestoi's  went  to  Nova 


Scotia  from  Mrginia  before  the  breaking  out 
of  the  Revolution,  doubtless  leaving  some  of 
their  kinsfolk  in  that  State,  as  the  name  Rick- 
etson, it  is  said,  is  still  known  in  the  South. 

The  maiden  name  of  Josephine  Roache's 
mother  was  Almira  Corning.  Her  earliest 
ancestor  in  America,  Sanuiel  Corning,  who 
arrived  in  Salem,  Mass.,  as  early  as  1638,  was 
among  the  founders  of  Beverly,  where  there 
is  now  Corning  Street,  named  for  the  family. 
Her  father,  Daniel  Corning,  was  one  of  the 
first  settlers  of  Beaver  River,  having  left  Bev- 
(>rly  some  years  before  the  Revolution.  Her 
mother,  Mrs.  Abigail  Perry  Corning,  also  be- 
longed to  a  family  that  went  from  Massa- 
chusetts to  Nova  Scotia  before  the  Revolution. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Israel  Roache,  wishing  to  edu- 
cate their  children  in  the  United  States,  the 
])ublic  school  .system  not  then  having  been 
introduced  into  the  British  Provinces,  came 
to  Salem,  Mass.,  when  Josephine,  the  eldest 
child,  was  six  years  old.  At  the  breaking  out 
of  the  Civil  War  Mr.  Roache  enlisted  in  the 
Thirty-fifth  (Massachusetts)  Regiment.  He 
was  in  the  laattles  and  campaigns  shared  by  the 
Ninth  Army  Corps,  at  South  Mountain,  An- 
tietam,  and  later  in  the  battles  of  the  ^^'il- 
derness;  and  at  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor  he 
was  taken  prisoner,  and,  after  a  short  con- 
finement at  Libby  Prison,  was  sent  to  Andcr- 
sonville,  where  he  ilied  in  1864. 

Josephine  Roache  received  her  education 
in  Massachusetts  schools.  Her  first  teaching 
was  in  Danversport,  whither  the  family  had 
removed  after  a  few  years'  sojourn  in  Salem. 
Later  she  taught  in  Salem,  Danvers,  and  Lynn, 
being  connected  over  twenty  years  with  the 
Lynn  schools.  Since  leaving  public  school 
work,  she  has  conducted  classes  in  literature 
and  current  events  in  Lynn,  Salem,  and  Dan- 
vers, and  has  been  a  prominent  member  in  the 
Lynn  Women's  Club  and  the  Outlook  Club. 
She  has  also  lectured  liefore  many  clubs  in 
New  England. 

From  early  childhood  her  love  for  good 
literature  has  increased  year  by  year.  ?Ier 
influence  in  guiding  the  literary  taste  of  the 
high  school  pupils  who  came  under  her  teach- 
ing was  a  strong  one,  the  result  being  that, 
as    college    professors    have    given    testimony, 


288 


RErRESENTATlVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


they  were  more  advanced  in  literature  than 
pupils  from  similar  schools.  She  had  the  rare 
ability  of  telling  pupils  just  enough  to  awaken 
in  them  the  desire  to  read  every  author  she 
touciied  upon.  This  ability,  she  often  says, 
was  inheriteil  from  her  mother,  who  was  an 
excellent  raconteur,  and  who  inspired  her 
with  a  love  for  the  best  in  the  world  of  books. 

Miss  Roache  is  a  poet  of  no  mean  al)ility, 
having  written  verses  for  many  public  occa- 
sions, among  them  the  hynm  sung  at  the  lay- 
ing of  the  corner-stone  of  the  Lynn  High  School, 
and  the  poem  calletl  "  The  Story  of  the  Okl 
Elm  Tree,"  written  for  the  celebration  of  the 
two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
town  of  Danvers. 

Perhaps  no  better  estimate  of  her  character 
and  work  can  be  made  than  the  following, 
written  by  a  co-worker  in  the  Lynn  High 
School,  who  has  been  able  to  trace  her  influ- 
ence in  the  lives  of  many  that  came  under  her 
instruction  during  a  ]ieriod  of  nearly  forty 
years  :— 

"  In  the  summer  of  1881  I  first  became  ac- 
quainted with  Miss  Josephine  Roache.  At 
that  time  she  was  an  assistant  in  the  Lynn 
High  School;  and  for  ten  years  thereafter,  in 
one  capacity  or  another,  I  was  associated  with 
her  in-  the  work  of  that  school,  and  learned  to 
know  and  value  her  excellent  (lualities  as 
teacher  and  woman. 

"Her  special  department  was  English  lit- 
erature: and  she  certainly  was  posses.sed  fif 
remarkable  power  to  interest  the  young  people, 
perhaps  more  especially  girls,  in  that  sub- 
ject. Her  methods  evidenced  a  conviction 
on  her  part  that  the  way  to  teach  English  lit- 
erature to  ]iui)ils  enovigh  advanced  to  be  in 
high  school  .should  by  no  means  be  limited 
to  a  dissection  and  critical  analysis  of  the 
.sentences,  or  even  of  the  entire  composition. 
One  saw  at  once  that  it  was  her  higher  aim 
to  make  the  pupils'  hearts  and  souls  respond 
to  the  author's  thought.  Her  low,  soft,  well- 
modulated  voice  bespoke  the  perfect  self- 
control;  and  she  .scorned  to  govern  her  cla.s.ses 
by  means  inconsistent  with  a  self-respecting 
and  dignified  womanly  character. 

"At  the  time  Miss  Roache  left  the  high 
school,    the    English    de|)artment    suffereil    a 


blow  from  which  it  has  never  wholly  recov- 
ered. 

"Outside  of  her  school,  in  the  every-day 
affairs  of  life,  she  was  altogether  prone  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  suffering  and  op- 
pressed. She  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  Home 
Rule  for  Ireland,  and  never  missed  an  oppor- 
tunity by  tongue  or  pen  to  advance  it.  I 
think  majority  opinions  had  little  weight  with 
her,  except  as  they  commended  themselves 
to  her  heail  and  heart.  She  believed  that 
Edward  B(>llainy's  theories  are  in  the  right 
direction,  and  she  was  an  active  member  of 
the  Nationalist  Club  of  Lynn,  formed  in  the 
eighties,  associating  in  the  work  with  such 
men  and  women  as  Dr.  Benjamin  Percival, 
Hannah  M.  Todd,  CJeorge  H.  Carey,  Dr.  p]sther 
H.  Hawkes,  and  Herman  Kemp. 

"Miss  Roache  is  scholarly,  but  to  an  ex- 
tent that  I  have  never  seen  surpassed  she  pre- 
serves the  well-springs  of  human  nature  from 
drovight  that  cultm;e  so  frecpiently  induces. 
She  is  a  scholar  indeed;  but  she  never  forgets 
that  her  first  duty  is  to  humanity  as  a  whole, 
and  not  to  any  particular  cliciue  or  class." 


EVELYN  TUCK  COOK,  a  Past  Depart- 
ment President  of  the  W^oman's  Relief 
Cor]is  of  I\Lassachusptts,  was  born  in 
Manchester,  Mass.,  June  26,  1849,  daugh- 
ter of  Captain  Charles  and  Sophia  (Lendall) 
Leach.  Her  father,  who  commanded  the  bark 
"  Marguerite."  died  in  March,  1852,  on  the  voy- 
age from  South  America  to  Boston,  Mass. 
]*'velyn  was  then  in  her  third  year.  She  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  her  native 
town.  On  February  24,  1869,  .she  was  mar- 
ried to  Colonel  Benjamin  Franklin  Cook,  of 
Gloucester,  Mn.'^s.,  son  of  Captain  Jeremiah 
Cook  and  his  wife,  Harriet  Tarr,  who  was  daugh- 
ter of  Captain  Jabez  Tarr,  of  Bunker  Hill  fame. 
For  more  than  thirty  years  Mrs.  Cook  has 
been  engaged  in  work  for  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic.  She  was  a  charter  member  of 
Clara  Barton  Lodge,  formed  May  13,  1870, 
as  an  auxiliary  to  Colonel  Allen  Post,  G.  A.  R., 
of  C^doucester.  She  was  elected  its  first  Treas- 
urer, and  then  served  as  President  .six  consecu- 
tive t(Tms.     \\hen  Colonel  Allen  Relief  Corps 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


289 


was  instituted,  December  18,  1886,  she  was 
elected  President,  hoUling  the  office  three  years. 
She  served  in  several  other  positions,  and  was 
Department  Instituting  and  Installing  Officer 
in  1889.  In  1890  she  was  chief  Aide  on  the 
staff  of  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Knowles,  Department 
President,  and  in  1891  wfts  Department  Cor- 
responding Secretary.  In  1892  she  was  chosen 
a  member  of  the  Department  Executive  Board, 
and  the  following  year  was  elected  Depart- 
ment Junior  \'ice-President.  She  was  pro- 
moted to  the  office  of  Senior  Vice-President 
in  1894,  and  at  the  annual  convention  held  in 
S})ringfield,  Mass.,  Fel)ruary,  1895,  was  unani- 
mously elected  Department  Pn'sident.  When 
accepting  the  office  she  said;  "I  pledge  my 
best  efforts  in  every  way.  Tenderly  as  I  have 
guarded  my  own  name  and  lionor  during  my 
life,  so  I  will  guard  the  honoi-  of  tlic  Depart- 
ment of  Massachusetts." 

Mrs.  Cook  addressed  many  gatherings  through- 
out the  State,  and  her  elotjuent  appeals  al- 
ways commanded  attention.  Great  interest 
was  manifested  in  all  the  work.  In  a  general 
order  issued  July  13,  1895,  she  re(|uested  corps 
presidents  to  fill  out  an  enclosed  blank,  con- 
taining a  list  of  questions  regarding  the  intro- 
duction of  a  flag  salute  in  th(>  public  schools. 
Referring  to  this  line  oi  work,  she  said:  "At 
no  time  since  the  Civil  War  has  the  fact  been 
more  apparent  that  le.ssons  of  loyalty  and  love 
of  country  should  be  inculcated  in  the  minds 
of  the  children.  The  members  of  this  Depart- 
ment nmst  realize  that  a  grand  opportunity 
is  theirs  to  carry  out  one  of  the  principles  of 
our  order." 

On  May  30,  1889,  Mrs.  Cook  delivered  a 
memorial  address  at  Southbridge  in  the  after- 
noon and  one  at  West  Metlway  in  the  evening. 
Her  Memorial  Day  order  to  the  corps  was  a 
heartfelt  tribute  to  the  nation's  heroes.  The 
following  paragi'aph  is  wortliy  of  preservation: 
"As  we  scatter  the  chaplets  and  garlands, 
fragrant  with  the  sweetness  of  spring,  on  the 
spot  of  gi'een  which  covers  the  mounds  of  our 
nation's  benefactors,  may  we  open  our  hearts 
to  the  teachings  of  the  hour  anil  the  sacredness 
of  the  ceremony,  light  anew  the  fires  of  patri- 
otism, and  renew  our  ])ledges  of  life  and  sacred 
honor   to   transmit    unsullied    to   our   children 


this  noble  heritage  of  ours!  And,  while  we 
meet  around  these  altars  of  our  love,  may  we 
give  a  thought  of  affection  to  those  far-ofT 
graves  marked  with  (hat  one  word,  '  Unknown'! 
Unknown,  perhaps,  the  name;  yet  he  was  a 
soldier  of  the  Union.  Unknown,  perhaps,  his 
rank,  his  birthplace,  or  religion;  but  known 
he  was  a  brother  who  gave  his  life  for  freeilom. 
In  this  fair  land  are  other  graves  still  for  us 
to  aiJinoach  with  reverence.  <  )ur  sister  women, 
whose  love  of  country  was  shown  in  action  and 
whose  sympathj"  for  suffering  was  stronger 
than  life,  while  we  may  not  lay  our  offering  of 
love  upon  their  graves,  we  can  give  a  tender 
thought  to  their  memories  and  strive  to  make 
our  womanhood  as  true  as  theirs.  Bring  into 
the  day's  service  the  young  children,  and  teach 
them  by  our  exam|)le,  as  well  as  by  what  is 
said  to  them,  that  we  can  hold  the  day  sacred. 
Let  them  assist  in  preparing  tlie  flowers  and 
the  wreaths,  and  make  them  understand  that 
it  is  a  holy  day  as  well  as  a  holiday,  to  be  kept 
sacredly.  Let  every  niembei'  of  our  order  feel 
it  her  especial  duty  to  join  in  the  service  of 
the  day." 

Mrs.  Cook  had  charge  of  the  delegation  to 
the  Thirteenth  National  Convention,  which 
met  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  September,  1895. 
At  the  opening  session  of  the  convention  Mrs. 
Cook  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  Appeals,  and  made  an  able  report.  It 
was  she  who  had  the  honor  of  nominating  Mrs. 
Lizabeth  A.  Turner,  of  Boston,  as  a  candidate 
for  the  office  of  National  President.  The  No- 
tional Tribune  referred  to  this  effort  as  "the 
gem  of  nominating  speeches."  Upon  return- 
ing from  Louis\ille  Mrs.  Cook  again  entered 
zealously  into  the  work  in  Massachusetts.  In 
a  general  order  issued  November  11  she  made 
an  appeal  for  additional  contributions  for  the 
Department  Relief  Fund  and  also  for  the  Sol- 
diers' Home.  She  asked  the  corps  to  make 
"  the  coming  Christmastide  one  long  to  be  re- 
membered by  sending  boxes  of  clothing  and 
delicacies  such  as  are  common  to  this  festive 
season." 

AMien  reviewing  the  work  of  the  year  in  her 
address  at  the  annual  convention  held  in  Low- 
ell, February,  1896,  she  .^aid:  "I  find  that  in 
point   of  numljers  and  in  relief  given  we  are 


290 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


still  the  banner  department.  I  trust  that  we 
may  be  able  to  claim  this  in  every  department 
in  which  our  line  of  work  takes  us.  There  is 
peace  within  our  borders,  and  sitlc  by  side  with 
our  comrades  we  stand  for  every  good  we  can 
accomplish  under  the  banner  upon  which  is  in- 
scribed the  principles  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic — Fraternity,  Charity,  and  Loyalty." 

In  referring  to  the  Soldiers'  Home  she  .said : 
"  If  there  is  one  spot  more  than  another  that 
the  loving  care  and  devotion  of  the  true-hearted 
women  of  our  department  centres  around,  it 
is  this  home,  where  to-day  rest  in  peace  the 
war-worn  antl  crippled  veterans  who  have 
fought  the  battles  of  their  country  and  are 
entitled  to  all  that  we  can  do  to  make  their 
last  days  those  of  peace  and  comfort." 

She  recommendetl  that  all  corps  be  requested 
to  appoint  a  Soldiers'  Home  Committee, 
whether  they  have  a  room  in  the  home  or  not, 
this  committee  to  arrange  that  at  least  once 
a  year  a  donation  of  either  money  or  articles 
be  sent  to  the  home. 

Among  other  subjects  of  interest  that  were 
ably  considered  by  Mrs.  Cook  was  the  flag  sa- 
lute. Concerning  this  she  expressed  the  fol- 
lowing sentiments:  "Our  country's  flag — how 
our  hearts  thrill  with  pride,  as  we  watch  its 
graceful  folds  as  they  float  in  the  breeze  of 
heaven,  antl  think  that  on  every  sea,  in  every 
port  where  conmierce  finds  its  way,  wherever 
civilization  has  its  home  and  human  free- 
dom has  an  inspiration,  that  ensign  is  wel- 
comed and  beloved!  It  speaks  to  us  by  all 
the  memories  of  the  past  to  do  all  in  our  power 
to  maintain  this  heritage.  Realizing  that  in 
this  symbol  we  do  see  the  world's  best  hope 
for  civil  and  religious  liberty,  our  organiza- 
tion has  taken  upon  itself  the  task,  believing 
it  to  be  a  duty  as  well  as  a  privilege,  to  use 
every  legitimate  means  to  have  the  salute 
to  the  flag  introduced  into  the  public  schools. 
Should  not  our  children  be  taught  that  the  flag 
is  the  guardian  of  all  their  most  treasured  inter- 
ests? By  this  we  hope,  too,  that  a  new  spirit  of 
patriotism  maybe  awakened  in  the  community." 

Her  administration  was  a  successful  one, 
Mrs.  Cook  being  guided  by  a  sincere  desire 
faithfully  to  serve  the  Department  of  Massa- 
chusetts, over  which  she  liad  the  honor  to  rule. 


Benjamin  I'\  Cook  enlisted  in  April,  1861, 
as  private  in  Company  K,  Twelfth  Massachu- 
setts Regiment.  He  was  commissioned  First 
Lieutenant,  January  26,  1862;  Captain,  May  2, 
1862;  Major,  July  23,  1863;  and  Lieutenant 
Colonel,  May  6,  1864.  The  regiment,  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Fletcher  Webster,  left 
Boston  July  24,  and  three  days  later  was  sta- 
tioned on  the  Maryland  side  of  the  Potomac 
River,  about  a  mile  from  Harper's  Ferry.  It 
participated  in  many  of  the  leading  battles 
of  the  war.  On  the  skirmish  line  at  Peters- 
burg the  Twelfth  received  orders  "  to  drive 
the  foe  from  their  entrenchments  on  the  rail- 
road." Colonel  Bates  reported:  "This  was 
performed  under  Lieutenant  Colonel  Cook  in 
gallant  style,  advancing  so  far  that  the  re- 
mainder of  the  brigade  thought  they  had  been 
taken  prisoners."  In  July,  1864,  the  regi- 
ment reached  Boston  with  one  hundred  and 
seventy  men.  Colonel  Cook  commanded  the 
regiment  in  several  campaigns,  principally  with 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  antl  was  under  fire 
more  than  sixty  times.  He  has  served  as 
president  of  the  regimental  association,  and 
he  is  the  author  of  the  interesting  "  History 
of  the  Twelfth  Regiment,"  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1882.  His  wife  aided  him  in  collect- 
ing data  for  this  volume,  and  served  as  his 
amanuensis. 

Colonel  Cook  has  been  prominent  in  the 
affairs  of  Gloucester  for  many  years,  and  has 
served  three  times  as  Mayor  of  the  city.  He 
represented  Gloucester  in  the  Legislature  of 
Massachu.setts  for  three  years  in  succession. 
He  is  a  member  of  Colonel  Allen  Post,  G.  A.  R., 
and  of  other  organizations. 

Colonel  and  Mrs.  Cook  have  had  five  chil- 
dren, three  of  whom — namely,  Frank  How- 
ard (born  in  1869),  Edwin  Friend  (1875),  and 
Fletcher  Webster  (1878) — died  in  infancy. 
The  survivors  are:  Mary  Franklin,  born  March 
24,  1871,  who  married  Professor  Harrison  Gray 
Otis  Chase,  of  Tufts  College;  and  Eva  Len- 
dall,  born  September  16,  1873,  now  teacher 
of  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  Taconic  School,  Lake- 
ville,  Conn. 

Mrs.  Cook  has  lived  in  Gloucester  ever  since 
her  marriage,  and  is  interested  in  all  the  good 
work    of    the    city.     She    has    been    identified 


ISABELLA  A.  POTTER 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


291 


with  the  UniversaUst  church,  but  for  the  past 
few  years  has  taken  great  interest  in  Christian 
Science,  being  an  active  member  of  the  Glouces- 
ter church  as  well  as  of  tlie  "  Mother  Church" 
in  Boston. 


ISABELLA  ABBE  POTTER,  now  serv- 
ing her  seventh  year  as  president  of  the 
Woman's  Club  House  corporation,  hav- 
ing been  first  elected  in  1898,  and  re- 
elected for  the  sixth  time  in  January,  1904, 
is  the  wife  of  a  well-known  business  man  of 
Boston,  \A'illiam  W.  Potter,  and  resides  in 
Brookline.  Born  in  the  town  of  Lee,  Berk- 
shire County,  Mass.,  daughter  of  Porter  and 
Rubina  (Abbe)  Strickland,  she  comes  of  long 
lines  of  New  England  ancestors,  extending  back 
to  the  early  settlement  of  the  Bay  Colony. 

Her  father  was  a  native  of  Amherst,  Mass., 
and  son  of  Francis  L.  Strickland  and  Jerushy 
Gaylord.  Her  mother  was  daughter  of  Oba- 
diah  and  Margaret  (Marsh)  Abbe  and  grand- 
daughter of  Lemuel  Marsh,  whose  father,  John 
Marsh,  was  graduated  from  Harvard  College  in 
1726. 

Througli  Lemuel  Marsh  Mrs.  Potter  is  de- 
scended from  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  the  first 
minister  of  Boston,  and  from  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker,  of  Hai'tford,  the  families  of  these  two 
Puritan  ilivines  being  united  by  the  marriage 
of  Mr.  Wilson's  son,  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  Jr., 
first  minister  of  Medfield,  Mass.,  and  Mr. 
Hooker's  dauglUer  Sarah.  John  Wilson,  third, 
born  of  this  union  in  1660,  became  a  physician, 
and  settled  in  Braintree.  His  tlaughter,  Sarah 
Wilson,  married  in  1701  John  Marsh,  Sr.,  and 
was  the  mother  of  John  Marsh,  born  in  Brain- 
tree  in  1702,  above  mentioned  as  tlie  father 
of  Lemuel  and  grandfather  of  Margaret  Marsh, 
Mrs.  Potter's  maternal  grandmother. 

The  early  education  of  Mrs.  Potter,  received 
in  the  public  schools  of  Springfield,  Mass., 
was  supplemented  by  a  three  years'  course 
of  private  instruction  in  music,  languages, 
physical  culture,  and  practical  kindergarten 
work.  She  then — still  bearing  her  maiden 
name  of  Strickland — became  an  enthusiastic 
and  successful  teacher,  holding  the  position  of 
principal  of  a  group  of  schools  in  Springfield. 


Miss  Strickland  was  the  first  teacher  to  intro- 
duce object  teaching  and  kind(>rgarten  work 
into  those  schools.  She  left  teaching  to  become 
the  wife  of  William  \\'alker  Potter,  a  success- 
ful Boston  business  man,  trustee  of  Boston 
University,  member  of  the  Wesleyan  Asso- 
ciation and  other  organizations.  They  were 
married  May  21,  1873,  and  have  since  resided 
in  their  beautiful  home  in  Brookline.  They 
have  one  child,  Helen  Wilson  I^otter. 

Thus  writes  one  who  knows: — 

"Although  Mrs.  Potter's  preferences  are 
decidedly  for  literary  work,  slie  has  always  been 
sought  for  church,  charitable,  and  philanthropic 
enterprises.  She  has  been  a  leatler  and  emi- 
nently successful  in  them  all. 

"She  and  her  husband  were  for  fourteen 
years  workers  in  Harvartl  Church,  Brookline, 
until  the  cry  came  from  a  weaker  society, 
struggling  unsuccessfully  to  get  a  footing  in 
the  same  town,  to  come  over  and  help  them. 
They  gave  of  their  money,  but  that  was  not 
enougfi.  The  personal  element  and  influence 
was  needed,  or  there  could  be  no  hope  of  suc- 
cess. The  result  was,  they  left  their  own 
home  church,  joined  forces  with  the  weaker 
society,  and  the  beautiful  St.  Mark's  Church 
of  Brookline  is  to-day  a  monument  to  their 
fidelity  and  devotion. 

"Mrs.  Potter  has  been  for  years  the  treasurer 
of  the  Brookline  Woman's  Exchange,  treasurer 
of  the  Massachusetts  Home  for  Intemperate 
Women,  treasurer  of  the  First  Needlework 
Guild  of  Boston,  vice-president  of  the  Boston 
Business  League,  a  member  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Woman's  Club,  the  Castilian  and  Charity 
Clubs,  the  New  England  Woman's  Press  Asso- 
ciation, and  the  Club  House  Corporation  Club, 
of  which  she  has  just  been  elected  president. 

"  She  is  a  cjuiet,  dignified,  courageous,  and 
resourceful  woman.  Feeling  that  responsibility 
is  the  exacting  companion  of  capacity  and  power, 
her  business  and  executive  ability  are  conse- 
crated, that  she  may  render  the  greatest  possible 
good  to  the  greatest  number.  She  devotes 
the  best  of  herself  in  all  that  she  undertakes. 
Few  women  have  a  wider  acquaintance."  , 

It  may  be  added  that  the  handsome  New 
Century  Building  on  Huntington  Avenue  stands 
in  evidence  of  the  business  enterprise  and  sagac- 


292 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ity  of  the  Wonian'.s  Club  House  Corporation 
under  the  guidance  of  Mrs.  Potter.  In  this 
building  are  Howe  TTall,  Potter  Hall,  Woolson 
Hall,  and  Sewall  Hall,  named  after  prominent 
club  women,  the  last-mentioned  after  Mrs.  J. 
Sewall  Reed,  treasurer  of  the  corporation. 

As  facetiously  noted  by  Mrs.  Abba  Goold 
Woolson  at  the  dedication,  it  was  owing  to 
the  firm  faith  and  active  assistance  of  an  Isa- 
bella that  the  continent  of  America  was  dis- 
covered, and  it  was  through  the  opportune 
"discovery  of  an  Isabella"  a  few  years  ago  that 
had  been  achieved  the  present  happy  result  — 
the  fulfilment  of  long-cherished  hopes  wherefore 
club  women  of  Boston  and  vicinity  have  reason 
to  feel  grateful. 


SERAPH  FRIS.SELL,  M.D.,  was  born  in 
Peru,  Berkshire  County,  Mass.,  August 
20,   1840,  being  the  daughter  of  Augus- 
tus Ca\'*ar  and   Laura  Mack   (Emmons) 
Frissell.     Her  grandparents  were  Thomas  and 
Hannah    (Phillips)    Frissell    and    IchalH)d    and 
Mindwell  (Mack)  Emmons. 

Her  father  and  her  paternal  grandfather 
served,  each  in  his  day,  as  Captain  of  militia. 
W^illiam  Frissell,  her  great-grandfather,  served 
his  country  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  For 
military  services,  see  Records  of  Connecticut 
for  the  Revolutionary  War,  pp.  27,  56,  389. 

David  Mack,  great-grandfather  of  Dr.  Fris- 
sell, was  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  Middle- 
field,  Hami)shire  County,  Mass.,  going  to  that< 
locality  in  1775,  and  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  town.  He  enlisted  (from  Hebron,  Conn*. )■ 
in  the  Revolutionary  War,  but  saw  no  -"/we 
service,  arriving  too  late  to  take  part  i.i'the 
battle  of  Saratoga.  He  was  a  Captain  of  trooi)s 
engaged  in  suppressing  Shays's  Rebellion,  and 
afterward  was  Colonel  of  a  regiment. 

Seraph  Frissell  was  the  third  in  a  family  of 
six  children,  and  was  but  eleven  years  old 
when  her  father  died,  leaving  her  mother  with 
limited  means  for  their  support.  Her  girl- 
hood years  were  divided  between  domestic 
wor^,  a  factory  girl's  life,  and  school  life. 

During  these  years  she  saved  enough  to  defray 
her  expenses  for  one  year  at  Mount  Holyoke 
Seminary. 


The  fall  of  ISOl  found  hi-r  a  .student  at  this 
institution,  from  which  she  was  graduated  in 
.July,  1809,  having  completed  the  four  years' 
course  in  three  years,  in  the  meanwhile  teaching 
f(,)r  live  years.  ^ 

In  1867  she  received  from  the  American 
Board  of  Missions  the  appointment  of  mission- 
ary to  Ceylon,  but  in  deference  to  her  mother's 
wi.shes  .she  did  not  enter  upon  this  work. 

Beginning  the  study  of  medicine  in  1872 
under  Doctors  Ruth  Gerry  and  Cynthia 
Sniitli,  of  Ypsilanti,  Mich.,  .she  received  her 
diploma  from  the  Department  of  Medicine 
and  Surgery  of  the  University  of  Michigan  on 
March  24,  1875.  She  had  hosi)ital  j^ractice  in 
Detroit,  Ypsilanti,  and  Boston.  In  1876  she 
began  the  general  practice  of  her  profession  in 
Pittsfield,  Mass.,  where  slie  remained  for  eight 
years.  Since  then  she  has  been  a  resilient  of 
Springfield. 

Dr.  Frissell  became  a  member  of  Hamjxlen 
County  Medical  Society  in  1885,  being  the 
first  woman  in  Western  Massachu.setts  to  be 
admitted  to  any  district  medical  society.  She 
was  the  fourth  woman  to  be  admitted  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society.  She 
is  an  honorary  member  of  the  Alumna'  Asso- 
ciation of  the  AVoman's  Medical  College,  Phil- 
adelphia; a  member  of  the  Mercy  Warren 
Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion; of  E.  K.  Wilcox  Relief  Corps;  of  the 
American  Medical  Association;  of  the  Spring- 
field Mount  Holyoke  Alumna'  Association;  of 
the  Alumna^  Association  of  Michigan  I'niver- 
sity;  and  of  the  College  Club. 

In  1896  Dr.  Frissell  took  a  course  in  elec- 
trotlieraj^eutics.  For  some  time  she  has  been 
medical  examiner  for  the  Berkshire  Life  In- 
■■■''rance   Company.      She   is  a  memlier  of   the 

.rst  Congregational  Church  of  Springfield. 
During  her  residence  in  Pittsfield  she  was 
elected  the  first  president  of  the  Woman's 
Chiistian  Temperance  Union  of  that  city.  For 
seven  years  she  was  president  of  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Missions  of  the  South  Church.  She 
has  been  superintendent  of  the  Department  of 
Heredity  and  Health,  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  for  Hampden  County;  and 
diu'ing  1890-91  she  was  resident  physician  and 
lecturer  on  physiology  and  hygiene    at   IMount 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


293 


Holyoke  College.  Her  specialty  has  been  di- 
seases of  women  and  chiklren.  While  devoted 
to  her  profession,  she  is  interested  in  the  pro- 
gressive movements  of  the  day,  ami  her  sym- 
pathies are  as  broad  as  humanity. 

Dr.  Fris.sell  is  the  author  of  several  inter- 
esting papers,  notal)ly  one  on  Memorial  Day  in 
Hampton,  Va.  She  presented  before  the  Amer- 
ican Medical  Association  a  valuable  paper  on  the 
treatment  of  diphtheria  without  alcoliol,  which 
was  published  in  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion Journal,  November  13,  1897.  She  has 
also  written  papers  on  the  following  topics: 
"Tobacco,"  "Contents  of  a  Teapot,"  "Why 
I'm  a  Temperance  Doctor,"  "Hygiene:  Why 
it  should  be  taught  in  our  Public  Schools," 
"Prevention  better  than  Cure,"  "Colonial 
Flags  and  the  Evolution  of  the  Stars  and 
Stripes,"  also  "Pioneer  Women   in  Medicine." 


AE    DURELL    FRAZAR   was    born 
Calais,    Me.      Her    father,     the 


m 


J^^  Y  J_  Rev.  George  Wells  Durell,  was 
an  Episcopalian  clergyman.  The 
early  years  of  her  life  were  spent  in  the 
quiet  New  England  town  of  her  birth.  Later 
the  family  removed  to  Somerville,  Mass., 
where  she  attended  the  public  schools.  She 
married  General  Douglas  Frazar,  a  gentleman 
who  had  travelled  widely  and  had  nmch 
literary  attainment.  He  was  the  author  of 
several  books,  one  of  which,  "Practical  Boat 
Sailing,"  has  been  translated  into  many  lan- 
guages, and  is  in  use  to-day  among  all  standard 
yacht  clubs.  When  asked  where  she  received 
her  education,  Mrs.  Frazar  answers:  "Why, 
I  am  being  educated  now.  It  has  been  a 
daily  growth  right  along.  All  that  I  am. 
however,  I  feel  that  I  owe  to  Mr.  Frazai. 
In  my  own  home  I  learned  rich  lessons  from 
books,  people,  and  the  world." 

Mrs.  Frazar  is,  doubtless,  the  best  known 
and  the  most  enterjirising  and  successful 
if  not  the  only  woman  tourist  agent  in  the 
LTnited  States.  She  is  a  cheery,  wide-awake 
body,  full  of  originality  and  up-to-date  ideas. 
The  story  of  the  life  of  the  woman  who  has 
personally  conducted  abroad,  with  skill  and 
.satisfaction    during    the    past    twelve    years, 


the  "Frazar  Parties,"  frecjuently  mentioned 
in  the  newspapers  of  our  own  antl  other  coun- 
tries, is  most  interesting. 

A  chance  visitor  will  find  her  in  her  office 
at  almost  any  hour  of  the  day,  busy  at  her 
desk;  for  she  is  a  journalist  and  lecturer  as 
well  as  guide  and  philosopher.  She  is  so 
calm  in  manner,  so  full  of  courteous  attention 
to  her  caller,  that  it  is  difficult  to  realize  what 
an  indefatigable  worker  the  woman  is.  Quick 
and  keen  in  business,  energetic,  courageous 
in  expressing  her  views,  she  is  yet  a  most 
womanly  woman.  Contact  with  the  world 
has  not  robbed  her  of  her  strong  personality 
or   her   feminine   refinement. 

It  was  after  several  years  of  intermittent 
newsjiaper  writing  that  Mrs.  Frazar  became 
editor  and  publisher  of  a  paper  called  The 
Home  Life.  As  the  name  implies,  it  was 
meant  to  be  useful  and  instructive  to  all 
members  of  the  family.  It  was  a  journal 
of  sixteen  pages  and  of  excellent  literary 
cpiality.  She  eilited  it  entirely  herself  and 
attended  to  all  the  ailvertising,  bringing  the 
circulation  up  in  three  years  to  over  ten  thou- 
sand copies.  When  engaged  in  this  work 
she  came  in  contact  with  all  sorts  antl  con- 
ditions of  men,  and  gained  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  business  life. 

Yielding  to  an  urgent  recjuest  to  take  charge 
of  a  party  of  young  people  during  a  European 
trip,  she  returned  to  find  General  Frazar's 
health  failing.  A  change  of  climate  was 
(.rdered,  and  they  took  up  their  residence 
in  the  city  of  Mexico.  This  change  necessi- 
tated giving  up  the  paper.  Being  sole  owner 
of  i'  business,  she  quickly  arranged  with 
anotiiL-r  journal  to  fill  her  subscriptions  until 
their  expiration.  She  retained  all  the  copy- 
rights, and  looks  forward  to  the  day  when 
she  shall  have  opportunity  to  give  The  Home 
Life  a  new  lease  of  existence. 

While  in  Mexico  she  made  a  careful  study 
of  the  people  and  their  customs,  ami  furnished 
a' syndicate  of  nine  papers  with  letters  during 
her  entire  stay  in  that  charming  country. 
Mr.  Frazar  continued  to  fail,  antl  after  eight 
years  of  heroic  suffering  died  in  1896  in  his 
native  State,  Massachusetts. 

In   1889  Mrs.   Frazar  started,   as  a  regular 


294 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


business,  the  managing  ixiid  conducting  of 
European  parties.  She  says,  "Experience 
has  shown  me  that  Americans  neetl  to  see 
Europe  carefully,  particularly  where  the  in- 
fluence of  things  seen  and  studied  shall  be 
for  the  benefit  of  our  own  country."  In  this 
connection  she  encourages  journalistic  work 
among  her  patrons,  several  of  whom  have 
achieved  therein  great  success.  Rooks  of  de- 
cided merit  have  grown  out  of  this  work. 

The  whole  scheme  of  travel  is  carried  out 
as  if  planned  for  an  individual.  The  growth 
of  her  business  has  made  assistance  necessary, 
and  several  young  men  of  culture  and  travel 
are  now  helping  in  it.  The  business  is  de- 
cidedly educational,  and  through  interest  in 
travel  and  the  attending  study  of  art  and 
literature  Mrs.  Frazar  has  accunmlated  a 
rich  store  of  knowledge,  which  makes  her 
a  most  fascinating  and  instructive  lecturer. 
Appearing  in  this  capacity  before  numerous 
cluiis  and  societies,  she  has  formed  strong 
friendships  among  club  women,  and  has 
become  an  active  member  of  several  clubs. 
Two  years  ago  she  was  elected  president  of 
the  Daughters  of  Maine  Club  of  Somerville, 
which  is  made  up  of  four  hundretl  women 
from  the  Pine  Tree  State,  and  whose  work 
is  purely  literary.  This  office  she  still  holds. 
At  the  present  time  she  is  on  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  National  Magazine  of  lioston 
and  of  the  Somerville  Journal,  finding  time 
also  to  do  much  work  for  the  Boston  Tran- 
script. 

Mrs.  Frazar  dwells  with  much  pleasure 
on  a  certain  incident  in  her  life,  which  grew 
out  of  her  own  stvirdy  sense  of  justice.  At 
one  time  certain  people  came  to  this  covmtry 
from  Italy  to  give  addresses  upon  the  political 
conditions  of  that  country.  She  felt  that 
gross  misrepresentations  were  made,  and  came 
out  with  a  vigorous  jjrotest,  in  the  lioston 
Transcript,  correcting  statements,  and  urging 
that  no  country  has  the  right  to  interfere  with 
what  another  country  considers  its  depart- 
ments of  political  justice.  The  Italians  of 
Boston  appreciated  this  and  gave  a  reception 
to  Mrs.  Frazar,  at  which  she  was  publicly 
thanked  for  her  generous  sympathy,  and 
was   presented   with   a   tribute   of   flowers   tied 


with  the  Italian  colors.  These  flowers  were 
the  gift  of  one  thousand  Italians,  each  of 
whon\  contributed  one  cent,  this  small  sum 
having  been  purposely  fixed  so  that  the  ]ioorest 
might  share  in  the  offering. 

Mrs.  Frazar  has  two  sons:  Gerard,  the 
commercial  editor  of  the  Globe,  and  Amherst 
IXirell,  who  is  connected  with  the  Swift 
Wool   Company. 

Whether  pacing  the  deck  of  an  Atlantic 
steamer  as  one  of  her  jiatrons,  or  interrupting 
her  at  her  editorial  duties,  or  making  known 
to  her  some  need  of  charity,  one  finds  in  Mrs. 
Frazar  a  symjiathetic,  genuine  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  others.  Perhaps  it  is  this 
unselfishness  that  makes  her  so  universally 
beloved. 


GRACE  B.  FAXON  was  born  in  Lynn, 
Ma.ss.,  October  21,  1877.  Daughter 
of  George  and  Mary  Alice  (Board- 
man)  Faxon,  she  is  of  the  ninth  gen- 
eration of  the  Faxon  family  in  New  Eng- 
land. Her  paternal  grandparents  were  George' 
Faxon  {James,"''  Richard,*  Thomas,'  Richard,^ 
Thomas'),  born  in  1796,  and  his  wife  Abigail, 
daughter  of  William  and  Abigail  (Newcomb) 
Baxter  and  a  descendant  of  John  Alden.  The 
ancestral  line  is  given  below. 

Ruth  Alden  (tlaughter  of  John  and  Pris- 
cilla)  married  John  Bass,  Mary  Bass  married 
Christopher  Webb,  Sarah  Webb  married  Seth 
Arnold,  Mary  Arnold  married  John  Spear, 
Prudence  Spear  married  Daniel  Ba.xter,  and 
was  the  mother  of  William  Baxter  and  grand- 
mother of  Abigail. 

Miss  Faxon's  maternal  grandparents  were 
Israel  Putnam  Boardman  and  his  wife  Caro- 
line Elizabeth,  the  former  a  son  of  Nathaniel 
and  Nancy  (Putnam)  Boardman.  Israel  Put- 
nam, father  of  Nancy,  was  of  the  sixth  genera- 
tion of  the  family  founded  by  John'  Putnam, 
of  Salem  Village,  from  whom  he  descended 
through  his  son  Nathaniel." 

Mrs.  Caroline  ]<].  Boardman's  maiden  name 
was  Gould.  Daughter  of  Moses  and  Mehita- 
ble  (Upton)  Gould,  she  was  descended  from 
Zaccheus  Gould,  of  Topsfield,  and  from  John 
Upton,   fovmder   of   the   New   England   family 


GRACE    B.  FAXON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


295 


of  this  name,  also  from  Governor  Endicott, 
from  the  Rev.  Samuel  Skelton,  and  other  early 
colonists. 

Seven  of  Miss  Faxon's  ancestors  served  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  among  them  being 
Captain  Etlmund^  Ptitnam  (father  of  Israel" 
above  named),  who  connnanded  one  of  the 
companies  of  militia  that  marched  from  Dan- 
vers  in  response  to  the  Lexington  alarm  of 
April  19,  1775. 

George"  Faxon  dying  when  his  daughter 
Grace  was  ten  years  of  age,  she  went  with  her 
widowed  mother  antl  family  to  reside  with 
her  maternal  grandparents  in  Danvers,  Mass. 
Her  schcjol  life  was  but  little  prolonged  be- 
yond the  early  years  of  her  girlhood.  Miss 
Faxon  has,  however,  been  a  wide  reader  and 
diligent  home  student.  Prompted  by  a  fond- 
ness for  the  Bessie  books,  when  only  seven  she 
wrote  a  series  of  stories;  at  eight  she  had  read 
all  of  Dickens;  and  at  sixteen  she  was  teaching 
a  tlistrict  school  in  which  many  of  the  pupils  were 
okler  than  she.  She  continued  teaching  for 
four  years,  having  charge  of  schools  successively 
in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts. 
Possessed  of  a  strong  tlramatic  temperament, 
she  early  became  interested  in  the  stage  as 
a  profession,  and  even  while  engaged  in  school- 
teachmg  she  studied  under  Rachel  Noah  and 
other  leading  teachers  of  dramatic  art  in  Boston. 
Taking  part  in  amateur  theatricals  in  <lift'er- 
ent  parts  of  the  country,  she  gained  some  rep- 
utation as  an  actress,  and  later  continued  her 
studies  in  New  York.  On  account  of  family 
opposition  she  finally  relinquished  the  idea 
of  going  on  the  stage,  but  frequently  appeared 
in  lectures  and  readings. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  she  turned  her  atten- 
tion to  writing  for  publication.  Her  first 
ventures  in  this  field  took  the  form  of  short 
stories  for  children  and  ailults.  Afterward 
she  wrote  for  teachers'  magazines,  and  in  less 
time  than  a  year  was  called  to  New  York  City 
to  join  the  editorial  staff  of  the  New  York 
School  Journal,  for  which  she  contributed  freely 
to  every  issue,  writing  on  school-room  sub- 
jects and  arranging  many  original  school-room 
entertainments.  She  resigned  that  [josition 
to  become  editor-in-chief  of  Wer7ier's  Maga- 
zine.    This  monthly,  devoted  to  the  stage  and 


platform,  she  ably  conducted  for  two  years. 
Going  abroad  in  1902,  where  she  witnessed 
the  coronation  ceremonies  of  King  Edward 
VII.,  she  studied  along  such  lines  as  would  fit 
her  for  writing  upon  and  teaching  dramatic 
subjects.  Miss  Faxon  has  written  a  play  for 
the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  en- 
titled "Maids  and  Matrons."  She  has  been 
prominent  in  New  York  City  club  life,  belong- 
ing to  the  New  York  Woman's  Press  Club, 
the  Professional  Woman's  League,  Actors' 
Church  Alliance,  Sunshine  Society,  and  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution. 

Removing  to  Boston  in  the  summer  of  1903 
to  be  near  her  family,  she  accepted  the  posi- 
tion of  literary  atlviser  in  a  Boston  publish- 
ing house,  meanwhile  contributing  to  that 
city's  dailies  and  weeklies.  A  few  months 
later  she  took  the  position  of  editor  of  the 
Suburban,  an  illustrated  weekly  publication  de- 
signed for  home  reading,  combining  news  and 
social  items  with  fiction  and  magazine  features. 
She  has  a  keen  interest  in  all  that  pertains  to 
the  advancement  of  her  sex,  believing  in  equal 
suffrage,  antl  her  constant  theme  in  writing  is 
"Woman's  Loyalty  to  Woman." 

In  the  Normal  Instructor  she  conilucts  a  de- 
partment of  expression  (the  only  one  of  its 
kind),  of  the  benefits  of  which  teachers  all 
through  the  United  States  enthusiastically 
speak.  Miss  Faxon  is  in  religious  affiliation 
an  ardent  Unitarian. 


CLARA  BARTON,  the  first  President 
of  the  American  National  Red  Cross, 
was  born  in  North  Oxford,  Ma.ss., 
December  25,  1S21,  daughter  of 
Stephen  and  Sally  (Stone)  Barton.  She  was 
named  Clarissa  Harlow.  Her  father,  when 
a  young  man,  fought  under  General  Anthony 
Wayne  in  the  Indian  war  in  the  West,  and 
was  afterward  a  Captain  of  militia.  His 
parents  were  Dr.  Stephen  and  Dorothy  (Moore) 
Barton,  the  former  a  son  of  Ednmnd  Barton, 
of  Sutton,  a  sfjldier  in  the  French  war,  and 
the  latter  a  <laught('r  of  Elijah  Moore,  of 
Oxford,    and   his   wife,    Dorothy    Learned. 

Clara  Barton  in  girlhood  pursued  lier  studies 
under  the  tlirection  of  her  older  brothers  and 


296 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


sisters,  she  being  the  youngest  of  the  family 
of  five.  She  learned  something  of  business 
methods  by  serving  as  book-keeper  for  her 
brother  Stephen,  a  majiufacturer.  Adopting 
at  an  early  age  the  profession  of  teacher, 
she  taught  school  for  several  years  in  North 
Oxford,  and  then  attended  the  Clinton  Liberal 
Institute  in  Central  New  York,  where  she 
studied  the  higher  branches  of  learning.  On 
leaving  the  Institute  she  went  with  some 
friends  to  New  Jersey.  In  that  State  there 
were  then  no  public  schools  worthy  the  name. 

At  Bordentown  she  obtained  permission 
of  the  local  authorities  to  open  a  free  school. 
The  school  began  with  six  boys,  others  came 
in,  and  soon  her  room  was  filled.  Before 
long  the  borough  built  a  .school-house  costing 
four  thousand  dollars,  and  a  little  later  the 
free  public  school  of  Bordentown,  with  Miss 
Barton  at  its  head,  had  six  hundred  pupils 
and  eight  teachers.  On  account  of  failing 
health  she  at  length  resigned  her  position  as 
teacher  and  went  to  Washington  to  recuperate. 
A  few  months  later  she  became  a  clerk  in  the 
Patent  Office.  This  was  in  1854.  Losing 
her  ])Osition  when  Buchanan  was  President, 
she  regained  it  after  the  election  of  Lincoln. 

Immediately  upon  hearing  of  the  assault 
on  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment  at 
Baltimore,  she  offered  her  services  to  the  War 
Department.  Through  her  personal  appeals 
and  active  effort  train-loads  of  supplies  were 
secured  and  forwarded '  to  the  front  for  the 
soldiers    in    the    field. 

She  visited  the  hospitals,  and  went  with 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  ministering  on  the 
battle-fields  to  the  wounded.  She  personally 
superintended  the  forwarding  of  supplies, 
often  riding  on  wagon  trains  many  days  and 
nights,  reaching  the  scenes  of  bloodshed  in 
time  to  minister  to  the  wounded  and  dying. 

Although  her  sensitive  nature  shrank  from 
these  scenes  of  war,  she  continued  her  human- 
itarian work  in  the  thickest  of  the  conflict. 
She  was  in  the  siege  of  Charleston,  and  was 
at  Fort  Wagner,  Petersburg,  and  some  of 
the  other  most  important  fields  of  warfare. 
Her  ability,  good  judgment,  ([uick  perception, 
and  tireless  energy  were  appreciated  by  sur- 
geons, commanding  generals,  and  the  officials 


at  Washington;  and  every  facility  possible  was 
placed  at  her  disposal  by  those  in  power,  for 
they  realized  that  her  services  were  invaluable. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  there  were 
eighty  thousand  missing  men  on  the  muster- 
rolls  of  the  United  States.  The  work  of 
examining  these  rolls  and  locating  the  burial- 
places  of  the  fallen  who  were  left  on  the  field 
was  an  undertaking  that  required  skill,  forti- 
tude, and  patience.  Miss  Barton,  however, 
was  efjual  to  the  task,  and  instituted  the 
"  Bureau  of  Missing  Men  of  the  Armies  of  the 
United  States."  This  was  a  great  comfort 
to  the  anxious  friends  of  martyred  thousands, 
whose  records  and  names  were  secured  and 
placed  on  the  official  rolls  at  Washington. 
Through  her  instrumentality  stones  were  placed 
over  the  graves  of  twelve  thousand,  nine  hun- 
dred and  twenty  soldiers  at  Andersonville 
and  tablets  erected  in  memory  of  the  four 
hundred   "Unknown." 

Miss  Barton  continued  this  work  four  years, 
expen(Ung  fifteen  thousantl  dollars  of  her 
own  funds,  for  which  she  was  reimbursed  by 
Congress. 

In  order  to  extend  the  interest  in  the  returned 
soldiers  who  had  suffered  for  their  country, 
she  often  related  at  public  gatherings  stories 
of  her  experiences  on  the  field  and  in  hospitals. 

In  1869  she  was  advised  by  her  physician 
to  visit  Europe  and  take  a  much  needed  rest. 
She  intended  leading  a  quiet  life  abroad  three 
years,  but  her  fame  had  ])receded  her.  Ar- 
riving in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  September, 
1869,  she  was  visited  the  following  month 
by  the  President  and  members  of  the  "Inter- 
national Conunittee  for  the  Relief  of  the 
Wounded  in  War,"  who  desired  her  co-of)eration 
in  securing  the  adoption  by  the  United  States 
of  the  treaty  of  the  Red  Cross. 

The  idea  of  forming  permanent  societies 
for  the  relief  of  wounded  sohUers  originated 
with  Henri  Dunant,  a  Swi.ss  gentleman  who 
had  been  deeply  impressed  by  the  scenes 
of  suffering  following  tlie  liattle  of  Solferino 
in  Jime,  1859.  Lecturing  in  Geneva  before 
the  "Society  of  Public  LTtility,"  he  interested 
M.  Gustave  Moynier,  its  president.  Dr.  Ivouis 
A])pin,  and  others.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
society   held    in    February,    1863,    the   subject 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


297 


was  discussed,  and  a  committee  was  formed, 
with  M.  Moynier  at  its  head,  to  take  action. 
In  response  to  a  circular  issued  by  the  commit- 
tee some  months  later,  there  was  held  in  Geneva 
in  October,  1863,  an  international  conference 
of  thirty-six  members,  among  them  being 
representatives  of  fourteen  governments.  The 
conference  lasted  four  days.  Its  proceed- 
ings were  marked  by  a  "general  unanimity, 
as  new  as  it  was  spontaneous,  on  a  question 
of  humanity,  instantaneously  developed  into 
one  of  philanthropic  urgency." 

The  result  was  the  calling,  by  the  conference, 
of  an  international  convention,  which  held 
its  sessions  in  Geneva  in  August,  1864.  At 
this  convention  was  adopted  a  treaty  consist- 
ing of  a  code  of  ten  articles,  since  known  as 
the  Geneva  Treaty,  or  tlie  International  Red 
Cross  Treaty,  the  sign  or  batlge  agreed  upon 
being  a  red  cross  on  white  ground. 

The  first  government  to  adopt  the  treaty 
was  that  of  France  in  September,  1864;  the 
eleventh.  Great  Britain  in  February,  1865; 
the  thirty-first,  Peru  in  1880.  The  formation 
of  national  and  of  local  societies  of  the  Red 
Cross  followed  in  every  case  the  adoption 
of  the  treaty. 

Miss  Barton  listened  with  deepest  interest 
to  the  account  of  the  Red  Cross  movement 
given  to  her  by  its  leaders  in  Geneva,  and, 
as  she  says,  was  "  impressed  with  the  wisdom 
of  its  principles  and  the  good  practical  sense 
of  its  details."  During  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  she  saw  the  excellent  work  done  under 
the  Red  Cross  banner  in  the  field — saw  it 
and  took  part  in  it,  and  resolved  that  she 
would  try  to  make  the  people  of  her  native 
country  understand  the  Red  Cross  and  the 
treaty. 

On  her  return  to  America  in  1873,  after 
her  exhausting  labors  in  Strasburg,  in  Paris, 
and  at  Metz,  she  having  previously  aided  the 
Duchess  of  Baden  in  establishing  military 
hospitals.  Miss  Barton  was  more  in  need  of 
rest  than  when  she  went  abroad  in  1869. 
A  period  of  invalidism  and  suffering  followed. 
Late  in  the  year  1877  she  was  able  to  go  to 
Washington  as  the  official  bearer  of  a  letter 
from  M.  Moynier,  president  of  the  International 
Committee    of    Geneva,    to    President    Hayes, 


urging  the  atloption  by  the  United  States 
of  the  Geneva  Treaty.  The  letter  was  kindly 
received,  but  its  appeal  met  with  no  response. 
Writing  newspaper  articles  and  publishing 
pamphlets.  Miss  Barton  continued  her  ad- 
vocacy of  the  cause  until  the  coming  in  of 
a  new  administration  in  March,  1881.  She 
then  lost  little  time  in  presenting  a  copy  of 
M.  Moynier 's  letter  to  President  Garfield, 
whose  interest  and  sympathy  were  expressed 
a  few  weeks  later  in  a  letter  of  acknowledg- 
ment written  to  Miss  Barton  by  Secretary 
Blaine. 

Miss  Barton  now  felt  that  it  would  be  well 
to  anticipate  and  facilitate  the  desired  action 
of  Congress  by  beginning  to  form  societies. 
A  meeting  that  was  held  in  Washington  in 
May,  1881,  to  further  this  end,  resulted  in 
the  formation  of  "The  American  Association 
of  the  Reil  Cross,"  of  which  Clara  Barton  was 
made  president.  The  first  local  society  of 
the  Red  Cross  in  the  Ihiited  States  was  formetl 
at  Dansville,  N.Y.,  the  country  home  of  Miss 
Barton,  in  August,  1881.  The  adhesion  of 
the  United  States  to  the  Treaty  of  Geneva 
was  given  on  March  1,  1882,  this  nation  being 
the  thirty-second  to  take  such  action  and  the 
first  to  adopt  the  proposed  amendment  of 
October,  1868,  concerning  the  Red  Cross  for 
the  navy. 

The  American  Association  of  the  Red  Cross, 
it  should  be  mentio^ied,  was  legally  incorporated 
in  the  District  of-  Columbia.  A  broader 
scope  was  given  to  its  humane  work  by  the 
adoption  by  the  ratifying  congress  at  Berne 
of  the  '"American  amendment,'  whereby  the 
suffering  incident  to  great  floods,  famines, 
epidemics,  conflagrations,  cyclones,  or  other 
disasters  of  national  magnitude,  may  be 
ameliorated  by  the  administering  of  necessary 
relief." 

On  April  17,  1893,  was  incorporated  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  to  continue  the  work 
of  the  American  Association  above  named, 
"The  American  National  Red  Cross,"  to 
constitute  the  Central  National  Committee 
of  the  United  States,  authorized  by  the  In- 
ternational Committee  of  Geneva.  The 
American  National  Red  Cross  was  reincor- 
porated   by    Congress    in    1900.     Miss    Barton 


298 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


held  the  office  of  President  till  her  retirement 
in  the  spring  of  the  present  year  (1904),  when 
she   was   succeeded   by   Mrs.   John   A.   Logan. 

From  the  beginning  the  American  Red 
Cross,  so  long  under  the  efficient  leadership 
of  Clara  Barton,  has  been  in  active  relief 
work  in  times  of  national  woe  and  calamity, 
finding  its  duties  in  such  occasions  as  (to 
mention  but  a  few)  the  forest  fires  of  Michigan 
in  1881;  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  floods  of 
1884;  the  Johnstown  disaster,  1889:  the  Rus- 
sian famine,  1891-92;  the  South  Carolina 
tidal  wave,  1893;  Armenian  massacres,  1896; 
anil  later  among  the  "reconcentrados"  of 
Cuba  and  in  field  and  camj)  and  hospitals 
during  the  Spanish-American  War.  The  story 
of  these  activities  would  fill  volumes. 

Referring  to  the  work  in  Cuba,  the  Hon. 
Retlfield  Proctor,  in  a  speech  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  March  17,  1898,  said:  "Miss 
Barton  antl  her  work  need  no  endorsement 
from  me.  I  liad  kjiown  and  esteemed  her 
for  many  years,  but  had  not  half  appreciated 
her  capability  and  devotion  to  her  work. 
I  especially  looked  into  her  business  methods, 
fearing  there  would  be  the  greatest  danger 
of  mistake,  that  there  might  be  want  of  system, 
waste,  and  extravagance,  but  found  she  could 
teach  me  on  these  points.  In  short,  I  saw 
nothing  to  criticise,  but  everything  to  com- 
mend." 

The  following  extract  from  the  official 
report  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  B.  F.  Pope, 
Chief  Surgeon,  Fifth  Army  Corps,  battles 
of  San  Juan,  El  Caney,  Santiago  de  Cuba, 
is  additional  testimony  to  the  invaluable 
aid  rendered  by  this  distinguished  woman: 
"  In  Major  Wood's  hospital  over  one  thousand 
wounded  men  were  received  within  three 
days;  and,  in  spite  of  lack  of  shelter  and 
the  subsequent  exposure  to  intense  heat  and 
drenching  rains,  the  mortality  rate  was  less 
than  seven  per  cent.  .  .  .  Early  after  the  battle 
the  hospital  was  honored  by  the  presence 
of  Miss  Clara  Barton  and  her  staff  of  four 
assistants,  who  immediately  set  up  their 
tents  and  cooking  apparatus,  and  labored 
incessantly,  day  and  night,  in  the  broiling 
sun  and  drenching  rain,  preparing  sick  food 
for  the  wountled  and  serving  it  to  them,  and 


in  a  thousand  other  ways  giving  the  help  that 
the  Red  Cross  Society  brings." 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  December  5, 
1898,  President  McKinley  .said:  "In  this  con- 
nection it  is  a  pleasure  for  me  to  mention 
in  terms  of  cordial  appreciation  the  timely 
and  useful  work  of  the  American  National 
Red  Cross,  both  in  relief  measures  preparatory 
to  the  cam]3aigns,  in  sanitary  assistance  at 
several  of  the  camps  of  assemblage,  and  later, 
imder  the  able  and  experienced  leadership 
of  the  Presi<lent  of  the  society,  Miss  Clara 
Barton,  on  the  fields  of  battle  and  in  the 
hospitals  at  the  front  in  Cuba.  W'orking  in 
conjunction  with  the  governmental  authorities 
and  under  their  sanction  and  approval  and 
with  the  enthusiastic  co-operation  of  many 
patriotic  women  and  societies  in  the  various 
States,  the  Red  Cross  has  fully  maintained 
its  alreatly  high  reputation  for  intense  earnest- 
ness and  abifity  to  exercise  the  noble  purposes 
of  this  international  organization,  tluis  justify- 
ing the  confitlence  and  support  which  it  has 
received  at  the  hands  of  American  people. 
To  the  members  and  officers  of  this  society 
and  all  who  aided  them  in  philanthropic 
work  the  sincere  and  lasting  gratitude  of  the 
sokliers  and  the  public  is  due  anil  is  freely 
accorded." 

It  is  estimated  that  the  value  of  relief  ex- 
tended under  the  direction  of  Miss  Barton 
as  president  of  the  American  Red  Cross  was 
nearly  three  million  dollars.  She  represented 
the  United  States  at  several  international 
conferences  of  the  Red  Cross  in  Europe. 

Miss  Barton  is  a  cjuiet,  unassuming  woman 
in  appearance,  and  never  boasts  of  her  achieve- 
ments. She  is  dignified  in  manner,  self- 
possessed,  and  a  tireless  worker.  Among  the 
numerous  decorations  she  has  received  in 
recognition  of  her  meritorious  services  may 
be  mentioned  the  Iron  Cross  of  Prussia,  a 
badge  of  rare  distinction,  and  the  Golden 
Cross  of  Baden. 

In  1883  Miss  Barton  served  as  Superintendent 
of  the  Reformatory  Prison  for  Women  in 
Sherborn,  Mass.  While  she  has  had  but 
little  time  to  devote  to  other  work  than  that 
of  the  Red  Cross,  she  is  deeply  interested 
in  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  the 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


299 


Woman's  Relief  Corps,  the  only  recognized 
auxiliary  to  the  G.  A.  R.  She  is  a  Past  National 
Chaplain  of  the  National  Woman's  Relief 
Corps  anil  its  only  honorary  member.  She 
is  often  an  honored  guest  at  the  annual  gather- 
ings of  these  national  organizations,  and 
has  a  warm  place  in  the  hearts  of  tlieir  members. 
For  several  years  Miss  Barton  resided  in 
the  mansion  in  Washington  formerly  occupied 
by  General  Grant  as  his  headquarters.  During 
the  past  few  years  she  has  made  her  home 
at  Glen  Echo,  Md. 


SALOME  MERRITT,  M.D.,  daughter  of 
the  late  Increase  Sunmer  and  Susan 
(Penniman)  Merritt,  was  born  Febru- 
ary 22,  1843,  in  Templeton,  Mass.  She 
was  the  youngest  of  eleven  children,  seven  of 
whom  are  now  living.  Her  father  was  of  the 
Scituate  family  founded  by  Henry'  Merritt, 
whose  name  appears  in  the  Plymouth  Colony 
records  as  grantor  of  a  deed  in  1628.  Her 
mother  was  a  descendant  of  James  Penniman, 
of  Braintree,  Mass.,  and  his  wife  Lydia,  who 
was  a  sister  of  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the 
Intlians. 

The  Merritt  household  was  a  cheerful,  happy 
one,  unclouded  by  stern  discipline,  the  youth- 
ful gayety  of  the  children  heartil)'  encouraged 
by  their  parents.  Salome  was  a  wide-awake, 
lively  girl,  very  fond  of  pets,  making  play- 
fellows of  the  domestic  animals.  At  school 
she  was  bright  and  quick  to  master  difficult 
tasks.  Having  completed  the  courses  provided 
in  the  district  school  and  high  school,  she  taught 
for  a  few  terms.  After  that  she  continued  her 
education  at  the  seminary  in  East  Greenwich, 
R.L,  graduating  in  1864,  the  valedictorian  of 
her  class. 

For  the  next  seven  years  she  was  a  success- 
ful teacher;  but  longing  for  a  broader  field  of 
activity,  a  vocation  which  should  be  of  greater 
benefit  to  others,  she  decided  to  adopt  the 
profession  of  metlicine,  an  undertaking  attended 
in  those  days  with  many  difficulties,  not  the 
least  of  which  was  public  disfavor.  Conse- 
quently her  sister,  who  throughout  life  was 
her  devoted  companion,  sharing  all  her  hard- 
ships and  successes,  tried  to  dissuade  her,  but 


without  avail.  Her  resolution  taken,  she  en- 
tered the  Boston  Female  Medical  College.  This 
college  soon  passing  into  control  of  Boston  Uni- 
versity anil  changing  from  the  old  to  the  homcoo- 
pathic  school,  she  entered  the  New  York  Free 
Medical  College  for  Women,  from  which  she 
was  graduated  in  1874,  having  completed  in 
one  year  the  work  usually  assigned  for  a  three 
years'  course.  Upon  the  resignation  of  the 
noted  Dr.  J.  V.  C.  Smith,  profe.ssor  of  anatomy, 
Dr.  Merritt  was  upon  his  recommendation  ap- 
pointed to  fill  the  vacancy.  For  two  years  she 
remained  in  this  responsible  position,  proving 
fully  the  wisdom  of  the  choice;  but,  longing 
for  the  busy,  useful  life  of  an  active  practice, 
she  came  to  Boston,  and  established  herself  at 
59  Hancock  Street,  where  she  remained  until 
1896. 

Meantime  numerous  other  claims  demanded 
a  part  of  her  time.  She  was  a  born  sufTragist, 
and  worked  perseveringly  to  advance  the  cause 
in  all  directions,  national,  State,  and  mu- 
nicipal. She  originated  and  secured  several 
amendments  to  the  statutes  of  assessment  and 
registration  by  which  school  suffrage  was  made 
easier.  She  was  a  charter  member  of  the 
National  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  was  its 
president  in  1893,  and  from  the  start  always 
gave  her  earnest  support  and  unfailing  interest 
to  all  its  measures. 

As  a  voter  in  Ward  Ten,  Boston,  she  was 
active  in  all  matters  concerning  the  welfare  of 
the  public  schools,  and  diil  much  to  arouse  the 
interest  of  other  women.  As  a  member  of  the 
original  W^ard  and  City  Committee  of  Women 
Voters,  her  influence  and  exertions  were  di- 
rected toward  securing  the  election  of  the  best 
women  and  men  to  the  school  board,  thus  mak- 
ing it  a  greater  ])ower  for  good.  This  was  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  to  her,  and  she  de- 
voted to  it  much  of  her  time  and  strength. 
\Mien,  in  1888,  the  anti-Catholic  question  in 
the  management  of  the  public  schools  arose, 
Dr.  Merritt  took  a  firm  stand  against  the  meas- 
ure as  unconstitutional  and  un-American.  A 
year  later,  when  the  Citizens'  Public  School 
LTnion  w;is  formed,  she  was  made  its  president. 
This  organization  was  a  potent  factor  in  pre- 
venting the  board  from  being  made  an  entirely 
Protestant  body. 


300 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


She  was  one  of  the  founders  and  for  many 
years  vice-president  of  the  Moral  Education 
Association,  one  of  whose  aims  was  to  create 
an  interest  in  tlie  subject  of  physiological  in- 
struction in  the  high  schools.  She  presided 
over  a  meeting  held  in  one  of  the  halls  of  Bos- 
ton, in  which  the  subject  was  discussed  by  a 
goodly  number  of  earnest,  thoughtful  men  and 
women,  wlio  had  come  to  realize  its  need.  It 
was  a  great  .satisfaction  to  her,  near  the  close 
of  her  life,  to  know  that  the  movement  had 
gained  steadily  in  favor,  nmch  having  been 
done  to  advance  the  cause,  especially  in  pro- 
viding suitable  literature  and  giving  lectures. 

When  the  Hospital  Board  of  the  Woman's 
Charity  Club  was  ff)rmed,  she  became  an  ac- 
tive member,  always  ready  to  give  from  her 
experience  thoughts  and  suggestions  of  value 
in  this  new  field  of  woman's  work. 

In  188!)  she  was  the  originator  of  the  idea 
that  led  to  the  institution  of  the  Connnittee 
of  Counsel  and  Co-operation,  composed  of  dele- 
gates from  many  large  organizations.  Of  this 
"C.  C.  C."  she  was  chairman,  and  planned 
several  of  the  reforms  which  it  brought  about. 
Some  of  tlie  beneficial  results  of  their  labors 
are  the  reform  in  the  management  of  the  public 
institutions  of  ]3oston  and  the  appointment  of 
.women  on  prison  and  charitable  boards.  They 
have  worked  for  shorter  hours  in  mercantile 
establishments  and  for  other  measures  in  behalf 
of  working-women.  Along  the  line  of  moral 
reform  they  have  made  persistent  and  success- 
ful efforts.  They  were  also  instrumental  in 
checking  the  practice  of  spitting  in  the  public 
cars,  which  by  the  Board  of  Health  is  now  made 
punishable  by  a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars. 
For  several  years  their  attention  has  been 
given  to  the  subject  of  pui)lic  anuisements, 
effecting  the  removal  of  several  obscene  and 
demoralizing  exhibits.  This,  watchfulness  is 
a  healthy  restraint  on  the  managers  of  these 
places,  and  has  effected  a  decided  improve- 
ment in  the  character  of  the  displays. 

As  president  of  the  Ladies'  Physiological  In- 
stitute her  work  was  broad  and  fur-reaching. 
She  strove  to  eliminate  from  her  teaching  all 
obscure  technicalities  and  make  her  lectures 
plain,  practical,  and  so  interesting  as  to  hold 
the  attention  of  the  members  who  came  each 


week  from  far  ami  near.  She  was  leader,  in- 
structor, fellow-worker,  and  personal  friend; 
and  many  are  the  mothers  whose  children  reap 
the  benefit  of  her  wise  teachings. 

She  was  also  prominent  in  the  movement  in- 
augurated by  Mrs.  Alice  N.  Lincoln  for  a  re- 
form in  the  public  institutions  of  Boston,  which 
resulted  in  the  appointment  in  1892,  by  Mayor 
Matthews,  of  a  Board  of  Visitors,  "to  be,"  as 
he  wisely  expressed  it,  "eyes  and  ears  for  him." 
Hearings  Aveie  held  before  the  Conmiittee  on 
Public  Institutions,  and  few  who  listened  to  hei' 
will  ever  forget  Dr.  Merritt's  eloquent  plea  in 
behalf  of  this  measure.  Another  Board  of 
^^isitors  was  iijipointed  in  1894.  After  further 
hearings  a  committee  of  three,  of  which  Dr. 
Mcrritt  was  one,  )3rescnted  a  bill,  endorsed  by 
Mayor  Quincy,  asking  that  the  public  institu- 
tions of  Boston  be  divided,  and  that  separate 
departments  be  established  for  the  care  ot 
prisoners,  paupers,  children,  antl  insane  per- 
sons. Each  dcjiartment  was  to  have  a  Board 
of  Trustees,  composed  of  lioth  men  and  women. 
/This  measure  became  a  law  in  1897,  after  a 
bitter  contest.  In  this  work,  from  its  incipiency 
to  the  enactment  of  the  law.  Dr.  Merritt  was 
instrumental  in  enlisting  public  sentiment  and 
assistance. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  varied  interests 
she  was  ha|)piest,  best  known,  and  best  be- 
loved in  her  own  honie.  Sisters  and  brothers, 
nieces  and  nephews,  all  turned  to  her  for  ad- 
vice, sure  of  a  loving  sympathy  in  all  that  con- 
cerned them. 

It  is  impo.ssible  in  so  short  a  sketch  to  do 
justice  to  her  many-sided  character.  She  loved 
every  bieathing  creature;  and  many  a  forlorn, 
neglected  animal  in  her  neighborhood  has  she 
liefriended.  Babies  were  her  especial  care,  and 
her  interest  did  not  cease  with  the  need  for 
medical  attention.  Her  heart  went  out  to  the 
poor,  and  many  were  the  sick  and  needy  who 
were  gladdened  by  receiving  the  doctor's  bill 
receipted,  sometimes  followed  by  donations  of 
food  and  clothing.  When  the  holidays  were 
near,  the  Merritt  kitchen  was  a  busy  place, 
and  various  were  the  dishes  of  good  whole- 
some food,  prepared  often  by  tired  hands,  that 
were  carried  late  at  night  to  households  where 
such  dainties  had  been  hitherto  unknown.     It 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


301 


was  onlj'  when  some  friend  whose  calls  pene- 
trated to  all  parts  of  the  house  discovered  the 
workers  at  their  tasks  that  these  benefactions 
became  known;  for  one  of  the  watchwords  of 
that  household  was,  "Let  not  thy  left  hantl 
know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth." 

Dr.  Merritt's  original  and  independent  habit 
of  thought  on  all  subjects  could  not  fail  to 
evince  itself  in  her  religious  belief.  Without 
seeking  opportunities,  she  did  not  shrink  from 
ex|iressing  her  own  individual  persuasion  when 
conversing  with  jjcrsons  of  a  different  faith. 
Her  love  of  truth  could  not  abide  the  obvious 
jjievarications  of  those  who  believe  in  the 
evangelical  doctrines,  yet  live  in  utter  disre- 
garil  for  the  welfare  of  others,  apparently  only 
desirous  to  benefit  self.  Many  have  heard  her 
tjuote  the  memorable  words  of  Thomas  Paine, 
"The  work!  is  my  country,  to  do  good  is  my 
religion."  80  well  was  this  known  that  the 
Ladies'  Physiological  Institute,  of  which  she 
was  jiresident,  in  selecting  for  her  a  birthday 
gift,  chose  an  exquisite  little  statue  of  Paine, 
which  she  prized  more  highly  than  she  could 
have  ilone  some  more  costly  token  of  ordinary 
senthnent. 

At  one  time,  perhaps  in  the  eighties,  the 
opportunity  came  for  Dr.  Merritt  to  witness  in 
her  own  house  some  of  the  then  unusual  {ihe- 
nomena  of  sj)irit  power,  and  her  interest  was 
arouseil  to  make  a  study. of  this  belief.  All 
went  well  until  one  evening  she  was  called 
away.  On  her  return,  being  told  of  the  ful- 
filment of  a  promise  that  "something  more 
wonderful  than  before  would  be  given  when 
the  conditions  were  all  favorable,"  she  im- 
pulsiveh'  exclaimed,  "I  don't  believe  it";  and 
for  several  years  utterly  re])udiated  all  her 
former  conclusions.  Afterward,  however,  she 
felt  that  it  had  been  a  mistake  to  throw  away 
such  opportunity,  and  asked  a  friend,  when 
they  were  about  to  i)art  for  the  sunmier,  to 
keep  her  in  mind  and  write  to  her  if  she  had  any 
message. 

In  her  earlier  days  she  was  called  an  atheist, 
but  she  disavowed  this  charge  by  referring 
to  another  state  of  existence,  and  in  her  last 
illness,  speaking  of  the  hereafter,  said,  "  There'll 
be  work  for  me  to  do  there."  She  died  Novem- 
ber   7,    1900.     Premature    as    her    transition 


seemed,  Dr.  Merritt,  if  we  can  judge  by  the  good 
accomplished  and  the  amount  of  her  un- 
selfish labor  for  the  benefit  of  others,  had 
roundetl  out  a  long  life. 


MARGARET  HAMILTON,  past  presi- 
dent of  the  National  Army  Nurse 
Association,  is  one  of  the  heroines 
of  the  Civil  War  whose  recoril 
deserves  a  place  in  its  history.  Her  experi- 
ence as  an  army  nurse  was  in  her  early  woman- 
hood, when  she  bore  her  maiden  name,  Mar- 
garet Mahoney.  She  was  marrietl  in  Phila- 
delphia in  November,  1864,  to  Charles  Roberts 
Hamilton,  a  soldier  of  the  Nineteenth  Maine 
A'olunteers,  whom  she  had  first  met  while  she 
was  on  duty  in  the  Satterlee  Hospital. 

Born  October  19,  1840,  in  Rochester, 
N.Y.,  Mrs.  Hamilton  is  the  only  chikl  of  the 
late  Cornelius  and  Mary  (Sheehan)  Mahoney. 
Her  paternal  grandparents  were  Dennis  Ma- 
honey and  his  wife  Margaret,  for  whom  she 
was  named.  'She  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  and  St.  Joseph's  Seminary  at  Ennnits- 
burg,  Md.  Here  she  joined  the  order  of  Sis- 
ters of  Charity,  going  through  the  novitiate, 
and  was  sent  by  them  to  teach  at  St.  Joseph's 
Asylum  at  Albany,  N.Y.,  where  she  remained 
for  a  year  and  a  half.  She  was  with  the  sis- 
ters four  years;  but,  before  it  was  time  to  take 
the  vows  (which  is  done  in  the  fifth  year), 
she  found  that  she  hail  no  vocation  for  that 
life,  and  left  the  order,  but  with  respect  for  it 
and  the  best  of  feeling  for  those  with  whom  she 
had  been  associateil. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1862  an  ortler  came 
from  the  Mother  House  for  three  other  nurses 
ami  herself  to  go  to  the  Satterlee  United  States 
Military  Hospital  in  West  Philadelphia.  Dr. 
Isaac  I.  Hayes,  the  Arctic  explorer,  was  the 
surgeon  in  charge,  being  assistetl  by  Dr.  James 
Williams,  Dr.  John  S.  Billings,  and  others.  The 
hospital  was  built  to  accommodate  five  thousand 
patients,  and  was  opened  May  1,  1862. 

Referring  to  her  experiences,  Mrs.  Hamilton 
says:  "We  fared  poorly  for  some  time,  as  the 
commissary  department  had  not  been  estab- 
lished nor  the  necessary  conveniences  for  work 
supplied.     A   day   or    two   later   hundreds   of 


302 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


our  brave  boys  arrived  from  the  Chickahoni- 
iny  swamps.  The  ward  surgeons,  metUcal 
cadets,  and  the  commissary  department  arrived 
with  them.  Now  the  real  work  of  hospital 
life  began  in  earnest.  The  first  week  after 
the  arrival  of  these  wounded  and  fever-stricken 
boys  we  had  scarcely  time  to  eat,  rest,  or  sleep. 
During  the  battles  that  followed  in  1S62,  1863, 
and  1864  our  hospital  was  constantly  filled. 
From  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg  more 
soldiers  were  received  than  ever  before.  The 
wards  were  overcrowded,  and  tents  were 
erected  on  the  grounds  to  accommodate  two 
thousand.  The  most  of  these  were  colored 
troops,  who,  when  convalescent,  made  it 
lively  with  camp-meeting  hymns,  which 
greatly  amused  some  of  the  boys.  The 
weather  was  extremely  warm,  and  the  vast 
number  of  the  wounded  made  careful  attention 
to  their  wounds  impossible.  Upon  the  arrival 
of  the  men  at  the  hospital  many  of  the  wounds 
were  full  of  vermin,  and  in  numerous  cases 
gangrene  had  set  in.  The  odor  was  almost 
unbearable.  So  increased  was  '  the  demand 
on  our  time  and  labor  that  the  number  of 
nurses  seemed  utterly  inadequate,  and  the 
hospital  presented  a  true  picture  of  the  horrors 
of  war.  Amid  such  scenes  of  dreadful  suffer- 
ing, borne  so  uncomplainingly,  my  life  as 
an  army  nunse  was  passed.  Yet  it  is  with 
feelings  of  thankfulness  to  God  that  I  recall 
those  times,  and  know  that  I  was  permitted 
to  give  almost  three  years  of  the  best  of  my 
life  to  the  country  I  love  and  to  its  brave 
defenders." 

Mrs.  Hamilton  was  one  of  those  who  vol- 
unteered to  nurse  the  soldiers  stricken  with 
small-pox,  which  meant  isolation  from  all 
but  the  patients.  Sister  Mary  Xavier,  a  loyal, 
loving  nurse,  who  was  associated  with  her  in 
the  j)est  department,  died  while  in  the  per- 
formance of  these  duties.  After  the  battle 
of  th(>  Wilderness  in  the  summer  of  1864, 
small-pox  again  visited  this  hospital,  and 
Mrs.  Hamilton  once  more  occupied  the  post 
of  danger  in  caring  for  the  patients.  In  No- 
vember, 1864,  on  account  of  failing  health, 
she  was  obliged  to  leave  the  hospital,  her 
inability  to  continue  in  the  service  being  a 
great  disappointment  to  her. 


Mrs.  Hamilton's  interest  in  the  men  who 
saved  the  Union  will  never  cease.  The  re- 
unions and  other  celebrations  connected  with 
the  national  encampments  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic  are  occasions  of  great  enjoy- 
ment, whenever  she  has  the  privilege  of  attend- 
ing them.  She  has  been  elected  chaplain  of 
the  H.  M.  W^arren  Relief  Corps  of  Wakefiekl, 
Mass.,  several  years  in  succession,  and  is 
highly  esteemed  by  the  comrades  of  the  post 
to  which  this  corps  is  auxiliary. 

When  the  Army  Nurse  Association  of  Massa- 
chusetts was  organized,  in  1892,  Mrs.  Hamilton 
was  chosen  secretary,  and  has  continued  in 
the  office.  She  was  president  of  the  National 
Army  Nurse  Association,  having  been  elected 
at  its  annual  meeting  in  Washington,  D.C., 
in  1902.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Ladies'  Ai(l 
Association  of  the  Massachusetts  Soldiers' 
Home,  and  often  visits  this  home  in  Chelsea. 

She  is  a  member  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
of  Wakefield. 

Eight  children,  two  sons  and  six  daughters, 
were  the  fruit  of  the  union  of  Margaret  antl 
Charles  Roberts  Hamilton.  The  eldest  child, 
Charles  West,  died  February  10,  1869,  in  Phila- 
delphia. The  other  son,  George  Gordon,  died 
February  22,  1901,  aged  twenty-four  years. 
Six  children  are  living,  namely — Anna  May, 
Margaret  Esther,  Blanche  Roberts,  Charlotte 
Douglas,  Lucy  Belle,  antl  Ruth  Florence.  Anna 
May  Hamilton  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  and 
was  five  years  old  when  her  parents  came  to 
Massachu-setts.  She  was  graduated  from  Welles- 
ley  College  in  the  cla.ss  of  1890.  She  is  professor 
of  Latin  in  the  Penn.sylvania  College  for  Women 
at  Pittsburg,  and  ranks  high  as  a  teacher.  In 
1902,  having  been  granted  a  year's  leave 
of  ab.sence,  she  enjoyed  a  trip  to  Europe. 
Margaret  and  Charlotte  Hamilton  also  attended 
Wellesley  College.  Blanche,  Lucy,  and  Ruth 
ar(>  graduates  of   the   Wakefield    High   School. 

Charles  Roberts  Hamilton,  the  father, 
served  in  the  army  from  August,  1862,  until 
December,  1864.  He  died  April  9,  1900.  On 
the  paternal  side  he  was  of  Scottish  extrac- 
tion, belonging  to  the  Hamilton  family  of 
Berwick,  Me.  The  following  account  of  his 
lineal  ancestors  has  been  compiled  partly  from 
the  manuscript  of  the  Rev.  Arthur  Wcntworth 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


303 


Eaton  Hamilton  and  partly  from  the  notes 
copied  from  original  records. 

David  Hamilton,  a  Scotch  pris(jiier  after 
the  battle  of  Worcester,  in  September,  1651, 
was  one  of  the  passengers  on  the  ship  "  John 
and  Sarah,"  November  S,  1651,  sailing  from 
Gravesend,  England,  to  New  England. 

The  Rev.  Arthur  W.  H.  Eaton  says:  "David 
Hamilton  was  undoubtedly  born  in  Scotland, 
and  most  likely  belonged  to  the  Westburn 
Hamiltons.  This,  I  think,  is  almost  certain, 
since  he  named  one  of  his  sons  Gabriel,  a 
name  which  never  occurs  in  Scotland,  so  far 
as  I  know,  except  in  the  Westburn  family.  .  .  . 
Westburn  is  in  the  barony  and  jxu-ish  of 
Cambuslang,  Lanarkshire,  Scotland.  William 
Hamilton,  of  Wishaw,  wrote  in  1710:  '  Westburn 
was  lately  fewed  out  by  the  Duchess  of  Hamil- 
ton to  Hamilton  of  Westburn.  It  is  a  pleasant 
house  upon  the  river  with  good  gardens.'" 

The  Westburn  Hamiltons  were  an  old  and 
distinguished  branch  of  the  family  of  the  Duke 
of  Hamilton,  having  sprung  from  Thomas  of 
Darngabar,  third  son  of  the  first  Duke  of 
Hamilton.     (Burke's    "Landed    Gentry.") 

David  Hamilton  married  at  Saco,  Me.,  in 
1662,  Anna  Jackson.  From  the  journal  of 
the  Rev.  John  Pike  it  is  learned  that  David 
Hamilton  and  others  were  killed  by  the  Ind- 
ians at  Newichwannock  (Berwick),  September 
28,  1691.  His  sons  were:  David,  Solomon, 
Gabriel,  Jonathan,  Abel,  Jonas,  Abiel,  James. 

Abiel  Hamilton  was  born  probal)ly  about 
16SU,  but  whether  in  Kittery  or  Dover  has 
not  been  ascertained.  As  shown  by  the  Ber- 
wick town  records  and  York  Deeds,  he  owned 
nuich  land  in  Kittery,  possessing  large  tracts 
situated  on  both  sides  of  Salmon  Falls,  on 
Little  River,  near  Love's  Brook,  ami  near 
Doughty's  Falls.  He  received  two  pounds, 
ten  shillings,  February  9,  1712,  "for  going 
ex])ress  to  Boston  last  fall  and  ye  service  of 
ye  parish."  He  was  grand  juryman  March 
15,  1713-4;  constable,  DecembcT  23,  1717; 
and  petit  juryman,  June  16,  1718. 

Records  of  the  First  Church  of  Berwick 
give  the  following:  "  Bial  Hamilton,  member 
May  24,  1719;  dismissed  to  Upper  Church." 
On  the  parish  rate,  Berwick,  September  29, 
1752,  he  is  taxed  fifteen  shillings,  ten  pence. 


Abiel'  Hamilton  married  Abigail  Hodgdon, 
December  26,  1721,  she  being  his  second 
or  thinl  wife.  He  had  about  fifteen  children, 
one  of  whom,  and  the  next  in  this  line  of 
descent,  was  named  Solomon.  Abiel  Ham- 
ilton died  between  March  9,  1758,  the  date 
of  his  will,  and  January  31,  1763,  when  it 
was  proved.  He  devises  to  wife  Abigail  one 
half  of  the  homestead  during  her  life;  to  sons 
Jonas  and  Solomon,  the  homestead,  house, 
barn,  orchard,  and  so  forth. 

Solomon  Hamilton,  son  of  Abiel  and  Al)i- 
gail,  was  baptized  August  19,  1733,  at  the 
First  Church  in  Berwick.  He  married  twice, 
and  was  survivetl  by  his  second  wife,  Eliza- 
beth Pearce.  Previous  to  March  23,  1778, 
they  signed  a  deed  to  Joseph  Chadbourne,  Jr., 
of  land  in  Scjuth  Berwick,  near  Love's  Brook, 
on  the  roatl  to  Doughty's  Falls.  S(jlomon 
Hamilton  died  between  April  9  and  June  24, 
1794.  In  his  will  he  gave  to  his  wife  Eliza- 
beth, whom  he  made  executrix,  the  improve- 
ment of  all  his  estate  in  Berwick  during  her 
natural  life,  and  directed  that  his  son  Daniel, 
the  seventh  of  his  eight  children,  should  re- 
ceive five  pounds,  five  shillings,  on  arriving 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one. 

Daniel  Hamilton,  son  of  Solomon  and  Eliza- 
beth (Pearce)  Hamilton,  of  Berwick,  was  born 
April  21,  1785.  He  followed  the  sea  exten- 
sively for  his  occupation,  anil  he  served  his 
country  in  the  War  of  1812,  participating  in 
the  engagement  at  Lundy's  Lane.  He  married 
in  Belfast,  Me.,  Esther  Roberts,  grand-daughter 
of  Joseph  Roberts,  who  served  four  years  in 
the  Revolutionary  War.  Daniel  Hamilton 
was  the  first  settler  in  Swanville,  Me.  He 
died  in  that  town,  December  8,  1872,  aged 
eighty-seven  years,  eight  months. 

In  1817  Daniel  Hamilton,  then  of  Belfast, 
appointed  Jacob  Hamilton,  of  Berwick,  "  my 
lawful  attorney  to  take  care  of  and  manage 
all  such  real  estate  as  belongs  to  me  in  the 
said  town  of  Berwick  which  descends  to  me 
from  my  late  father,  Solomon  Hamilton,  of 
Berwick,  deceased."  The  late  Charles  Roberts 
Hamilton  was  the  youngest  of  the  thirteen 
children  born  to  Daniel  and  Esther  (Roberts) 
Hamilton,  of  Belfast  and  later  of  Swan- 
ville, Me. 


304 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


IDA  LOUISE  FARR  MILLER  is  the  eldest 
(laughter  of  the  late  Hon.  Evarts  Worces- 
ter Farr,  of  Littleton,  N.H.,  who  died  No- 
vember 30,  1880,  while  a  member  of  Con- 
gress, and  his  wife,  Ellen  Burpee  Farr,  who  is 
now  a  distinguished  artist  of  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Mrs.  Miller  was  born  in  Littleton,  N.H., 
April  26,  1863.  She  numbers  among  her  an- 
cestors President  Willartl  of  Harvard  College; 
Major  Simon  Willard,  the  sturdy  pioneer  whose 
name  is  inscribed  on  the  famous  Endicott  stone 
at  Weirs,  N.H.;  and  Mrs.  Susannah  Willard 
Johnson,  of  Charlestown,  N.H.,  who  was  carried 
away  by  the  Indians  in  August,  1754,  and  after 
her  release  wrote  a  graj^hic  narrative  of  the 
event,  entitled  "The  Captivity  by  the  Indians 
and  French  of  James  Johnson  and  Family." 
Mrs.  Miller  is  also  descended  from  the  Howes, 
Morse,  Wetherbee,  W'ells,  Hastings,  Hannnond, 
Fisk,  and  some  others  of  the  first  settled  families 
of  New  England,  Revolutionary  soldiers  being 
among  her  progenitors. 

Attending  school  in  her  native  town  in  her 
early  years,  she  took  high  rank  in  her  classes 
until  serious  illness  interrupted.  Her  studies 
were  continued  at  the  Convent  of  Mercy,  Man- 
chester, N.H.,  at  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts, 
Boston,  and  at  Wellesley  College,  where  she 
gave  special  attention  to  courses  in  art  and 
literature. 

On  January  30,  1884,  Ida  Louise  Farr  mar- 
ried Mr.  Edwin  Child  Miller,  of  Boston.  He  is 
one  of  the  younger  sons  of  Henry  F.  Miller, 
the  pianoforte  maker,  and  is  an  alumnus  of 
the  English  High  School,  Boston,  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology.  The  home 
of  Mr.  an<l  Mrs.  Miller  for  some  years  has  been 
in  Wakefield,  Mass.  They  have  three  children. 
The  eldest,  Barbara,  born  August  30,  1885,  was 
graduated  from  (^uincy  Mansion  School,  Wol- 
laston,  June,  1902,  and  was  president  of  her 
class  and  valedictorian.  Henry  Franklin  Mil- 
ler, 2d,  born  November,  1887,  is  a  member  of  the 
second  class,  Wakefield  High  School;  and  Edith 
Louise,  born  October  17,  1901,  and  made  hon- 
orary member  of  the  New  Hampshire  Daugh- 
ters when  three  days  old,  has  the  distinction 
of  being,  so  far  as  known,  the  youngest  club 
woman  in  New  England. 

Residences  at  Washington  during  the  Con- 


gressional career  of  her  father,  and  in  the  South 
as  well  as  in  Boston,  have  given  Mrs.  Miller 
social  advantages  that  have  made  her  club 
work  especially  valuable.  Artistic  and  literary 
in  her  tastes,  and  possessing  tact,  graciousness, 
and  executive  ability,  she  has  held  many  club 
offices  and  rendered  efficient  service. 

Mrs.  Miller  is  an  hereditary  life  member  and 
vice-jiresident  for  Massachusetts  of  the  National 
Mary  Washington  Memorial  Association.  She 
belongs  to  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Rev- 
olution, having  been  one  of  the  first  members 
of  the  society  in  Massachusetts  and  a  member 
of  the  first  chapter  organized,  the  Warren  and 
Prescott.  She  withdrew  from  this  chapter  in 
1896,  and  formed  the  Faneuil  Hall  Chapter,  of 
Wakefield,  being  Regent  for  the  first  three 
years,  getting  it  well  established  and  placing 
it  in  the  front  rank  in  the  society.  She  has 
served  as  State  historian  and  as  chairman  of 
several  important  committees,  one  being  that 
for  decorating  the  room  in  Paul  Revere  School 
in  the  North  Enil,  Boston,  and  another  the 
"Committee  of  Co-operation  in  Patriotic  Work" 
of  the  United  Patriotic  Societies.  She  has  been 
asked  to  accept  the  highest  offices  in  the  State 
society,  but  has  been  obliged  to  decline  on 
account  of  the  other  work  engaged  in. 

She  has  been  a  member  of  the  Melrose 
A\'oman's  Club  since  1887,  and  has  filled  many 
offices,  having  been  president  1894  to  1896. 
She  was  founder  of  New  Hampshire's  Daugli- 
ters  in  1894,  and  served  as  one  of  the  minor 
officers  until  elected  presiflent,  1900-1902.  She 
was  one  of  the  charter  members  of  the  Kosmos 
Club  of  Wakefield,  in  1902  was  elected  first 
vice-president,  and  in  May,  1903,  was  elected 
[iresitlent.  She  was  an  organizer  and  president 
of  the  Quannapowitt  Ladies'  Club  in  Wakefield 
during  its  existence  as  an  auxiliary  to  the  gen- 
tlemen's club  of  that  name.  She  was  one  of 
the  incorporators  of  the  Wakefield  Home  for 
Aged  Women,  is  a  member  of  the  W^ellesley 
Record  Association  and  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps  of  Wakefield.  Mrs.  Miller  was  one  of 
the  first  women  admitted  to  the  New  England 
Historic  Genealogical  Society,  and  has  served 
on  the  Committee  on  Cabinet  for  some  years. 
She  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Old  Plant- 
ers' Society,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Council, 


MARY  E.  ELLIOT 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


305 


She  is  a  charter  member  of  the  New  Hampshire 
Exchange  Club,  of  Boston,  and  a  member  of 
the  Order  of  the  Eastern  Star. 

She  is  also  a  member  of  the  Forestry  Asso- 
ciation and  of  the  Association  of  Charities  and 
Corrections  in  New  Hampshire.  She  has  held 
membership  in  the  Castilian  Club,  the  Hor- 
ticultural Society  of  Wakefield,  the  Granite 
State  Club,  and  many  other  organizations. 
Decitledly  an  altruist  by  nature  and  believing 
in  the  power  of  organizations  to  accomplish 
much  good  in  the  world,  Mrs.  Miller  is  always 
helpful  and  encouraging  in  word  and  work. 


MARY  ELVIRA  ELLIOT,  Secretary 
of  the  Department  of  Massachusetts, 
Woman's  Relief  Corps,  for  the  past 
nineteen  years,  was  born  Febru- 
ary 2,  1851,  in  Somerville,  Mass.,  and  is  a 
daughter  of  the  late  Joseph  and  Zenora 
(Tucker)  Elliot.  She  was  educated  at  the  public 
schools  of  Somerville  and  Cambridge  antl  at 
a  private  school  in  Foxboro,  Mass. 

She  is  a  descendant  of  Thomas  Eliot,  an 
immigrant  of  the  .seventeenth  century,  the 
ancestral  line  being:  Thomas,'  Joseph,^  Nehe- 
miah,'   Joseph,*    Joel,''   Joseph"    (her     father). 

Thomas  Eliot  was  admitted  a  freeman 
of  Swansea,  Ma!5s.,  February  22,  1669,  and 
became  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church  under 
the  Rev.  John  Myles.  He  was  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  Taunton  North  Purchase. 
He  died  in  Rehoboth,  Mass.,  May  23,  1700. 
His  wife,  Jane,  whom  he  married  about  the 
year  1676,  diecl  in  Taunton,  Mass.,  November 
9,  1689.  They  had  five  children — namely, 
Abigail,  Thomas,  Jr.,  Joseph,  Elizabeth,  and 
Benjamin.  Thomas  Eliot  served  as  a  Corporal 
in  Captain  William  Turner's  company  in 
King  Philip's  War  in  1675  and  1676."  His 
sword,  gun,  and  ammunition  are  mentioned 
in    the    inventory   of   his   estate. 

Joseph,  son  of  Thomas,  was  born  in  Taun- 
ton, March  2,  1684,  and  died  April  21,  1752. 
He  married  July  22,  1710,  Hannah  White, 
(laughter  of  John  White,  another  soldier  of 
King  Philip's  War.  She  died  March  5,  1775, 
aged  ninety-two  years.  In  1781  Joseph  Eliot 
was  chosen  Treasurer  of   the  North    Precinct 


of  Norton  (now  Mansfield).  Afterward  he 
was  a  Selectman.  Nehemiah  Eliot,  his  son, 
who  was  born  March  8,  1719,  and  died  De- 
cember 8,  1802,  was  at  one  time  Treasurer 
of  Norton,  North  Precinct.  He  married 
September  23,  1747,  Mercy  White,  daughter 
of  Nicholas  White.  She  was  born  July  7, 
1723,   and   died   May   8,    1780. 

Joseph,  son  of  Nfhcmiah,  was  born  June 
25,  1749.  He  married  May  7,  1773,  Joanna 
Morse,  daughter  of  Elisha  Morse.  She  was 
born  September  17,  1751,  and  died  December 
6,  1837.  This  second  Joseph  Eliot  was  a 
minute-man  of  the  Revolution,  marching  at 
the  time  of  the  Lexington  alarm,  April  20, 
1775.  He  served  through  the  siege  of  Boston 
and,  re-enlisting,  through  campaigns  in  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  under  General  W^ashing- 
ton,  and  as  Corporal  in  the  Saratoga  cam- 
paign under  General  Gates.  He  died  of  dis- 
ease contracted  in  the  service  on  December 
15,  1777. 

Joel,  son  of  Jo.seph  and  Joanna,  was  born 
August  30,  1775,  and  tiled  at  Foxboro,  Mass., 
July  23,  1864.  His  wife,  Mary  Murray  Flagg, 
died  January  23,  1865,  aged  eighty-three 
years.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Timothy  and 
Sarah  (Hicks)  Flagg  and  grand-daughter  of 
John  Hicks,  a  member  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party 
and  one  of  the  Cambridge  minute-men  killed 
in  the  battle  of  Lexington.  Joel  Elliot  lived 
in  Cambridge  several  years,  having  a  store 
near  Harvard  Square.  He  was  at  one  time 
a  member  of  the  Cambridge  fire  department. 
In  1816  he  moved  to  Foxboro,  where  he  be- 
came a  [irosperous  farmer.  It  was  he  who 
changed  the  spelling  of  the  family  name  from 
"Eliot"    to    its    present   form. 

Joseph,  eldest,  son  of  Joel  and  Mary  and 
father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was 
born  January  1,  1807,  in  Cambridge,  near 
the  college  grounds.  He  died  in  Somerville, 
Mass.,  July  7,  1874,  aged  sixty-seven  years. 
He  married  at  Mount  Holly,  Vt.,  December 
24,  1835,  Zenora  Tucker,  who  was  born  in 
that  town,  February  10,  1809.  In  his  early 
days  Joseph  Elliot  was  much  interested  in 
politics,  and  was  offered  offices  which  he  de- 
clined. He  was  identified  with  the  old  Demo- 
cratic  party  in   its   contest   with    the   Whigs, 


306 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


but  became  a  Republican  upon  the  organ- 
ization of  that  party,  and  voted  its  ticket 
the  remainder  of  his  hfe.  When  a  young 
man  he  became  a  Univcrsahst,  being  the  first 
of  his  family  to  embrace  that  religious  faith, 
which  was  tar  from  popular.  He  was  a  very 
zealous  believer,  and  had  a  wide  acquaintance 
with  the  leaders  of  Universalism,  among  them 
being  the  Rev.  Thomas  Whittemore,  editor 
of  the  Trumpet  and  U niversalist  Magazine, 
who  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  his  home.  Mr. 
Elliot  was  one  of  the  first  members  of  the 
First   Universalist   Church    in   Somerville. 

He  was  devoted  to  his  home  and  family 
and  was  interested  in  ])ublic  affairs.  He 
built  a  residence  in  Foxboro  Centre  in  1835, 
but  a  few  years  later  went  to  Wrentham, 
removing  thence  to  Maiden  and  in  1846  to 
Somerville,  where  for  fifteen  years  he  was 
station  agent  of  the  Prosjiect  Street  station 
on  the  P^itchburg  Railroad.  He  was  at  one 
time  a  member  of  the  Somerville  fire  depart- 
ment, and  in  early  life  belonged  to  the  State 
militia.  He  was  a  man  of  social  qualities, 
and  hail  a  large  circle  of  friends. 

Miss  Elliot's  maternal  grandfather  was  Ste- 
phen Tucker, .Ir.,  who  was  born  in  Charlestown, 
Mass.,  P>l)ruary  14,  1765.  During  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill  his  mother  with  her  children 
Hed  to  Mystic  (now  Medford),  where  they, 
with  other  inhalMtants  of  the  burning  city, 
were  cared  for.  His  father,  Stephen  Tucker, 
Sr.,  was  a  sea  captain,  and  was  then  absent 
on  a  voyage.  Stef)hen  Tucker,  Jr.,  moved 
from  Littleton,  Mass.,  to  Mount  Holly,  Vt., 
about  1795  or  1796,  and  was  one  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  Rutland  Coimty.  He  was  elected 
Town  Clerk,  and  was  honored  for  his  ability 
and   integrity. 

He  married  Sibbel  Lawrence,  whose  an- 
cestry is  traceable  through  John  Lawrence, 
of  Watertown,  to  Sir  Robert  Lawrence, 
of  Ash  ton  Hall,  England,  one  of  the  Cru- 
saders, knighted  in  1191  by  Richard  Cneur 
de  Lion  for  his  bravery  at  the  siege  of  Acre. 
One  of  her  American  ancestors  was  Lieutenant 
Eleazer  Lawrence,  who  was  prominent  in  the 
Indian  wars;  and  a  relative,  Zachariah  Robbins, 
serve<l  throughout  the  Revolution,  a  part  of 
the  time  in  the  army  and  part  in  tlie  navy. 


Joseph  and  Zenora  (Tucker)  Elliot  had 
three  children — Charles  Darwin,  Alfred  Law- 
rence, antl  Mary  E.  Mrs.  Elliot  was  a  woman 
of  progressive  ideas  antl  of  literary  talent. 
Several  of  her  poems  have  been  published. 
She  was  active  in  church  and  philanthropic 
movements  and  a  liighly  esteemed  member 
of  several  organizations.  Her  death  occurred 
October  25,  1885,  while  she  was  on  a  visit 
to  the  home  of  her  girlhood  in  Mount 
Holly,  Vt. 

Mary  E.  Elliot  began  writing  for  the  press 
in  1867,  and  has  published  numerous  articles 
and  reports.  From  1867  to  1885  she  was 
active  in  temperance  work,  giving  addresses 
in  many  places  in  Massachusetts  and  having 
a  wide  acquaintance  with  workers  in  the 
cause  in  other  States.  She  inherited  a  love 
for  patriotic  principles,  and,  when  invited 
to  assist  in  organizing  a  Relief  Corps  in 
Somerville,  readily  accepted.  This  corps  was 
formed  in  1878  as  an  auxiliary  to  Willard  C. 
Kinsley  Post,  No.  139,  G.  A.  R.,  and  was  one 
of  the  first  societies  of  the  kind  organized  in 
the  country  on  the  basis  of  ritualistic  work. 
She  prejjaretl  the  ritual  under  which  its 
meetings  were  conducted,  and  was  its  presi- 
dent three  years.  This  was  a  so-called  in- 
dependent organization,  conducting  its  work 
on  local  lines  only,  until  May,  1892,  when 
it  united  with  the  De]jartment  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  was  reorganized  on  a  broader  basis. 
It  was  instituted  May  11,  1882,  as  Relief 
Corps  No.  21,  and  has  ever  since  been  con- 
nected with  the  State  organization,  being 
one  of  the  leading  cori)s  among  the  one  hun- 
dred   an<l    .seventy-four   of    the    State. 

Miss  Elliot  was  president  of  this  corps 
nearly  two  years  and  secretary  one  year. 
In  June,  1885,  she  was  appointed  by  Mrs. 
M.  Susan  Goodale,  Department  President, 
to  the  office  of  Department  Secretary,  to  fill 
a  vacancy  caused  by  the  resignation  of  Mrs. 
Sarah  E.  Fuller,  who  had  been  elected  National 
President  of  the  order  at  IV)rtland,  Me. 

Miss  Elliot  has  held  the  position  of  Depart- 
ment vSecretary  for  nineteen  years,  having 
lieen  ann\ially  reappointed  by  the  succeeding 
Department  Presidents.  There  being  one 
hundred    and    seventy-four   subordinate   corps 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


307 


and    over    fourteen    thousand    members,    her 
office    is    one    of    great    responsibihty. 

She  has  participated  in  all  the  National 
Conventions  since  1883,  and  in  the  perform- 
ance of  this  duty  has  travelled  in  nearly  all 
the  States  and  Territories  of  the  Union.  In 
1895  she  was  chairman  of  a  committee  to 
compile  a  history  of  the  Department  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Woman's  Relief  Cori)s,  a  volume 
of    four    hundred    pages. 

Miss  Elliot  has  delivered  Memorial  Day 
addresses  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hamp- 
shire by  invitation  of  Grand  Army  posts, 
and  has  participated  in  several  hundred 
patriotic  gatherings.  She  is  chairman  of  the 
Press  Committee  for  the  National  Convention 
in  Boston  (1904),  a  position  she  hekl  during 
the  arrangements  for  the  National  Conven- 
tion in  Boston  in  1890,  and  is  also  a  member 
of  the  Executive  Committee,  Entertainment 
and  other  committees  for  that  great  gathering. 
She  was  recently  presented  a  valuable  gold 
watch  and  chain  set  with  diamonds,  a  testi- 
monial from  members  throughout  the  State, 
and  her  friends  have  also  presented  her  por- 
trait to  department  heatlquarters  in  the 
Boylston   Building. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  she  has  been  a 
regular  contributor  to  the  military  depart- 
ment of  the  Boston  Globe,  and  has  written 
extensively  upon  woman's  patriotic  efforts. 
She  has  in  preparation  a  book  giving  his- 
torical and  biographical  data  concerning  the 
men  in  whose  honor  the  posts  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  are  named.  When 
published,  it  will  be  unique  in  character, 
as  no  such  work  has  ever  been  issued  in  any 
State. 

Miss  Elliot  is  an  officer  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  her  name  is  on  its  first  roll  of 
membership.  She  is  also  a  charter  member 
of  Bunker  Hill  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution,  a  member  of  the  Som- 
erville  Historical  Society,  of  tiie  New  I'nglnnd 
Historic-Genealogical  Society,  and  of  other 
organizations.  She  takes  a  special  interest 
in  histdrical  matters.  She  is  liberal  in  her 
religious  belief,  being  a  Universalist. 

Her  brother,  Charles  Darwin  Elliot,  served 


in  the  Civil  War  on  the  staff  of  engineers 
in  tlie  Nineteenth  Army  Corps,  under  General 
Banks,  and  was  in  the  Port  Hudson  cam- 
paigns, the  Red  River  expedition,  serving 
also  in  Texas  and  in  other  campaigns.  He 
was  the  first  city  engineer  of  Somerville,  and 
for  three  years  was  president  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  that  city. 

Miss  Elliot  is  one  of  the  compilers  of  "  Rep- 
resentative Women  oi  New  England." 


EMILY  JANE  ELLIOT,  teacher  in  the 
public  schools  of  New  Orleans,  and 
secretary  of  the  "  Union  Ladies'  Soldiers' 
Aid  Society"  of  that  city  in  the  Civil 
War,  was  born  November  23,  1843,  in  Union, 
Rock  County,  Wis.  Her  parents,  David,  Jr., 
and  Mary  (Sjiencer)  Ring,  removed  from  Max- 
field,  Me.,  to  Perkins  Grove,  111.,  and  thence  to 
Wisconsin  about  1839  or  1840. 

David  Ring,  Jr.,  Mrs.  Elliot's  father,  was  a 
son  of  David  Ring  (born  March  3,  1769)  and 
his  wife,  Mehital)le  Crockett  (born  August  26, 
1769),  and  grandson  of  John  Crockett  (born 
August  14,  1738)  and  his  wife,  Mary  Starbird, 
who  was  born  January  19,  1745.  David  Ring, 
Jr.,  was  born  in  Sumner,  Me.,  A]jril  7,  1801,  died 
in  Wisconsui  in  June,  1874.  He  married  June 
24,  1824,  Mary,  daughter  of  John  and  Mary 
(Urann)  Spencer.  She  was  born  in  Bangor,  Me., 
in  1806,  and  died  in  Wisccm.sin,  October  13,  1846. 
They  had  nine  children,  six  of  whom  were  born 
in  Maine,  one  in  Illinois,  and  two  in  Wi-sconsin. 
Their  eighth  child  was  Emily  J.,  the  subject  of 
this  sketch. 

Through  her  maternal  grandmother  Mrs. 
Elliot  is  a  descendant  of  Captain  Thomas 
.  Ih-ann,  one  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  and  an 
officer  of  the  American  Revolution.  He  served 
at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  in  the  regiment  of 
Colonel  Richard  Gridley  and  later  under  General 
William  Heath,  1777  to  1779.  Captain  Urann 
was  one  of  the  "Sons  of  Lil)erty  "  and  a  member 
of  the  "North  End  Caucus,"  a  patriotic  a.sso- 
ciation  whose  membership  included  Paul  Revere, 
John  and  Samuel  Adams,  and  General  Josejjh 
Warren.  He  was  also  a  member  and  for  some 
time  Master  of  St.  Andrews  Lodge  of  Free 
Masons,   and   one   of   the   organizers   and   first 


308 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


officers  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Massachusetts. 
He  was  a  son  of  Joseph  and  Sarah  (Jamison) 
Urann,  was  born  in  Boston,  February  3,  1723, 
and  married  April  3,  1751,  Mary  Sloper,  of 
Boston.  They  had  seven  sons  and  six  daugh- 
ters. Their  son  Joseph,  born  June  11,  1753, 
married  Hannah  Emmes,  of  Boston,  July  28, 
1776,  and  was  the  father  of  Mary  Llrann,  bap- 
tized December  14,  1777,  who  wJis  married 
February  16,  1795,  in  the  Brattle  Street  Church, 
by  the  Rev.  Peter  Thatcher,  to  John  Spencer, 
of  Boston.  Mr.  Spencer  died  in  1816;  and  in 
1818  his  widow  became  the  second  wife  of 
David  Ring,  Sr.,  of  Bangor,  Me.,  whose  son, 
David,  Jr.,  married,  as  above  noted,  her  daugh- 
ter, Mary  Spencer.  Another  of  Mrs.  Elliot's 
ancestors  was  Jonas  Clark,  "  the  famous  Ruling 
Elder  of  the  Cambridge  Church." 

After  the  death  of  lier  mother  Emily  J.  Ring 
became,  by  act  of  Legislature,  the  adopted 
daughter  of  the  Hon.  Nathaniel  F.  Hyer, 
Judge  of  Probate,  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
State  of  Wisconsin  and  a  member  of  its  Con- 
stitutional Convention.  An  extended  sketch 
of  Mr.  Hyer  is  contained  in  the  "  Memorial 
Record  of  the  Fathers  of  Wisconsin,"  published 
in  ISSO.  He  was  a  native  of  Vermont.  Receiv- 
ing a  collegiate  education,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  and  became  a  prosperous  lawyer.     In 

1836,  his  health  failing,  lie  emigrated  to  the 
wilds  of  Wisconsin,  locating  in  Milwaukee. 
Soon  afterward  we  find  him  engaged  in  various 
exploring  expeditions,  in  one  of  which,  after 
following  an  Indian  trail  for  forty  miles,  he 
came  upon  curious  and  extensive  prehistoric 
mounds  and  works,  which  he  believed  to  be 
the  site  of  an  ancient  Aztec  settlement.  Here 
Mr.  Hyer  founded  a  new  town  which  he  called 
Aztalan,  which  name  it  still  bears.     In  January, 

1837,  he  surveyed  and  mapped  the.se  old  ruins, 
publishing  an  interesting  description  of  them, 
which  was  copied  into  Silliman's  and  other 
journals.  They  also  became  the  subject  of 
an  interesting  correspondence  between  Mr. 
Hyer  and  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett.  Mr. 
Hyer's  discovery  and  accoimt  of  these  remains 
is  mentioned  in  the  elaborate  work  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  on  Wisconsin  Antiquities 
as  being  "the  foimdation  of  all  subsecpient 
plans  and  descriptions." 


In  1849  Mr.  Hyer,  by  ill  health  compelled  to 
seek  a  wanner  climate,  removed  with  his  family 
to  St.  Louis,  where  for  several  years  he  was 
County  Surveyor.  In  1856  they  went  to  San 
Antonio,  Tex.,  and  in  May,  1857,  crossed  the 
Texas  prairies  in  Mexican  ox-carts  to  the  coast, 
where  they  eml)arked  for  New  Orleans  and 
thence  went  to  Pensacola,  Fla.  In  September, 
1857,  they  removetl  to  Louisiana.  Mr.  Hyer 
was  there  engaged  in  surveys  of  the  levees  and 
of  swamp  lancls,  the  family  in  the  meantime 
living  sometimes  in  New  Orleans,  sometimes 
in  the  country.  The  opening  of  the  Civil  War 
found  them  in  their  country  home,  cut  off 
from  New  Orleans,  and  surrounded  by  Con- 
federate troops  and  sympathizers,  among  whom 
Mr.  Hyer,  being  an  outspoken  LInionist,  was 
a  marked  man.  His  knowledge  of  the  country 
made  him  a  dangerous  person  for  the  ('onfed- 
eracy  should  he  reach  the  Federal  lines,  and  a 
plot  was  therefore  laid  to  kill  him;  but,  fore- 
warned and  aided  by  personal  friends  among 
the  Confederates,  he  escaped  with  his  family 
by  bribing  the  rebel  guard.  Secreted  in  the 
hold  of  a  little  schooner,  they  made  their  way 
safely  across  Lake  Pontchartrain,  reaching  the 
Union  lines  at  New  Orleans  in  October,  1862. 

Mr.  Hyer  was  immediately  appointed  by 
General  Butler  upon  his  staff  of  assistant  engi- 
neers, serving  until  the  close  of  the  war.  He 
furnished  many  plans  and  a  large  amount  of 
data  concerning  the  roads,  rivers,  and  topog- 
raphy of  Louisiana,  also  other  information  of 
an  important  military  character,  to  the  Unicm 
army.  After  the  war  he  was  appointed  Col- 
lector of  United  States  land  tax,  later  LTnited 
States  Register  of  Voters,  and  afterward  Parish 
Treasurer  and  Survej'or.  In  1877  he  returned 
from  Louisiana  to  Wisconsin,  where  he  died 
September  12,  1885. 

In  1S40  Mr.  Hyer  married  Frances  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Caleb  and  Nancy  (Ruggles)  Clapp 
and  a  descendant  of  the  old  Boston  and  Rox- 
bury  Clapp,  Dorr,  and  Ruggles  families.  Mrs. 
Hyer  was  born  in  Vermont,  her  father  having  re- 
moved to  that  State  and  become  an  ini]iorter 
of  merino  sheep  and  a  wool  raiser  and  man- 
ufacturer. After  his  death  his  family  mi- 
grated to  Wisconsin.  Mrs.  Hyer  was  educated 
at  Madam   Seaton's  Seminary.     Much   of   her 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


309 


early  life  was  spent  with  her  kinsfolk  in  Boston. 
She  was  a  woman  of  brilliant  intellect  and  char- 
itable and  progressive  ideas,  antl  a  valued  con- 
tributor to  periodical  publications.  In  the 
soldiers'  relief  work  in  New  Orleans,  in  which 
she  was  ])roniinent  during  the  war  and  after 
it,  she  passed  through  many  scenes  of  excite- 
ment and  horror.  In  1864  she  made  a  voyage 
up  the  Mississijjpi  River  on  the  steamer  "  Em- 
press," which  was  attacked  by  masked  bat- 
teries, riddled  with  cannon  shot,  and  disabled, 
the  captain  and  several  convalescent  soldiers 
being  killed,  and  the  steamer  only  saved  from 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Confederates  by 
the  arrival  of  the  Unitetl  States  gunboat 
"Kineo."  Mrs.  Hyer  died  in  Wisconsin  in  De- 
cember, 1SS8. 

Among  Mrs.  Elliot's  many  thrilling  experi- 
ences while  in  Texas  was  the  raiding  by  Indians 
of  a  camp  near  where  she  was  visiting,  all  the 
horses  and  cattle  being  stampeded. 

Shortly  after  their  arrival  in  New  Orleans 
in  the  autunm  of  1S62  Mrs.  Hyer,  Mrs.  N.  M. 
Taylor,  Mrs.  Elliot  (then  Miss  Hyer),  and  other 
Union  ladies  of  the  city,  at  the  suggestion  of 
prominent  Union  men,  organized  the  "  Union 
Ladies'  Sokliers'  Aid  Society,"  afterward  called 
the  "Union  Ladies'  Aid  As.sociation,"  which 
attained  a  membershi|)  of  more  than  hfty  of 
the  loyal  women  of  the  city.  Mrs.  Hyer  was 
elected  president,  Mrs.  Taylor  vice-president, 
and  Mrs.  Elliot  secretary.  The  members  of 
this  society  visited  the  hospitals  and  admin- 
isteretl  to  sick  and  wounded  sfildiers,  provid- 
ing them  with  lint,  bandages,  and  other  neces- 
sities and  comforts.  Among  workers  promi- 
nent in  Ihis  society  were  Mrs.  N.  M.  "^Taylor, 
previously  mentioned,  who,  though  a  strong 
Unionist,  had  a  son  conscripted  into  the  Con- 
federate army;  Mrs.  Phoebe  Farmer,  the  poet; 
Miss  Kate  Buckley,  a  teacher  in  the  New  Or- 
leans schools;  Mrs.  Dr.  Kirchner;  Mrs.  and 
Miss  Bai'nett;  and  others  whose  names  are 
among  the  recognized  women  workers  of  the 
Civil  War.  Their  badge  was  a  miniature  Union 
flag.  This  society  published  a  little  paper. 
The  Acorn,  with  Mrs.  Hyer  and  Mrs.  Taylor  as 
editors,  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Unionism  in 
Louisiana.  This  paper  received  the  approval 
and  became  one  of  the  official  organs  of  the 


conuuanding  general  of  the  Department,  and 
in  it  were  published  the  official  orders  of  the 
Army  of  the  Gulf.  Mrs.  Elliot  was  a  contrib- 
utor to  this  paper.  The  members  of  the  soci- 
ety received  from  army  surgeons  instructions 
in  their  chosen  duties.  They  also  held  public 
meetings  in  Lyceum  Hall  weekly,  and  on  other 
evenings  at  private  houses. 

The  Unionists  of  New  Orleans  formed  a  so- 
cial conununity  of  their  own,  and,  by  assemblies, 
receptions,  and  a  cordial  welcome  to  their  homes, 
made  the  life  of  the  Union  officers  and  men  in 
New  Orleans  more  endurable  and  pleasant  than 
it  would  otherwise  have  been. 

The  loyal  men  of  New  Orleans  also  formed 
an  association  in  the  interest  of  the  Union 
cau.se,  many  officers  of  the  army  lu-ing  members, 
among  them  Mr.  Hyer  and  Mr.  Elliot,  both  offi- 
cers of  the  Association'.  Dr.  A.  P.  Dostie,  an 
outspoken  Unionist  antl  a  martyr  of  the  New 
Orleans  anti-Union  riot  of  1866,  was  a  promi- 
nent officer  of  this  and  other  loyal  societies. 

Soon  after  her  escape  to  the  Union  lines  in 
1862  Mrs.  Elliot,  who  had  been  a  teacher  in 
the  parish  schools  of  Louisiana,  was  ai)pointed 
ttrst  assistant  in  one  of  the  gnunmar  schools 
of  New  Orleans,  which  had  been  reorganized 
by  General  liutler.  She  held  this  position  until 
after  her  marriage,  September  3,  1863,  to 
Charles  Darwin  Elliot,  of  Massachusetts,  As- 
sistant Topographical  Engineer  of  the  Army  of 
the  Gulf. 

Mr.  Elliot  is  a  descendant  of  Thomas  Eliot, 
of  Swansea,  Mass.,  a  soldier  of  King  Philip's 
War.  His  great-grandfather,  Joseph  Eliot,  of 
Stoughton,  was  a  minute-man  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, serving  from  April  20,  1775,  until  his 
death,  December  15,  1777.  Another  ancestor, 
John  Hicks,  was  a  member  of  the  Boston  Tea 
Party,  and  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Lexing- 
ton. The  home  of  a  third,  Stephen  Tucker, 
Jr.,  was  destroyed  by  the  burning  of  Charle.'^- 
town. 

Mr.  Elliot,  son  of  Joseph  and  Zenora  (Tucker) 
Elliot,'  was  born  June  20,  1S37,  in  Foxboro, 
Mass.  He  received  his  education  in  the  schools 
of  Foxboro,  Maiden,  A\'rentham,  and  Somer- 
ville,  and  at  the  Hopkins  Classical  School, 
Cambridge.  He  studied  civil  engineering  in 
the  office  of  W.  B.  Stearns,  wIkj  was  later  presi- 


310 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


dent,  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad.  Appointeil  by 
the  War  Department  in  1862  Assistant  Topo- 
graphical Engineer,  he  served  on  the  staffs  of 
Captain  (afterwards  General)  Henry  L.  Abbot 
and  Major  D.  C.  Houston,  Chief  Engineers  of 
the  Nineteenth  Army  Corps,  in  the  Teche,  Port 
Hudson,  Texas,  Florida,  and  Red  River  cam- 
paigns, receiving  special  nirntion  for  efficient 
service  in  the  field. 

Mr.  VAYiot,  immediately  after  his  marriage, 
sailed  for  Texas  as  engineer  officer  to  General 
Franklin  in  the  unfortunate  expedition  wliich 
met  with  such  signal  defeat  in  the  battle  of 
Sabine  Pass.  Returning,  he  was  ordered  again 
to  the  Teche  country,  under  General  Franklin, 
then  to  Fort  Butler  at  Donaldsonville,  and 
shortly  afterward  to  the  Department  of  West- 
ern Florida,  under  General  Asboth.  Later  he 
was  jilaced  in  charge  of  the  construction  of 
field  fortifications  in  Eastern  Louisiana,  under 
General  Grover,  in  the  intended  expedition  to 
Mobile,  after  which  he  took  part  in  the  ill- 
fated  Red  River  expedition.  During  the  march 
to  Port  Hudson  and  in  the  second  Teche  expe- 
dition he  had  suffered  severely  from  congestive 
and  malarial  fevers,  symptoms  of  which  again 
appearing,  in  the  latter  part  of  April,  1864, 
with  impaired  health,  he  returned  to  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Mr.  Elliot  is  a  member  of  the  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution,  of  the  New  England 
Historic  Genealogical  Society,  of  the  American 
Historical  Association,  of  the  Somerville  Board 
of  Trade,  and  of  other  organizations,  and  ex- 
president  of  the  Somerville  Historical  Society. 

After  residing  successively  in  Foxboro,  Cam- 
l)ridgc,  Brookline,  and  Newton,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
]']lliot  removed  to  Somerville,  where  Mr.  Elliot 
had  lived  previous  to  the  war,  and  where  they 
have  resided  for  the  past  thirty  years,  most 
of  the  time  in  their  present  home  on  Central 
Hill.  They  have  four  children  living:  Clara 
Zenora,  born  in  Cambridge;  Ella  Florence,  born 
in  Newton;  (Charles  Joseph,  born  in  Cambridge; 
and  Addie  Genevieve,  born  in  Somerville. 
Their  first  child,  Emily  Frances,  was  born  in 
Cambridge,  July  4,  1865,  and  died  August  2.S, 
1865. 

Mrs.  Elliot's  tastes  are  quiet  and  luimclike. 
She  has  always  been  nuich  interested  in  flori- 


culture, of  which  she  has  an  excellent  |)ractical 
knowledge.  She  is  a  well-informed  student  of 
history  and  literature,  and  at  various  times  has 
wiitten  for  the  press.  She  is  a  member  of  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  of  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  the  Massachusetts 
Soldiers'  Home,  of  the  Woman's  Relief  ('or])s,  a 
life  member  of  the  Somervill(>  Historical  So- 
ciety, and  a  member  of  several  fraternal  organ- 
izations. 


CLARA  FRANCES  TOWNE  (born  Ab- 
bott) is  a  native  of  Barnard,  Vt.  In 
the  same  town,  in  the  good  old  State 
of  Vermont,  were  born  her  father, 
Austin  Abbott,  her  grandfather,  David  Ab- 
bott, her  two  brothers,  Fred  antl  Edward  Ab- 
l)ott,  and  many  of  her  other  relations.  She 
belongs  to  a  rugged  and  long-lived  family,  her 
grandfather  Abbott  attaining  the  age  of  eighty- 
eight  years,  and  her  grandmother  eighty-four, 
with  scarcely  a  day's  illne.ss  throughout.  She 
is  distantly  related  to  the  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott, 
the  Rev.  A.  V.  R.  Abbott,  and  the  Rev.  Ben- 
nett Abbott,  and  is  a  niece  of  Judge  Ira  A. 
Abbott,  he  being  her  father's  youngest  brother. 
Her  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Heald, 
was  born  in  Temple,  N.H.  Both  parents  are 
still  living.  In  her  girlhood  she  attended  the 
public  schools  of  her  native  place  and  other 
towns.  Going  to  Connecticut  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  to  live  with  an  aunt,  she  pursued  the 
course  of  study  at  the  normal  school  in  New 
Britain,  after  which  she  taught  school  for  sev- 
eral years,  or  until  her  marriage.  Ever  since 
that  event  she  has  resided  in  Boston.  She 
became  interested  in  i)ainting  and  in  photog- 
raphy, for  which  she  developed  a  talent  and 
a  business  ability  excelled  by  few,  having  at 
one  time  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  employees 
and  above  one  hundred  thousand  negatives 
on  file.  In  1897  she  was  made  the  "official 
photographer"  of  the  Food  Fair  held  at  Me- 
chanics' Building,  Boston,  and  in  1898  she 
was  made  the  "official  i)hotograplier"  of  the 
great  war  exposition  held  at  the  Boston  Audi- 
toriinn,  Boston,  having  a  fine  exhibit  in  both 
places.  The  Boston  Chamber  of  Connnerce, 
in   its  report,  gave  a  very  favoraljle  account 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


311 


of  her  work.  Energetic  -aiul  iiulustrious,  she 
has  made  a  grand  success  of  whatever  she  has 
undertaken.  She  is  of  a  decidedly  literary 
turn  of  mind,  has  always  been  fond  of  books, 
has  written  for  many  years  for  newspapers 
and  magazines,  and  is  at  ])resent  desii-ous  of 
eliminating  everything  from  her  life  that  shall 
interfere  with  this  her  chosen  vocation.  Ver- 
satile and  facetious  in  her  writing,  she  excels 
in  both  poetry  and  prose,  but  prefers  poetry. 
She  has  written  the  words  to  several  songs  for 
the  director  of  nmsic  in  the  Boston  public 
schools,  and  has  many  orders  for  stories  in 
leatling  magazines.  Many  of  her  stories  and 
sketches  are  written  untler  the  pen  name  of 
"Cordwainer,"  which  she  has  used  for  many 
years.  She  has  travelled  considerably,  and 
intends  to  go  to  Europe  for  a  season  as  corre- 
spondent for  a  leading  newspajx'r.  She  is 
a  public  reader  of  marked  ability  and  a  very 
successful  teacher  of  elocution  and  of  the  guitar. 
She  was  matle  one  of  the  council  of  the  Boston 
Conservatory  of  Music  in  1901. 

She  belongs  to  many  prominent  lodges  and 
societies  in  Boston;  is  Past  Noble  Grand  of 
Mary  Washington,  Rebekah  Lodge,  No.  1, 
L  O.  0.  F.,  of  Boston;  is  the  present  Worthy 
Matron  of  Mystic  Chapter,  No.  34,  O.  E.  S.,  of 
Boston,  one  of  the  largest  and  most  important 
chapters  in  the  order  (Governor  and  Mrs.  Bates 
are  members  of  this  chapter);  and  is  chaplain 
of  an  order.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Rebekah 
Assembly,  the  M.  and  P.  Association,  the  As- 
sociated Charities,  the  Day  Nursery,  and  the 
Chapin  Club,  and  is  president  and  founder  of 
the  Clara  Frances  Towne  Fresh  Air  Mission. 
She  was  made  an  honorary  member  of  the 
A.  B.  of  S.  P.  and  several  other  social  or- 
ganizations. She  is  much  souglit  for  in  society, 
but  dislikes  public  life,  and  prefers  her  (juiet 
home  at  the  Victoria,  her  books  and  her  writ- 
ing, to  all  else. 

Mrs.  Towne  has  lived  for  twenty-five  years 
in  Boston  and  vicinity,  and  prefers  it  to  all 
other  cities,  having,  however,  a  strong  liking 
for  Wa,shington,  D.C.,  which  may  be  her  future 
home.  She  is  very  charitable,  and  has  great 
love  for  children  and  old  people.  ( )ur  space 
is  too  short  to  give  more  than  a  rough  sketch 
of  this  remarkably  versatile  woman.     An  ex- 


tract from  a  local  paper  well  illustrates  her 
life  "Mrs.  Clara  Frances  Towne,  of  Boston, 
is  spending  the  summer  [1903]  at  Wakefield, 
recruiting  from  a  severe  illness.  Mrs.  Towne 
is  widely  known  as  an  artist  and  writer  of  great 
ability,  and  has  been  affectionately  called  'the 
Helen  Gt)uld  of  Boston '  from  her  kind  and  char- 
itable disposition,  and  for  years  has  been  known 
as  the  leader  in  many  charitable  organizations, 
and  is  especially  interested  in  the  care  of  the 
poor  children  of  Boston  and  suburbs,  and  does 
nmch  for  their  comfort  ami  pleasure.  Her 
legion  of  friends  wish  her  a  rapid  recovery  to 
health  and  sti'ength,  as  she  is  one  of  those  rare 
noble  women  who.se  services  the  world  can  ill 
afford  to  lo.se,  even  for  a  short  time." 


TRYPHOSA  DUNCAN  BATES  (now 
known  as  Mrs.  Bates-Batcheller)  was 
born  in  the  town  of  North  Brook- 
field,  Worcester  County,  Mass.  She 
is  the  daughter  of  Theodore  Cornelius  Bates 
and  his  wife,  Emma  Frances  Duncan.  Her 
maternal  grandmother,  Tryphosa  Lakin,  was 
considered  a  beauty,  and  she  was  possessed 
of  an  unusually  sweet  soprano  voice.  This 
latter  gift  and  the  name  Tryphosa,  in  addi- 
tion to  a  very  great  resemblance  iii  appearance, 
have  descended  as  heirlooms  to  the  subject  of 
our  sketch. 

The  Bates  records  go  back  to  the  early  thir- 
teenth century.  There  is  still  extant  in  the 
aisle  of  the  old  church  at  Lydd,  England,  the 
brass  bas-relief  of  Bates  ancestors.  Thomas 
Bates,  who  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London  and  an 
intimate  friend  of  King  Edward  HL,  was  an 
immediate  connection  of  the  Lydd  branch,  ami 
possessed  the  same  armorial  bearings.  Among 
the  American  ancestors  may  be  counted  many 
heroes  of  the  early  colonial  wars  and  several 
Revolutionary  patriots.  Majtn- Daniel  Fletcher, 
on  the  paternal  side  a  great-great-grandfather 
of  Tryphosa,  was  a  commissionetl  officer  of 
the  king  in  the  early  colonial  wars,  and  had, 
as  the  records  show,  a  distinguished  career. 
His  son,  Captain  Jonathan  Fletcher  (maternal 
grandfather  of  Theodore  C.  Bates),  who  had 
been  a  private  in  Captain  Samuel  Reed's 
company   of   minute-men,    which   marched   ou 


312 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  Lexington  alarm,  enlisted  April  24,  1775, 
from  Littleton,  Mass.,  in  Captain  Abijah 
Wyman's  company.  Colonel  William  Prescott's 
regiment,  service  three  months,  nine  daj's: 
see  company  return  dated  Cambridge,  Octo- 
ber 3,  1775;  also,  order  for  bounty  coat  or  its 
ecjuivalent  in  money,  dated  Cambridge,  No- 
vember 11,  1775;  also,  private.  Captain  George 
Minot's  company,  Colonel  Samuel  Bullard's 
regiment,  enlistetl  August  16,  1777,  discharged 
November  30,  1777.  On  January  15,  1776, 
his  name  appears  as  a  fifer  from  Acton,  Mass., 
on  the  roll  of  Captain  David  Wheeler's  com- 
pany. Colonel  Nixon's  regiment.  Jonathan 
Fletcher,  of  Acton,  Lieutenant,  Captain  Jacob 
Haskin's  company,  Colonel  John  Jacobs's  regi- 
ment, engaged  February  27,  1778,  service 
five  months,  twenty  days,  at  Rhode  Island;- 
also,  same  company  and  regiment,  service  to 
October  1,  1778;  also,  service  from  December 
1,  1778,  to  January  1,  1779.  After  seeing 
continuous  service  as  Lieutenant,  he  was  com- 
missioned Captain  in  the  Ninth  Company  of 
the  Seventh  Middlesex  County  Regiment  of 
Massachusetts  militia,  July  27,  1780.  ("Mas- 
sachusetts Soldiers  and  Sailors  in  the  W'ar 
of  the  Revolution,"  vol.  v.,  pp.  776,  777.) 

The  artistic  bent  of  Tryphosa  was  shown 
at  an  unu.sually  early  age.  When  only  three 
years  old,  she  was  chosen,  on  account  of  her 
natural  aptitude,  to  impensonate  jniblicly  "  the 
Queen  of  the  Dollies"  at  a  charitable  peiform- 
ance.  This  role  was  by  no  means  a  thinking 
part.  Three  stanzas  fell  to  the  share  of  the 
little  queen,  and  right  nobly  did  .she  acquit 
her.self.  Her  precociousncss  in  nmsical  mat- 
ters soon  .showed  itself  in  a  rapid  proficiency 
in  her  studies  of  the  violin  and  piano,  .so  that 
she  was  repeatedly  called  upon  to  play  at 
semi-public  musicales  and  concerts.  Her  voice, 
however,  became  so  remarkable  even  in  early 
years,  and  so  much  attention  did  it  attract 
from  tho.se  com])(>tent  to  judge,  that  instru- 
mental studies  were  relinquished  entirely  in 
favor  of  vocal  culture.  In  order  to  have  the 
highest  and  most  competent  opinions,  it  was 
decided  by  her  ]3arents  to  send  the  young 
aspirant  to  Europe.  Accomjianied  l)y  her 
mother,  Tryphosa  accordingly  made  a  trip 
to  Paris,  and  sought  tlie  opinion  of  Madame 


Marchesi.  The  celebrated  teacher  enthusias- 
tically pointed  out  that  the  young  girl's  voice 
was  really  most  beautiful  in  quality,  that  it 
had  the  old-time  "lyric-velvet"  tone,  and  that, 
if  every  other  study  could  be  thrown  aside  in 
its  favor,  it  would  be  reckoned  among  the  most 
remarkable  voices  of  the  century.  As,  how- 
ever, just  previously  to  this  tri])  abroad  Try- 
phosa had  at  the  age  of  seventeen  passed 
her  entrance  examinations  to  Radcliffe  College, 
her  parents  thought  it  advisable  for  her  to  con- 
tinue for  .some  time  her  studies  in  college  before 
devoting  herself  entirely  to  artistic  work. 
After  some  years  had  been  passed  at  Rad- 
cliffe, the  urgent  letters  of  Madame  Marchesi 
prevailed,  and  Tryphosa  with  her  mother 
again  went  to  Paris,  this  time  for  a  long  and 
systematic  training  under  the  great  teacher. 

In  two  years  she  returned  to  America  in  order 
to  be  married  to  Mr.  Francis  Batcheller.  This 
important  event  in  the  life  of  the  young  artist 
was,  however,  understood  not  to  be  a  perma- 
nent interrui)tion  to  an  important  career.  As 
a  cultured  amateur,  Mr.  Batcheller  had  always 
taken  the  keenest  interest  in  his  future  wife's 
talents,  and  had  aided  and  encouraged  her 
in  her  studies.  It  followed  as.  a  matter  of 
course  that  Paris  again  claimed  the  young  wife 
for  a  further  year's  study  with  Madame  Mar- 
chesi. The  notice  of  the  important  critics  and 
compo.sers  was  now  drawn  to  the  finished  artist. 
George  Boyer,  the  celebrated  critic  and  poet, 
became  her  teacher  in  elocution,  and  was  most 
enthusiastic  in  her  prai.se.  Mas.senet,  the  great 
P^rench  compo.s(>r,  did  her  the  honor  to  play 
the  accompaniments  at  a  concert  when  she 
sang  his  compositions.  On  the  9th  of  June, 
1900,  Mrs.  Bates-Batcheller ,  made  her  profes- 
sional debut  at  the  Salle  Erard  in  Paris,  witii 
M.  Ed.  Maugin,  the  chef  d'orchedre  of  the 
Grand  Opera,  as  her  accompanist.  The  praise 
given  on  this  im])ortant  occasion  fully  justified 
the  many  sacrifices  an  artistic  career  had 
demanded,  and  predicted  great  things  for  the 
future.  Brilliant  professional  offers  for  Paris 
and  Milan  followed  as  a  matter  of  course,  but 
were  declined  in  order  that  every  possil)le  ad- 
vantage might  be  gained  from  further  study. 
A  journey  to  Italy  was  determined  upon  for 
the  .sake  of  the  tuition  of  Vela  and  Bimboni. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


313 


During  her  recent  stay  in  America  Mrs. 
Bates-Batcheller  has  placed  herself  under  the 
care  of  Georg  Henschel,  B.  J.  Lang,  and  Girau- 
det  (of  the  Paris  Opera),  whose  unciualificd 
approval  she  has  been  fortunate  enough  to  gain. 
The  artistic  frientlship  most  highly  prized 
by  Mrs.  Bates-Batcheller  is  that  of  Madame 
Maicella  Senibrich,  who  in  every  way  with 
help  and  advice,  on  hearing  her  sing,  has  given 
the  greatest  praise  and  encouragement.  Thus 
in  course  of  years  the  wai-mest  attachment 
has  grown  between  them.  Already  in  America 
Mrs.  Bates-Batcheller's  voice  has  attracted 
general  attention,  owing  to  her  generosity 
in  singing  for  charitable  entertainments.  Her 
debut  in  New  York  City  was  made  at  one  of 
the  morning  concerts  in  tlie  grand  ball-room 
of  the  Waldorf  Astoria,  where  she  achieved 
the  greatest  success.  This  was  cjuickly  followed 
by  an  aj^pearance  at  a  concert  given  for  charity 
by  Countess  Leary  and  Mrs.  Astor.  In  writ- 
ing of  one  experience,  when  she  .sang  to  the 
little  blind  children  of  the  Perkins  Institute 
in  Boston,  Mrs.  Bates-Batcheller  said:  "No 
audience  has  ever  given  me  such  applau.se,  and 
I  was  never  more  anxious  to  please  than  when 
I  sang  to  those  poor  dear  little  children.  Their 
hands  and  feet  kept  time  to  the  gay  songs, 
and  they  hung  their  heads  in  sorrow  and  sym- 
pathy with  the  sad  ones."  After  hearing  her 
remarkable  voice  at  the  New  England  Woman's 
Club,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  dubbed  the  young 
artist  "her  nightingale,"  and  afterward  gave 
a  delightful  musicale  in  her  honor.  An  added 
joy  was  given  to  this  occasion  by  the  presence 
of  her  college  president,  Mrs.  Louis  Agassiz, 
who  remarked  that  she  was  most  proud  of  her 
Radcliffe  song-bird. 

Among  the  many  accomplishments  of  Mrs. 
Bates-Batcheller  are  to  be  reckoned  an  ac- 
quaintance with  French,  German,  and  Italian 
literatures  and  a  fluent  use  of  those  languages. 
This  desirable  result  was  undoubtedly  contrib- 
uted to  by  her  extended  classical  studies 
in  Latin  and  Greek  at  Radcliffe  College. 
Recently  the  singer  has  found  leisure  to 
write  some  excellent  lyric  poetry  that  has 
received  the  warm  commendation  of  her  friend, 
Mrs.  Louise  Chandler  Moulton;  and  it  is  more 
than   probable   that   these   poetic   flowers  will 


shortly  see  the  light  of  publication.  As  Mrs. 
Bates-Batcheller  is  still  a  very  young  woman, 
her  career  may  be  said  to  be  all  before  her. 

During  a  recent  vi.sit  in  Washington,  Mrs. 
Bates-Batcheller,  by  invitation  of  Mrs.  Roose- 
velt, sang  at  the  White  House.  To  meet  the 
young  artist,  a  most  distinguisheil  company, 
including  Senator  and  Mrs.  Cabot  Lodge,  Sena- 
tor Hoar,  Secretary  Root,  Vice-President  Frye, 
were  invitetl.  Both  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Roo.sevelt  were  delightetl  with  the  voice  of  Mrs. 
Bate.s-Batcheller,  who  looks  back  on  such  a 
memorable  occasion  with  the  greatest  pleasure. 
AMiile  she  has  already  succeeded  in  winning 
the  highest  praise  from  the  best  French  critics 
in  Paris,  she  has  overcome  at  her  Boston  pro- 
fessional debut  a  still  greater  difficulty — per- 
haps the  greatest  an  American-born  artisf 
ever  has  to  face — the  gaining  recognition  of 
high  artistic  standing  in  her  own  city.  That 
this  fortunate  result  has  been  achieved  beyond 
any  question  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt, 
for,  as  the  foremost  nmsical  publication  in  the 
world  expresses  it,  "the  general  conisensus 
of  critical  opinion  expressed  at  her  brilliant 
debut  has  placed  her  at  one  bound  among  the 
first  artists  of  the  day." 


HELEN  M.  WINSLOW,  one  of  Bos- 
ton's well-known  literary  workers 
and  club  women,  is  a  native  of  the 
Green  Mountain  State.  As  her 
name  bears  witness,  she  comes  of  old  Plymouth 
Colony  stock  of  English  origin.  Born  in 
Westfield,  Vt.,  daughter  of  Don  Avery  Winslow 
and  his  wife,  Mary  Salome  Newton,  she  is  a 
descendant  in  the  ninth  generation  of  Gov- 
ernor Edward  Winslow's  brother  Kenelm,  who 
came  over  about  1629,  and  some  years  later 
.settletl  in  Marshfield,  Mass.  Mi.ss  Winslow's 
grandparents,  paternal  and  maternal,  were  Or- 
lando' antl  Salome  (Hitchcock)  Winslow  and 
Curtis  and  Mary  (De  Wolfe)  Newton,  of  Green- 
field, Mass.  Mi.ss  Winslow  has  been  connected 
witli  Boston  journalism  for  twenty  years  or 
more.  She  has  written  four  books.  The  first 
of  these,  "Salome  Shepard,"  is  -illustrative  of 
her  ability  to  write  a  delightful  novel,  com- 
bined   with    a   powerful   argument  on  a  vital 


314 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OK   NEW   ENdLAND 


problem.  "Concerning  Cats,"  an  excellent  ani- 
mal book,  went  into  its  ninth  thousand  with- 
in two  months  of  publication.  "Concerning 
Polly,"  a  tale  of  Vermont  country  life,  presents 
in  a  pleasant  way  the  problem  of  what  may 
be  (lon(>  for  poor  children  of  the  great  cities. 
"Literary  Boston  of  To-day"  is  a  well-written 
and  interesting  account  of  Boston  authors,  most 
of  whom  are  among  her  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances. She  has  also  collaborated  with  Frances 
Willard  in  "Occupations  for  W^omen,"  and  with 
Mrs.  Marie  Robinson  Wright  in  "Mexico,  Past 
and  Present,"  both  handsomely  illustrated 
books. 

Miss  W^inslow  does  nuich  writing  in  the 
way  of  special  work  for  publishers,  and  is 
often  called  upon  by  other  writers  to  give 
a.ssistance  in  (Milling  their  books.  For  some 
years  she  was  the  sole  proprietor  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  Clul)  Woman,  the  official  organ 
of  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
in  America.  She  is  now  (Se])tember,  1903) 
associate  editor  of  the  Club  Woman  Mayazinc, 
published  in  New  York  City  by  the  Club 
Woman  Company,  which  is  the  official  organ 
of  the  (ieneral  Federation  of  W^omen's  Clubs, 
the  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  and  the 
National  Society  of  the  United  States  Daugh- 
ters of  1812.  She  is  on  the  regular  editorial 
staff  of  the  Delineator  magazine,  and  a  frecjuent 
contributor  to  the  Critic  and  other  leading 
periodicals. 

Miss  Winslow  was  treasurer  of  the  New 
England  Woman's  Press  Association  for  six 
years  and  president  for  two  years,  the  term 
expiring  by  limitation.  She  was  president 
of  the  Daughters  of  Vermont  four  years, 
and  was  the  originator  and  first  secretary 
of  the  Boston  Authors'  Club,  of  which  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe;  is  the  president.  Miss 
Winslow  was  likewise  regent  and  founder 
of  a  chapter  in  the  Daughters  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  and  filled  the  office  of  State 
Regent  of  the  D.  A.  R.  in  Massachusetts 
for  two  years.  She  has  been  a  member  of  the 
New  England  Women's  Club  and  a  director 
in  the  Woman's  Club  House  Corporation,  and 
is  honorary  member  of  several  Boston  and  New 
York  clubs.  She  is  also  a  member  of  the  Ad- 
visory Board   of  America   of   the  Lyceum,   an 


international  club  for  women,  with  headquarters 
in  London  Miss  Winslow  is  a  Colonial  Dame, 
being  historian  of  the  Vermont  Society  of  the 
the  Colonial  Dames  in  America. 

Miss  Winslow  has  Recently  purchased  a 
beautiful  old  colonial  place  in  Shirley,  "  Wins- 
low Farms,"  where  she  resides  the  greater  ])art 
of  the  year,  spending  her  winters  only  in 
Boston. 


SARAH  1<]LIZAB]<:TH  TALBOT,  the  fir.st 
president  of  the  Maiden  (Mass.)  W.  C. 
T.  U.,  of  which  she  is  now  honorary 
piesident  for  life,  was  born  in  Hallowcll, 
Me.,  May  1,  1S29,  the  daughter  of  Jonas  Philip 
and  Annie  (Otis)  Lee.  Her  paternal  grand- 
father, Samuel  Lee  (Harvard  College,  1770), 
a  native  of  Concord,  Mass.,  was  a  descendant 
in  the  fifth  generation  of  John  Lee  (or  Leigh), 
who  came  from  li]ngland  and  settled  at  Ipswich, 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  in  KiSfi.  John 
Lee  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  early  patrons 
of  Harvard  College.  His  name  is  not  given 
in  the  list  of  indivitlual  donors  in  Quincy's 
History  of  Harvard,  but  doubtless  his  con- 
tribution helped  to  make,  up  the  sum  accred- 
ited to  the  town  of  I])swich,  of  which  he  was 
a  resident.  Joseph^  Lee,  son  of  John,'  born 
in  Ipswich  in  1643,  married  Mary  W^oodis, 
daughter  of  Henry  W'oodis  (or  Woodhouse), 
of  Concord,  Mass.,  and  resided  in  that  town. 
Joseph,'  son  of  Joseph^  and  Mary,  married 
Ruth  Goodnow,  and  was  father  of  Dr.  Joseph,* 
who  married  Lucy  Jones,  and  grandfather 
of  their  son  Samuel,^  above  named. 

Mrs.  Talbot,  whose  maiden  name  was  Sarah 
Elizabeth  Lee,  has  kindly  furnished  for  this 
volume  the  following  biographical  sketch,  to- 
gether with  a  brief  notice  of  the  temperance 
movement  in  which  she  has  been  an  earnest 
and  faithful  worker. 

Sanmel  Lee,  the  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Talbot, 
after  graduating  at  Harvard  and  studying  law, 
went  to  the  British  province  of  New  Brunswick, 
where  he  received  many  honors  due  a  Christian 
gentleman  and  scholar,  being  appointed  judge 
and  becoming  prominently  active  in  formulat- 
ing the  laws  ff)r  the  new  province.  He  married 
Sarah    Perry,    a    beautiful    and    accomplishetl 


SARAH   E.  TALBOT 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


315 


woman,  daughter  of  an  officer  of  the  Enghsh 
army,  tlien  stationed  at  Hahfax,  N.S.  After 
his  death  his  widow  with  her  six  children  re- 
moved to  the  paternal  home  in  Concord,  Mass., 
where  the  youngest  son,  Jonas  Philip,  the 
father  of  Mrs.  Talbot,  was  educated. 

On  becoming  of  age  Jonas  P.  Lee  went  to 
Maine,  entering  into  business  in  the  town 
of  Hallowell.  He  married  Annie,  daughter 
of  Oliver  Otis,  of  Leeds,  Me.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen  years  Mr.  Otis  went  from  his  native 
place,  Scituate,  Mass.,  ami  purchased  land  in 
Maine,  cutting  down  the  original  forest.  He 
married  r]lizabeth  Stanclifield,  and  they  reared 
a  family  of  seven  ciiildren  to  habits  of  indus- 
try and  respectability.  Always  a  stanch  total 
abstainer  from  alcoholic  liquors,  in  making 
his  preparations  for  building  the  first  fraiiKnl 
house  in  that  section  of  the  country,  Mr.  ( )tis 
was  obliged  to  drive  to  Boston  with  horse  and 
carriage,  a  journey  of  several  days,  to  obtain 
sui)plies  for  the  raising.  Instead  of  providing 
New  England  rum,  as  was  the  custom  on  such 
occasions,  he  furnished  the  best  of  Java  coffee, 
a  rare  treat  in  those  days.  Total  abstinence 
from  all  intoxicants  was  conscientiously  exem- 
plified in  his  family,  resulting  in  a  God-fearing, 
intelligent  community  t(j  this  day. 

After  their  marriage  Jonas  P.  Lee  and  his 
wife  Annie  resided  in  Hallowell.  Their  daugh- 
ter Sarah  E.  was  educated  in  the  excellent 
schools  of  that  town,  remaining  there  till  her 
marriage,  October  14,  1851,  to  Francis  Taft 
Sargent,  a  merchant  of  New  York  City,  and 
who  was  directly  descended  from  Governor 
Winthrop,  the  first  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
and  for  whom  one  of  their  sons  was  named, 
being  given  the  family  name  of  Winthrop  Otis 
Sargent.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sargent  made  their 
home  in  Brooklyn,  and  united  with  the  Pres- 
byterian church  of  that  city.  Two  children 
were  born  to  them  there,  and  their  first  great 
grief  came  in  the  death  of  their  beautiful  and 
most  interesting  daughter  at  two  years  of 
age.  On  account  of  the  ill  health  of  Mr.  Sar- 
gent, after  five  years'  residence  in  Brooklyn 
they  removed  to  Nassau,  New  Providence, 
Bahamas.  Three  sons  were  added  to  their 
family  in  Nassau,  and  for  a  time  health  seemed 
restored   in   that   salubrious   climate;   but   the 


seeds  of  death  still  lingered,  and  Mr.  Sargent 
died  suddenly,  September  20,  1860,  of  hem- 
orrhage of  the  lungs.  After  his  death  the 
widow,  with  her  four  little  ones,  retu,rned  to 
her  native  land,  arriving  in  New  York  on  the 
day  of  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  when  our 
Northern  men  met  for  the  first  time  their 
Southern  brothers  in  mortal  combat  and  were 
defeated.  Mrs.  Sargent  with  her  children 
went  inunediately  to  Farmington,  Me.,  where 
dear  kinsfolk  welcf)me(l  her  to  the  new  home. 
When  her  two  younger  sons  passed  on  to  the 
Father  in  heaven,  she  went  with  their  precious 
remains  to  lay  them  beside  the  dearly  beloved 
in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y., 
expecting  her  brother.  Colonel  Samuel  Perry 
Lee,  to  meet  her  there.  As  he  could  not  leave 
his  post  of  duty  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
at  this  most  critical  period  of  the  war,  when 
the  reliels  were  threatening  Wa.shington,  with 
only  three  miles  between  the  two  armies,  lie 
recjuested  his  sister  with  her  son  to  visit  him. 
She  went  immediately  to  Washington,  to  find 
it  one  vast  hospital,  with  one  hundred  thou- 
sand sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  and  around 
the  city,  the  Capitol  itself  being  crowdetl.  As 
she  was  informed  by  a  friend,  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal medical  directors  of  the  army,  the  Patent 
Office  and  public  buildings,  all  the  churches, 
and  many  temporary  hospitals  were  filled  with 
the  sick  and  dying.  W^e  had  had  very  few 
battles,  but  for  many  months  our  army  had 
besieged  Richmond,  the  redel  capital,  encamp- 
ing in  and  near  the  dreadful  Chickahominy 
swamps,  filled  with  malaria,  destroying  the 
health  of  our  .soldiers,  throwing  out  of  combat 
thousands  more  than  the  most  fiercely  con- 
tested battles,  as  the  Southerners  well  under- 
stood. While  in  Washington,  Mrs.  Sargent 
witnessed  a  review  of  this  same  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  with  its  decimated  ranks  and  worn 
and  faded  uniforms,  in  evidence  of  their  sail 
experience  and  in  contrast  with  the  multitude 
of  new  recruits,  full  of  j^atriotism  and  strength, 
who  were  being  constantly  hurried  forward  to 
fill  the  places  of  these  who  had  fallen  in  defence 
of  our  beloved  country. 

Her  brother.  Colonel  Samuel  Perry  Lee,  was 
afterward  terribly  wouniled  at  Gettysburg, 
losing  his  right  arm  at  the  shoulder  joint,  and 


316 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


being  otherwise  injured.  lie  would  i)robably 
have  died  but  for  the  kind  and  patriotic  hos- 
l)itality  of  a  wealthy  eitizen  of  the  town,  who 
threw  o])en  his  house  to  liim,  as  the  ])oor 
wouniled  man  was  seen  passing  on  a  stretcher. 
Colonel  Lee  was  then  in  the  care  of  his  cousin, 
the  Rev.  R.  B.  Howard,  brother  of  Majf)r- 
general  Oliver  Otis  Howard,  who  coniuiaiided 
the  Fed(>ral  army  at  Gettysburg  until  the 
arrival  of  General  Meade.  Major-general  O.  O. 
Howard  lost  his  right  arm  in  the  Ijattle  of  Fair 
Oaks,  early  in  the  war,  but  continued  in  active 
and  distinguished  service  till  the  close  of  the 
war,  a  successful  (^hristian  soldier. 

Mrs.  Sargent  returned  to  her  home  in  l''arin- 
ington  with  her  two  remaining  sons.  On 
Novemlier  5,  1868,  she  married  the  Hon.  Peter 
S.  J.  Taii)ot,  of  East  Machias,  Me.,  descended 
from  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respected 
families  of  longland,  a  man  of  unblemished 
character,  repeatetlly  chosen  by  his  fellow- 
citizens  to  fill  )x)sitions  of  res])onsibility  and 
honor  in  his  native  town  and  State.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Talbot  removetl  at  once  to  Massachu- 
setts, taking  uj)  their  residence  in  Maiden, 
where  they  made  their  home  for  thirty-two 
years.  In  religion  Mrs.  Talbot  is  a  Congrega- 
tionalist.  She  is  a  life  member  of  foreign  and 
home  missionary  societies. 

The  two  sons,  Francis  Taft  and  Winthrop 
Otis  Sargent,  were  graduated  at  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology  as  mechanical 
and  mining  engineers  respectively.  Francis  T. 
Sargent  is  actively  following  his  profession  in 
New  York.  Winthroj)  Otis  Sargent,  as  mining 
engineer,  was  interested  in  the  lead  mines  of 
Missouri.  He  was  attacked  with  hemorrhage 
of  the  lungs,  and  died  on  September  5,  1901, 
leaving  a  son,  bearing  the  name  of  his  father, 
antl  a  daughter,  liis  wife  having  died  two  years 
previously. 

When  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  of  Massachusetts  was  organized  as  a 
branch  of  the  W.  C.  T.  II.,  with  Mrs.  Mary  A. 
Livermore,  president,  Mrs.  L.  B.  Barrett,'  sec- 
retary, and  an  executive  committee  of  seven 
women,  Mrs.  Sarah  E.  Talbot,  of  Maiden,  was 
one  of  the  number,  a  charter  member  of  the 
new  organization.  Public  meetings  were  held, 
churches  and  halls  were  crowded,  temperance 


enthusiasm  increased,  and  many  thovisand 
inebriates  were  reformed,  organizing  them- 
selves into  Reform  Chilis.  Timid  women, 
foi'getting  that  they  "should  be  seen  and  not 
hearil,"  came  out  from  their  seclusion,  went 
upon  the  platform,  and  as  by  inspiration  joined 
in  the  rescue  of  those  held  in  bondage  of  the 
intoxicating  cup,  their  hearts  (piickened  to 
realize  the  sorrows  of  those  in  des])air.  Ruined 
homes  were  visited,  the  wives  and  mothers 
bi'ought  into  the  fold  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temjicrance  I'nion,  their  children  into  the 
Loyal  Temi)erance  Legion  ajid  Sunday-schools. 
Thousands  signed  the  pledge,  redeemed  for- 
ever from  the  curse  of  alcoholics  and  narcotics 
under  this  wonderful  movement,  which  seemed 
like  a  breath  of  God  from  heaven  moving  upon 
the  hearts  of  the  people. 

The  first  National  Convention,  resulting  in 
the  formation  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  was  held  in  Philadelphia,  and 
the  second  the  next  year  in  Baltimore,  Mrs. 
Talbot  attending  both  as  a  delegate.  At  this 
later  convention  she  had  the  pleasure  of  vot- 
ing for  I'Vances  E.  AMllard  as  president  of  the 
National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
which  position  she  honored  many  years,  until 
her  death,  leaving  it  the  largest  organization 
of  women  in  the  world.  At  the  International 
Convention  of  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.,  held 
in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  1903,  our  present 
national  president,  Mrs.  L.  M.  N.  Stevens, 
presiding,  stated  that  delegates  were  there 
present  from  "  fifty-nine  different  nations  be- 
longing to  the  W'orld's  W.  C.  T.  U.  Federation, 
representing  every  section  of  the  globe,  speak- 
ing in  many  different  languages,  (iemonstrating 
the  harmony  of  the  work,  notwithstanding 
the  diversity  of  languages,"  thus  fulfilling  the 
prophecy  of  our  sainted  president,  Miss  Wil- 
lard,  that  "the  white  rilibon  would  yet  en- 
circle the  globe." 

Realizing  the  danger  from  indiscriminate  use 
of  alcohol  as  a  medicine,  the  W^  C.  T.  U.  early 
organized  a  department  for  "Influencing  Phy- 
sicians not  to  use  'Alcoholic  Medication,'" 
and  appointed  Mrs.  Talbot  its  first  superin- 
tendent for  the  State.  She  was  also  appointed 
the  first  superintendent  of  the  State  depart- 
ment   of    "  Scientific    Temperance    Instruction 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


317 


in  the  Public  Schools,"  having  the  honor  of 
piesenting  the  W.  C.  T.  V.  memorial  on  this 
subject  before  the  Legi8lature  of  Massachusetts 
from  the  speaker's  desk  in  the  Housi,'  of  Rep- 
resentatives, with  others.  The  jjctition  was 
granted,  ami  aj)pro\'ed  temperance  text-books, 
teaching  "the  effect  of  alcohol  upon  the  human 
system,"  are  now  re<juired  by  law  of  this  State 
in  all  puljlic  schools  anil,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  in  every  State 
of  (jur  nation.  Mrs.  Talbot  was  an  active 
member  of  the  State  Executive  Conunittee 
several  years,  assisting  in  the  general  work. 
()ne  of  the  first  unions  of  the  State  was  organ- 
ized in  Maiden,  her  home,  anil  she  was  elected 
its  first  president,  which  position  she  occupied 
f(jr  twenty-five  years.  It  was  an  active,  influ- 
ential union,  among  the  first  to  introduce 
scientific  temperance  instruction  in  its  puljlic 
schools  of  six  thousand  pupils,  promoting  a 
strong  temperance  sentiment,  the  citizens  al- 
ways voting  a  very  large  majority  for  no  license 
every  year.  After  her  resignation  as  president, 
Mrs.  Talbot  was  unanimously  elected  hono- 
rary presitlent  for  life  of  the  Maklen  W.  C.  T.  U. 
She  was  also  made  an  honorary  member  for 
life  of  the  Massachusetts  ^V.  C.  T.  U.  These 
honors  .she  appreciates  most  sincerely,  having 
been  actively  associated  with  both  branches 
of  the  organization  from  their  beginning,  a 
period  of  thirty  years.  Retired  from  active 
service,  Mrs.  Talbot  is  now  (April,  1904)  pass- 
ing her  declining  years  with  her  husband  at 
his  birthplace  and  early  home,  in  East  Machias, 
Me.,  where  they  are  surrounded  by  dear  kins- 
folk and  friends. 


LAURA  A.  GOODNOW  MATTOON 
(Mrs.  William  P.  Mattoon)  was  born 
__J  in  Boston,  Mass.,  and  comes  of  Puritan 
ancestry,  being  the  daughter  of  Silas 
and  Eliza  (Pierce)  Goodnow.  Her  mother 
was  a  well-known  contralto  singer.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  Civil  War  her  father  was 
a  manufactuter  in  the  South;  but,  as  he 
refusetl  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Confederate  government,  his  property  was 
confiscated  and  he  was  obliged  to  return 
North.     At  that  time  the  daughter  Laura  A. 


Goodnow  was  attemling  school  at  the  Oread 
Institute  in  W^orcester.  From  early  childhood 
she  had  sh<jwn  talent  for  mimicry  and  the 
promise  of  a  remarkable  voice,  and  she  now 
left  school  and  became  soloist  in  King's  Chapel, 
Boston.  I^ater  she  was  soprano  in  a  famous 
quartet  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  she  after- 
ward sang  in  Dr.  Roilger's  church  on  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York.  She  was  soloist  in  the 
first  triennial  celebration  of  the  Handel  anil 
Haydn  Society  at  Boston,  in  Music  Hall, 
in  1865.  She  was  also  soloist  for  the  Men- 
delssohn Quintet  Club  and  for  the  Harvard 
symphony  concerts.  She  was  associatetl  with 
Annie  Louise  Cary,  Henry  Clay  Barnabee, 
Myron  W.  Whitney,  Teresa  Carrefio,  and 
many  other  singers  who  have  become  famous. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  John  B.  Gough, 
and  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  personal 
friends  of  the  family,  advised  her  to  go  into 
opera,  and  she  studied  with  this  object  in 
view,  but  was  obliged  to  give  up  her  ambition 
on  account  of  the  serious  objections  of  her 
relatives.  In  1870  she  married  William  P. 
Mattoon,  of  Springfield,  and  took  up  her 
residence  in  that  city.  For  years  she  has 
devoted  her  talents,  strength,  and  time  for 
charity,  and,  without  compensation  to  herself, 
has  rai,sed  time  after  time  substantial  sums 
for  the  charities  both  of  Springfield  and  the 
surrounding  towns.  She  has  sung  and  actetl 
in  numberless  operas  and  plays,  and  has 
drilled  the  young  people  to  put  on  smooth, 
artistic  dramatic  attractions.  Coaching  ama- 
teurs is  one  of  her  ilelights,  and  she  is 
still  able  and  willing  to  take  part  herself  when- 
ever rkecessary.  Her  clever  work  as  Little 
Buttercup  ("Pinafore")  in  the  Springfield  local 
opera  company,  of  which  she  was  mana- 
ger, will  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who 
saw  her  in  the  role.  She  has  played  only 
for  charities,  and  has  earned  for  various 
worthy  objects  over  twenty  thousand   dollars. 

She  is  a  clever  monologist,  and  her  talents 
are  shown  to  especial  advantage  in  a  mono- 
logue called  "For  Charity,"  written  for  her 
by  Clyde  Fitch. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mattoon  have  one  child, 
Laura  Isabella  Mattoon.  She  is  a  graduate 
of  Wellesley  College,  has  been  a  po^t-graduate 


31S 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGJ.AND 


student  at  Smith,  and  is  now  studying  for 
her  second  degree  at  Columbia.  She  is  at 
tlie  liead  of  the  science  department  of  the 
Veltin    School   for   Girls    in    New   York    City. 


JENNIE  PATRICK  WALKER  who  has 
for  years  enjoyed  the  enviable  reputation 
of  being  the  leading  oratorio  singer  of  the 
United  States,  is  a  native  of  Warren, 
Worcester  County,  Ma,ss.  Her  birthplace  was 
the  old  homestead  which  was  purchased  by 
Matthew  Patrick,  her  great-grandfather,  in 
1740,  and  has  been  occu]iied  by  five  successive 
generations.  The  Patrick  family  has  ever 
taken  active  interest  in  the  progress  of  the  town 
of  Warren  (originally  Western).  The  pioneer 
settler  above  named  served  as  its  Representa- 
tive in  the  State  Legislature  in  17.S9,  his  son, 
Isaac  Patrick,  Mrs.  Walker's  grandfather,  serv- 
ing in  1826  and  LS27.  Her  father,  William 
Andrew  Patrick,  also  held  i)ul)lic  offices  of 
trust  and  responsibility.  For  thirty  years 
choir-master  and  singing-teacher,  he  tried  to 
establish  a  higher  musical  standard  in  the  com- 
munity. He  died  in  1S92.  Through  her 
mother,  Mrs.  Jane  Blo<lgett  Patrick,  daughter 
of  Alden  Blodgett,  of  Stafford,  Conn.,  Mrs. 
Walker  is  a  direct  descendant  of  Thomas  Blodg- 
ett, an  early  settler  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and 
of  John  Alden,  of  the  "Mayflower"  and  Plym- 
outh Colony. 

Sewall's  History  of  Woburn  states  that 
Thomas  Blodgett  with  his  wife  and  two  sons, 
DanieP  and  Samuel,^  came  in  the  "Increase" 
from  London  in  1635.  SamueP  Blodgett  a 
number  of  years  later  settled  in  Woburn. 
Samuel,  Jr.,'  son  of  Samuel,^  married  Huldah 
Simontls,  and  was  the  father  of  Sanmel,^  born, 
say  the  records,  in  1683,  and  of  Daniel,*  born 
in  1685. 

Daniel*  and  SamueP  Blodgett  removed  from 
Woburn  to  Stafford,  Tolland  County,  Conn. 
"Samuel  left  a  son  Joshua,  born  in  1721,  reared 
by  his  uncle  Daniel"  (History  of  Tolland 
County). 

Joshua  Blodgett  married  Hannah  Alden, 
daughter  of  Daniel*  Alden  (of  Bridgewater, 
Mass.,  and  Stafford,  Conn.)  and  his  wife,  Abi- 
gail Shaw.     Daniel*  was  of  the  fourth  genera- 


tion of  Alliens  in  New  England,  Ijeing  desceniled 
from  John'  Alden  and  his  wife  Priscilla  through 
their  son  Josejih,^  who  married  Mary  Simmons, 
and  Joseph,^  who  married  Hannah  Dunham 
and  was  father  of  Daniel*  (Mitchell's  Bridge- 
water)  . 

Deacon  Alden  Blodgett,  son  of  Joshua  and 
Hannah,  was  born  in  Stafford  in  1766,  died  in 
184S.  He  was  the  father  of  a  second  Alden, 
doubtless  the  Alden  Blodgett  of  Stafford,  Conn., 
above  named,  Mrs.  Walker's  grandfather. 

The  love  and  talent  for  nmsic  were  native 
to  Jennie  Patrick.  Her  doctor  uncle,  Julius 
Blodgett,  her  mother's  brother,  said  of  her 
voice  in  infancy,  "That  is  music,  not  merely 
a  baby's  cry";  and  this  remark  was  verified  by 
the  child's  singing  before  she  had  learned  to 
talk.  After  graduating  from  the  high  school  in 
Warren  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  she  came  to  Bos- 
ton and  became  a  pupil  of  Fanny  Frazer  Foster, 
taking  her  first  position  the  following  year  at 
the  Channing  Church  in  Newton,  where  she 
remained  for  two  and  a  half  years.  From  the 
first  her  voice  created  a  furor,  and  by  consci- 
entious work  she  made  rapid  progress.  From 
Newton  she  went  to  Worcester  to  sing  in  the 
Church  of  the  Unity,  remaining  until  1878, 
when  she  accepted  a  position  at  the  Second 
Church  in  Boston.  After  eight  years'  success- 
ful work  there  .she  was  for  fifteen  years  a  mem- 
ber of  the  choir  of  the  Arlington  Street  Church, 
which  for  a  number  of  years  hafl  the  reputation 
of  being  the  best  in  Boston. 

Her  great  success  as  a  choir  singer  was  ri- 
valled by  that  achieved  by  her  in  the  fields  of 
oratorio  and  concert,  where  the  rare  iiuality 
of  her  rich  soprano  voice  created  a  large  de- 
mand for  her  services.  Mrs.  Walker  has  studied 
only  with  teachers  in  the  city  of  Boston,  and 
is  well  known  and  beloved  here  and  in  the  West 
and  South,  where  she  has  often  appeared.  She 
has  sung  in  concerts  with  such  celebrities  as 
Lilli  Lehmann,  Campanini,  Dippel,  Melba, 
Noi-dica,  Emil  Fischer,  Gadski,  Ben  Davies, 
p]dwaril  Lloyd,  Watkin  Mills,  and  many  other 
noted  singers.  She  has  sung  for  most  of  the 
leading  oratorio  associations  of  America  and 
for  the  Cecilia  and  Apollo  Clubs  of  Boston, 
also  for  the  Handel  antl  Haydn  Society,  of 
which  for  eight  seasons  she  was  solo  soprano. 


JENNIE    PATRICK   WALKEIl 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


319 


She  is  a  member  of  some  of  the  leading  musical 
clubs,  and  is  deeply  interested  in  the  nmsical 
l)rogresH  of  Boston.  Through  all  of  her  busy 
life  she  has  conscientiously  kept  up  her  prac- 
tice, with  the  result  that  her  voice  has  lost 
none  of  the  rich  dramatic  sweetness  of  earlier 
years,  and  has  gained  in  power  and  tone  color. 
Her  work  last  season  was  received  with  warmest 
praise. 

January  1,  1878,  she  was  married  to  Mr. 
William  Walker,  a  New  Yorker  by  birth,  at 
that  time  established  in  the  printing  business 
in  Boston,  and  now  of  the  well-kno\yn  firm  of 
Walker,  Young  &  Co.,  printers. 

For  a  number  of  years  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walker 
have  passed  their  summers  at  Crow  Point, 
Hingham,  Mass.,  ami  now  they  have  taken  up 
their  abode  in  Hingham  for  the  winter.  Do- 
mestic in  her  tastes,  Mrs.  Walker  thoroughly 
enjoys  her  home  life  with  its  daily  round  of 
duties  and  its  quiet  pleasures. 


MARIE  ELIZABETH  ZAKRZEW- 
SKA,  M.D.,  was  born  in  Berlin, 
Prussia,  September  6,  1829.  On 
her  father's  side  she  was  descended 
from  a  very  old  Polish  family,  which  fled 
from  Poland  in  1793,  when  their  estates  had 
been  confiscated  on  account  of  their  liberal 
principles.  Her  mother's  family  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  eighteenth  century.  Her 
great-grandmother,  Marie  Elizabeth  Sauer, 
was  a  gypsy  queen  of  the  Lombardi  tribe. 
She  married  a  Captain  Urban,  also  a  member 
of  that  tribe.  They  had  nine  children,  Marie's 
grandmother  being  the  fifth  in  order  of  birth. 
Marie  was  the  eldest,  of  a  family  of  five 
children.  The  father  held  a  government 
position,  but,  having  offended  his  superiors 
by  the  expression  of  revolutionary  sentiments, 
he  was  summarily  retired  upon  a  very  small 
pension,  m  consequence  of  which  his  family 
was  reduced  to  poverty.  In  order  to  provide 
for  their  support,  Madame  Zakrzewska  entered 
the  school  of  midwifery  in  Berlin,  and  later 
practised  the  profession  with  great  success. 

During  a  portion  of  the  time  of  her  mother's 
hospital  training,  Marie  was  permitted  to 
reside    with    her    in    the    hospital.     Here    she 


became  a  great  favorite  of  one  of  the  phy- 
sicians. At  her  retjuest  he  lent  her  two  books, 
"The  History  of  Midwifery"  and  "The  History 
of  Surgery."  These  she  read  through  in  six 
weeks,  and,  according  to  her  own  account, 
dated  from  this  time  her  interest  in  the  study 
of  medicine.  She  was  then  about  eleven 
years  old. 

Upon  leaving  the  hospital  she  returned 
to  school,  which  she  quitted  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  and  a  half,  and  at  once  entered  upon 
the  usual  training  of  a  German  girl  in  house- 
wifery. She  soon  tired  of  this,  and  did  not 
gain  credit  for  good  work  in  her  family,  al- 
though the  experience  served  her  in  later 
life  by  enabling  her  to  become  a  notable  house- 
keeper. 

As  her  mother's  practice  increased,  she 
began  to  assist  her  in  the  care  of  her  patients. 
She  found  this  so  much  to  her  taste,  that  she 
decided  to  study  the  professiqn.  After  various 
delays,  causetl  by  her  youth  and  her  father's 
opposition,  she  was  admitted  to  the  Charite 
as  a  special  pupil  of  the  director,  Dr.  Joseph 
Herman  Schmidt,  who  took  the  greatest 
interest  in  her  development,  and,  seeing 
her  remarkable  ability,  determined  to  fit  her 
for  the  post  of  chief  of  the  school  for  mid- 
wives,  a  position  which  had  never  been  held 
by   a   woman. 

She  was  graduated  with  honor,  and  received 
the  appointment.  Unfortunately,  Dr.  Schmidt 
died  immediately  after,  and  she  was  left  with- 
out his  aid,  in  a  position  which  was  coveted 
by  many,  who  were  consequently  unfriendly 
to  her.  Finding  it  impossible  to  maintain 
this  position  without  losing  her  self-respect, 
she  soon  resigned.  Her  friends  were  desirous 
that  she  should  settle  in  Berlin,  but  she  had 
meanwhile  conceived  of  a  hospital  for  women, 
attended  by  women;  and,  although  she  dared 
not  tell  any  one  of  so  wild  a  project,  she  deter- 
mined not  to  be  satisfied  until  it  was  fulfilled. 
Knowing  this  to  be  impossible  in  Berlin, 
she  turned  her  thoughts  toward  America, 
as  a  place  where  she  might  be  free  to  carry 
out  her  intentions  without  the  limitations 
surrounding   her   in    the   Old   World. 

On  March  15,  1853,  accompanied  by  one 
of  her  sisters,  she  left  Berlin,  and  after  a  tem- 


320 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


pestuous  voyage  landed  in  New  York  on  the 
22d  of  May.  Coming  without  friends,  anil 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  English  language, 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  she  at  first  found 
no    encouragement    for    her    project. 

She  had  tletennined  on  no  account  to  ask 
help  from  her  father,  and  tlierefore,  when 
she  found  tliat  there  was  no  inunediate  pros- 
pect of  earning  her  living  by  practicing  her 
profession,  she  turned  her  practical  ability 
into  other  channels,  and  for  a  time  supportcil 
herself  ami  her  sister  by  manufacturing  worsted 
goods  and  other  articles. 

Although  she  was  quite  successful  in  these 
ventures,  she  never  forgot  her  real  object 
in  life.  Her  introduction  to  Dr.  Elizabeth 
Blackwell,  which  occurred  about  a  year  after 
her  arrival  in  this  country,  she  rightly  con- 
sidered the  turning-point  of  her  fortune  in 
America.  Dr.  Blackwell  at  once  discerneil 
the  unconnnon  ((ualities  of  the  stranger,  in 
spite  of  the  foreign  language,  and  inteicsted 
herself  most  heartily  in  her  behalf.  She 
told  her  that  she  must  learn  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  obtain  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Medicine  from  a  reputable  college  before 
she  could  hope  to  practise  successfully.  Through 
Dr.  Blackwell's  influence  she  was  admitted  to 
the  Cleveland  Medical  College,  where  she  was 
graduated  in  1856.  After  her  graduation  the 
faculty,  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  her  character 
and  abilities,  remitted  her  lecture  fees,  for 
which  she  had  been  obliged,  for  lack  of  ready 
money,  to  give  her  promissory  note.  She 
returned  to  New  York,  and  took  an  office 
with  Dr.  Blackwell,  who  had  opened  a  small 
dispensary  for  women  and  children,  and  was 
trying  to  collect  funds  for  the  establislunent 
of   a   small   hospital    in   connection   with    it. 

Into  this  project  Dr.  Zakrzewska  entered 
with  heart  and  soul,  and  by  her  contagious 
enthusiasm  aided  greatly  in  accomplishing 
it.  In  May,  1857,  the  New  York  Infirmary 
was  opened.  P\)r  two  years  she  gave  her 
time  to  it  gratuitously,  acting  both  as  super- 
intendent and  resident  physician. 

During  these  years  she  had  several  times 
visited  Boston  in  the  interests  of  the  New 
York  work,  and  thus  become  acquainted 
with   a  circle  of  noble  men  and  women  who 


were  ready  to  lend  a  hand  to  any  good  object. 
In  the  spring  of  1859  she  was  asked  to  take 
charge  of  a  small  hospital  connected  with 
the  New  England  Female  Medical  College 
of  that  city. 

Feeling  that  the  New  York  hospital  was 
now  well  started,  and  that  she  might  advance 
the  cau.se  of  women  physicians  more  in  another 
place,  she  acce])ted  the  invitation,  and  came 
to  Boston  in  June.  She  did  not  find'  there, 
however,  the  cliance  for  carrying  on  her  own 
ideas  of  hospital  management,  and  at  the 
end  of  three  years  she  resigned. 

Her  friends  now  decided  to  hire  a  small 
hou.se  and  fit  it  up  as  a  hospital,  which  should 
be  under  her  management.  It  was  a  cour- 
ageous untlertaking.  It  was  in  1862.  The 
civil  war  was  at  its  height,  and  it  was  very 
difficult  to  enlist  public  interest  in  anything 
else.  Few  people  knew  anything  about 
women  physicians,  and  the  majority  of  those 
who  had  heard  of  them,  regarded  the  idea  of 
women  doctors  with  a  mixture  of  incredulity 
and  suspicion. 

Dr.  Zakrzewska,  however,  possessed  in  a 
high  degree,  the  power  of  interesting  others 
in  whatever  she  undertook,  and  she  soon 
gathered  about  her  an  enthusiastic  group 
of  people,  who  were  devoted  to  her  and  her 
work,  and  who  believed  firmly  that  whatever 
she  undertook  would  be  accomplished. 

The  hospital  struggled  on,  feebly  at  first, 
but  soon  began  to  grow,  and,  after  several 
times  enlarging  its  quarters,  was  enabled  in 
1872  to  build  its  present  substantial  structure 
in  Roxbury.  Other  buildings  have  gradually 
been  added,  until  the  institution  now  includes 
medical,  surgical,  maternity,  and  dispensary 
buildings,  together  with  a  nurses'  home  and 
all  the  accessories  of  a  well-appointed  modern 
hospital. 

The  hospital  staff,  which  at  first  consisted 
of  Dr.  Zakrzewska  and  a  young  assistant, 
in  1893  numbered  over  forty  women  phy- 
sicians connected  with  its  work;  and  Dr. 
Zakrzewska  lived  to  .see  all  this  'accomjilished. 

She  held  successively  the  post  of  resident 
physician,  senior  attending  physician,  and 
.senior  advisory  physician,  which  last  she  re- 
tained until  her  death.     As  one  of  the  chief 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


321 


objects  of  the  hospital,  as  set  forth  in  its  charter, 
is  the  giving  of  opportunities  for  practical 
work  to  young  women  doctors,  a  large  number 
of  them  have  ^ined  their  hospital  experience 
in  its  wards  under  her  instruction.  She 
always  took  the  greatest  interest  in  these 
stuilents,  giving  them  freely  of  her  great 
experience,  and  encouraging  them  in  tlieir 
anxieties  at  the  beginning  of  their  career. 
All  over  this  country,  and  even  in  Europe, 
are  practicing  women  doctors,  who  will  always 
look  back  gratefully  to  the  advice  she  gave 
them,  and  the  things  she  taught  them  in  the 
hospital. 

Her  hospital  work  ditl  not  absorb  the 
whole  of  her  time.  She  gradually  acquired 
a  large  private  practice  in  Boston  and  vicinity, 
and  she  was  well  known  among  ricli  and  poor 
for  her  medical  skill,  her  wise  practical  ad- 
vice, and  her  interest  in  every  class  of  humanity, 
and  especially  in  any  questions  relating  to 
the  advancement  of  opportunities  for  women. 

She  was  one  of  the  early  members  of  the 
New  England  Woman's  Club  of  Boston,  and 
always  took  the  greatest  interest  in  its  work. 
She  was  thoroughly  alive  to  all  the  burning 
social  questions  of  the  times,  ami  often  con- 
tributed, either  by  papers  or  talks,  to  the 
practical  solution  of  such  questions. 

She  continued  the  active  practice  of  med- 
icine until  1899,  when  she  felt  herself  no  longer 
able  to  bear  the  strain.  With  her  dear  friend 
and  companion,  Miss  Julia  A.  Wprague,  she 
retired  to  a  small  house  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Boston,  where  she  hoped  to  enjoy  some  years 
of  leisure  after  her  strenuous  toil.  She  found, 
however,  that  she  hail  overtasked  her  splendid 
physical  powers,  and  during  the  rest  of  her 
life  she  suffered  greatly  from  a  nervous  trouble, 
which  made  it  impossible  for  her  to  lead  any- 
thing but  an  al)solutely  quid  existence.  Ex- 
hausted by  this  trouble,  she  died  on  May  13, 
1902. 

By  her  own  request  there  was  no  funeral 
service,  but  relations  and  friends  gathered 
quietly,  to  hear  a  paper  which  she  had  herself 
prepared    for    the    occasion. 

On  October  29,  1902,  a  memorial  service 
was  held  for  her  in  Chickering  Hall,  where 
a  notable  company,  including  Mrs.  Julia  Ward 


Howe,  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney,  Mrs.  Mary 
A.  Livermore,  and  Mr.  William  Lloytl  Garrison, 
Jr.,  sought  to  express  their  appreciation  of 
her.  Some  of  her  associates  in  the  hospital 
spoke  of  her  hospital  and  medical  work,  while 
a  German  (juartet  sang  selections  from  the 
music  she  loved. 

The  meeting  was  closed  by  the  following 
benediction  from  Mrs.  Howe:  "I  pray  God 
earnestly  that  we  may  never  go  back  from 
the  ground  which  our  noble  pioneers  and 
leaders  have  gained  for  us.  I  pray  that  these 
bright  stars  of  merit,  set  in  our  firmament, 
may  guide  us  to  a  truer  love  and  service  to 
God  and  man." 

Emma  L.  Call,  M.D. 


EUGENIA  BROOKS  FROTHINGHAM 
is  a  young  author  whose  work  in  let- 
ters is  as  yet  designated  by  quality 
rather  than  quantity,  her  literary  abil- 
ity not  having  been  called  into  definite  use 
until  recently.  As  a  maker  of  books  from 
choice  and  not  necessity,  she  can  write  in 
leisurely  manner  and  because  she  has  some- 
thing to  say.  Born  in  Paris,  France,  in  1874, 
she  is  of  New  England  parentage,  being  the 
daughter  of  Ivlward  and  I'Aigenia  (Mittiin) 
Frothingham,  of  Boston.  One  of  her  great- 
grandfathers on  the  maternal  side  was  the 
Hon.  Ik'njamin  W.  Crowninshield,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  1814-lS,  under  Presidents  Madi- 
son and  Monroe. 

Her  early  education  was  received  in  this 
coimtry.  She  has  also  studied  and  travelled 
wi(U>ly  abroad.  Of  musical  and  artistic  tem- 
perament, always  a  student,  she  is  a  member 
of  many  clubs,  among  them  the  Saturday 
Morning,  Authors',  and  MacDowell. 

Her  first  book,  "The  Turn  of  the  Road," 
pul)lished  in  1901,  possessed  a  charm  and 
merit  that  gave  it  instant  recognition.  It 
was  one  of  the  six  best  selling  books  of  the 
year. 

"Only  an  Episode,"  vvliich  api)eared  in  the 
Atlantic,  is  a  story  of  absorbing  interest.  It 
is  an  instance  of  keen  analysis  and  strong 
character  portrayal! 

In    the    January    Critic    Miss    Frothingham 


322 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


shows  her  power  as  an  essayist,  her  article  on 
Wilham  Butler  Yeats  and  his  work  toward  the 
revival  of  Irish  literature  being  one  that  to 
read  is  a  delight.  It  is  a  noticeable  thing  in 
Miss  Frothinghani's  writing  that  she  never 
seems  to  have  "talked  herself  out":  there  is 
always  evidence  of  resources  in  reserve. 

Miss  I'"rothinghani  intends  to  make  literature 
her  profession.  Another  volume  of  fiction  is 
in  preparation.  She  is  now  (winter  of  1904) 
in  Paris,  and  later  will  move  on  to  Sicily. 
Though  the  social  demands  of  Boston's  best 
circles  upon  her  time  are  many,  her  tastes 
impel  her  to  her  library  and  desk,  wlience,  it 
is  safe  to  prophesy,  will  come  volumes  from 
lier  pen  which  will  hold  a  place  among  the 
brilliant  books  of  the  present  decade. 


/iDDIE  AUGUSTA  NOTTAGE,  who 
/\  has  been  active  in  patriotic  and  char- 
X  jL  itable  work  for  more  than  forty  years, 
is  a  native  of  Boston  and  a  graduate 
of  the  Hancock  School  in  that  city.  Her 
maiden  name  was  Kingsbury.  She  was  born 
April  5,  1839,  daughter  of  Daniel  W.  and  Sylvia 
(Wild)  Kingsbury.  Her  maternal  grandpar- 
ents were  William  and  Sally  (Thayer)  Wild. 
On  July  7,  1864,  Addie  A.  Kingsbury  was  mar- 
ried to  Josiah  Marshall  Nottage,  a  veteran  of 
the  Civil  War.  Mr.  Nottage  enlisted  in  the 
Eighth  Massachusetts  Battery.  (Contracting  a 
fever  in  the  army,  he  was  honorably  discharged 
as  an  invalid,  and  in  after  life  never  fully  re- 
gained his  health.  His  <leath  occurred  Sep- 
tember 13,  1894.  Mr.  Nottage  was  a  member 
of  John  A.  Hawes  Po.st,  No.  159,  G.  A.  R.,  of 
East  Boston.  He  was  a  son  of  Josiah  and 
Tharce  Lowd  (Penniman)  Nottage.  His  father 
was  born  in  New  Hampshire,  and  his  mother 
in  Braintree,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Nottage  has  been  active  for  a  long  time 
in  the  temperance  cause.  For  fifteen  years, 
iK'ginning  in  her  girlhood,  .she  was  identified 
with  the  Daughters  of  Rechab.  This  society, 
formed  in  March,  lS4r),  in  Boston,  was  the  first 
organized  movement  of  woTuen  for  the  pro- 
motion of  temperance  in  Massachusetts.  Its 
official  title  was  "The  Independent  Order  of 
the  United   Daughters  of  Rechab, "   and   sub- 


ordinate societies  were  termed  "tents."  Its 
motto  was  Temperance,  Fortitude,  Justice, 
and  its  principles  were  founded  upon  the  thirty- 
fifth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Jeremiah.  While 
temperance  was  the  leading  principle  of  the 
order,  its  members  were  bound  by  the  strong- 
est ties  of  sisterly  affection.  To  assist  each 
other  as  "friends  travelling  together"  was  one 
of  its  objects.  The  society  prospered  for  many 
years,  and  hundreds  of  tents  were  instituted 
throughout  the  country. 

The  Sons  of  Temperance  and  the  Indepen- 
dent Order  of  Good  Templars,  formed  a  few 
years  later,  admitted  women  to  membership 
and  the  Order  of  Rechabites  decreased  in  num- 
bers, many  of  its  members  feeling  that  more 
effective  work  couUl  be  accomplished  in  the 
organizations  formed  on  a  broader  basis. 
I'ntil  a  few  years  ago,  however.  State  encamp- 
ments of  the  Daughters  of  Rechab  were  held 
semi-annually  in  Boston,  continuing  their  ses- 
sions three  and  four  days.  The  presiding 
officer  was  called  "Worthy  Senior  Matron," 
and  the  chaplain  bore  the  title  of  "Encamp- 
ment Shepherdess."  Two  tents  in  Boston, 
the  North  Star  and  Olive  Branch,  continued 
their  work  nearly  forty  years.  Mrs.  Nottage 
was  Worthy  Senior  Matron  of  one  of  the  Bos- 
ton tents.  She  also  joined  the  Sons  of  Tem- 
perance, and  for  twenty  years  was  active  in 
Neptune  Division,  No.  29,  of  Boston,  filling 
all  the  prominent  offices. 

Mrs.  Nottage  is  a  Past  Noble  Lady  of  Hamlin 
Lodge,  of  Boston,  Independent  Order  of  Odd 
Ladies.  She  is  deeply  interested  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  Odd  Fellowsliip,  and  is  a  Past  Grand 
of  Mary  Washington  Lodge,  Daughters  of  Re- 
becca, Boston.  The  ritualistic  work  of  the 
D.  of  R.  is  familiar  to  her,  and  she  is  often  in- 
vited to  partici]iate  in  the  ceremonies  of  other 
lodges.  The  Rebecca  Merriam  Lodge  of  Rox- 
bury  presenteil  her  a  gold  badge  in  apprecia- 
tion of  the  impressive  manner  in  which  she 
delivered  the  address  for  the  lodge. 

It  is  in  patriotic  work,  however,  that 
Mrs.  Nottage  is  most  widely  known.  Every 
week  for  three  years  (]8(il-(i4)  during  the 
Civil  War  she  assisted  in  the  work  carried  on 
in  Boston,  under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Harri- 
son Gray  Otis,  of   making  garments    and  fur- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


323 


nishing  supplies  for  the  soldiers,  lii  recognition 
of  her  services  Mrs.  Otis  gave  her  a  diploma. 
Mrs.  Nottage  was  a  regular  visitor  to  the  Sol- 
diers' Home  on  West  Springfield  Street,  Bos- 
ton, and  supplied  its  inmates  with  jellies  and 
other  delicacies.  She  attended,  with  the  Rev. 
Phineas  Stowe,  the  funeral  services  of  all  the 
men  who  died  in  the  home.  Her  father  pre- 
sented the  flag  that  was  used  at  the  burial 
services. 

Captain  George  W.  Creasey,  superintendent 
of  the  present  Soldiers'  Home  in  Chelsea, 
Mass.,  in  his  annual  report  for  1902  stated 
that  the  first  State  home,  "  or  the  first  Soldiers' 
Home  established  for  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
disabled  veterans  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion, 
and  where  an  appropriation  was  maLle  by  the 
State  Legislature  for  its  maintenance,  was 
located  in  Massachusetts.  Li  May,  1862,"  he 
continued,  "a  Soldiers'  Home  organization 
was  formed  by  a  large  number  of  philanthropic 
citizens  of  Boston  and  vicinity.  The  Rev. 
Phineas  Stowe,  a  devoted  friend  of  seamen, 
presented  the  fact  of  the  destitute  condition 
of  some  of  the  discharges!  soldiers  to  the  notice 
of  a  benevolent  merchant,  Daniel  Tenney, 
Esq.,  who  promptly  granted  the  free  use  of 
a  large  warehouse,  to  be  occupied  as  a  home, 
and  contributed  a  liberal  sum  of  money  for 
its  maintenance. 

"At  the  meeting  m  May,  1862,  a  constitu- 
tion and  set  of  by-laws  were  adoptetl,  which 
provided  the  association  should  be  conducted 
under  the  name  of  'The  Discharged  Soldiers' 
Home,'  and  '  the  design  of  the  institution  is 
to  provide  a  comfortable  home  for  such  per- 
sons who  are  in  need  as  have  been  honorably 
discharged  from  the  army  of  the  United  States 
by  reason  of  their  sickness  or  woumls.'  On 
July  4,  1862,  the  home  was  formally  opened 
by  religious  services  and  appropriate  addresses. 
"In  July,  1863,  the  city  of  Boston  granted 
the  managers  the  use  of  a  commodious  build- 
ing on  Springfielil  Street,  where  the  home  con- 
tinued in  active  operation  until  the  spring  of 
1870.  From  its  opening  in  1862  to  A]m\, 
1870,  three  thousand,  seven  hundred  and  forty- 
three  soldiers  were  admittefl.  The  State  of 
Massachusetts  appropriate<l  in  the  aggregate 
eighty-five    thousand   dollars    for    its   support, 


while  thirty  thousand,  seven  hmidred  and  fifty- 
four  dollars  and  twelve  cents  was  contributed 
by  citizens.  The  discontinuance  of  the  home 
was  determined  upon  after  the  transfer  to  the 
Togus  Home  in  Maine  of  such  members  as 
were  not  credited  to  Massachusetts  during  the 
war. ' ' 

Mrs.  Nottage  esteems  it  an  honor  to  have 
been  associated  with  work  for  this  home,  and 
also  consitlers  it  a  privilege  to  assist  the  present 
Soldiers'  Home.  She  was  identified  with  the 
first  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Chelsea  home,  and 
aided  Mrs.  Sarah  E.  Fuller  in  raising  money 
for  gifts  presented  at  its  dedication  in  June, 
1884. 

Mrs.  Nottage  joined  the  Ladies'  Aid  Soci- 
ety connected  with  Joseph  Hooker  Post,  No. 
23,  G.  A.  R.,  of  East  Boston.  This  society 
was  one  of  the  first  associated  with  a  Grand 
Army  post.  She  was  a  charter  member  of 
Corps  No.  3,  organized  October  12,  1883,  as 
an  auxiliary  to  John  A.  Hawes  Post,  No.  159, 
and  has  held  all  the  corps  offices.  As  a  presi- 
dent, she  was  earnest  and  progressive. 

She  has  participated  in  many  department 
conventions,  serving  on  conmiittees  and  as 
Chief  Guard.  During  National  Encampment 
week  in  Boston  in  1890  she  was  a  member  of 
the  information  committee,  and  is  a  worker  on 
the  executive  and  other  committees  for  the 
national  convention  in  Boston  the  present  year 
(1904).  She  has  been  a  delegate  to  national 
conventions,  and  has  served  several  years  as  a 
National  Aide.  For  three  years  she  rendered 
excellent  service  as  a  member  of  the  Depart- 
ment Relief  Committee.  Mrs.  Nottage  has 
received  an  appointment  as  Dejjartment  Special 
Aide  from  several  Department  Presidents,  and 
her  work  is  appreciated.  Her  heart  is  in  this 
work,  and  she  has  visited  himdreds  of  families 
where  sickness  antl  poverty  had  cast  their 
shallows,  always  leaving  a  ray  of  sunshine. 
With  a  sympathetic  nature  and  practical  busi- 
ness training,  she  is  thoroughly  atlapted  to  the 
work  of  relief,  protecting  the  interests  of  the 
organization  she  represents  while  responding 
liberally  to  the  appeals  of  worthy  applicants. 

Mrs.  Nottage  is  an  indefatigable  worker  for 
fairs  in  aid  of  church  and  charitable  objects, 
being  a  woman  of  unusual  executive  ability. 


324 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGI.AND 


She  is  a  member  of  the  Indej^endent  Women 
Voters  and  of  the  Home  Club  of  East  Boston. 
She  attends  the  Unitarian  Church  of  East  Bos- 
ton, of  which  the  Rev.  Warren  H.  Cudworth 
was  for  many  years  the  pastor.  She  has  aided 
the  enterprises  of  other  churches,  as  she  believes 
in  doing  good  whenever  and  wlierever  the  op- 
portunity presents  itself. 


LILLIAN  LAWRENCE,  for  several 
years  the  leading  lady  at  the  Castle 
J  iScjuare  Theatre  in  Boston,  occupies 
a  unique  position  among  American 
stage  favorites.  Many  an  actress  possessing 
her  beauty,  grace,  and  charm  of  manner 
might  have  been  content  with  the  measure  of 
p\il)lic  a)i])lause  l)estowed  upon  her  for  these 
((ualities  alone.  She,  however,  has  preferred 
to  win  her  laurels  by  ste^ady  ajjplication  and 
untiring  devotion  to  her  work,  striving  con- 
stantly and  e;irnestly  to  attain  to  her  highest 
conception  of  each  new  role,  iloing  always  her 
best.  As  a  reward  for  this  persistent  endeavor 
and  constant  study,  she  holds  to-day  an  en- 
viable jjlace  as  a  stock  company  principal  of 
great  versatility.  She  was  born  in  i)ictu- 
resque  Alexandria,  ^'a.  Her  family  later  re- 
moving to  California,  her  girlhood  was  spent 
within  sight  of  thc>  Golden  Gate. 

When  she  was  in  the  grannnar  school  in  San 
Francisco,  she  was  chosen  by  the  manager  of 
the  Bush  Street  Theatre  as  one  of  more  than 
a  score  of  childien  to  take  part  in  a  living 
chess  spectacle,  antl  began  her  stage  career  as 
Queen's  Knight  in  "A  Royal  Middy."  For  the 
next  three  seasons  she  sang  in  light  opera  in 
tlie  same  theatre.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  she 
began  a  two  years'  engagement  with  a  stock 
company  in  Oakland,  Cal.,  and  when  twenty 
years  of  age  she  joined  a  small  dramatic  com- 
pany which  toured  California.  She  next  made 
her  appearance  with  the  Cordray  Stock  Com- 
pany in  engagements  which  took  her  ovitside 
the  State,  presenting  each  week  a  different  play. 
Here  it  was  that  she  acquired  her  remarkable 
facility  for  acting  one  part  while  studying  an- 
other. Here,  too,  she  realized  to  the  full  how 
different  from  the  stage-struck  girl's  idea  are 
the  realitie^s  of  stage  life,  with  its  endless  rou- 


tine of  rehearsals  every  morning,  matinee  every 
day,  fitting  of  new  costumes,  attention  to  in- 
finitesimal details,  new  parts  to  study  and  pre- 
pare for,  and  evening  performances  before  en- 
tirely different  audiences  each  night. 

In  1892  she  came  East,  and  was  at  once  en- 
gaged to  play  Marie  Louise  to  Rhea's  Joseph- 
ine. Her  next  engagement  was  with  Kate 
Claxton,  when  she  played  Henriette  in  "The 
Two  Orphans."  After  that  a  stock  company 
in  Dayton,  Ohio,  claimed  her  services.  Fol- 
lowing these  experiences  she  appeared  with 
Miss  Minnie  Seligman  at  the  Madison  Square 
Theatre,  with  Miss  Katherine  Clemmons  at 
the  Fifth  Avenue,  and  with  Miss  Carrie  Turner 
in  "The  Crust  of  Society."  She  also  filled  en- 
gagements with  the  National  Theatre  Stock 
Company  in  Washington,  and  played  Shake- 
sjiearean  roles  with  Thomas  W.  Keene.  After 
a  successful  season  in  the  rtMe  of  Mrs.  Bulford 
in  "The  Great  Diamond  Robbery"  and  in  a 
widel)'  diffeient  role  in  "The  Bachelor's  Baby" 
she  l)egan  in  1X95  an  engagement  at  the  Castle 
Square  Theatre  in  Boston,  which  lasted  five 
years.  The  next  two  years  she  played  in  W^ash- 
ington,  D.C.,  returning  in  1903  to  the  Castle 
Si|uare  Theatre. 

The  Washington  Poi<t  of  Aj^ril  6,  1902,  says 
of  her:  "Although  she  has  been  here  for  so 
short  a  time,  we  have  come  to  look  upon  this 
jjopular  -leading  lady  as  one  of  us,  and  we  want 
to  keej  ^^er  There  is  something-  about  her 
which  is  distinctly  refreshing.  She  is  a  woman 
whom  evMy  one  is  glad  to  know  and  welcome 
in  hrs  home.  'Everybody  loves  her'  is  very 
generally  the  comment  whenever  her  name  is 
mentioned. 

"  Miss  Lawrence  possesses  beauty  and  per- 
sonality as  distinct  from  those  of  other  ac- 
tresses as  is  her  work.  Her  Grecian  profile 
is  known  and  admired  all  over  the  LInited  State's. 
Photographers  have  taken  ])ictures  of  her, 
artists  have  painted  her,  and  sculptors  have 
jierpetuated  her  features  in  marble,  because 
of  their  classic  beauty  combined  with  the  dig- 
nity and  sw(>etness  of  her  character.  It  has 
been  surprising  to  those  who  have  watched 
Miss  Lawrence's  work  to  discover  that  with 
the  majesty  of  her  carriage  and  the  classic  out- 
line of  her  face  she  possesses  a  love  for   com- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


325 


edy  roles  and  enters  into  such  parts  with  amaz- 
ing vivacity." 

The  same  paper  pubHshes  an  interview  with 
her  in  which  she  tells  of  her  early  ambition  to 
become  a  soubrette,  which  she  was  forced  to 
give  up  because  of  her  rapidly  increasing  inches. 
"But  the  love  for  cometly  still  remains,"  says 
Miss  Lawrence.  "  It  will  out,  no  matter  how 
hard  I  try  to  suppress  it.  I  cannot  say,  how- 
ever, that  I  prefer  comedy  parts  to  strong  emo- 
tional ones." 

Mr.  Lewis  C.  Strang,  whose  opinion  in  dra- 
matic matters  is  worth  good  weight  in  gold, 
says  of  her,  "  Miss  Lawrence  has  the  intelli- 
gence to  present  with  commenilable  ease  and 
with  more  than  ordinary  success  even  parts 
that  are  not  in  her  line." 

Speaking  of  the  extraordinary  number  of 
parts  she  has  taken.  Miss  Lawrence  says:  "I 
started  at  one  time  to  count  them,  but  lost  the 
count.  At  any  rate,  I  know  that  the  number 
exceeds  that  of  any  other  actress.  One  thing 
which  has  assistetl  me  greatly  in  my  work  is 
my  memory.  Even  when  a  chikl  I  memorized 
so  rapidly  as  to  be  a  source  of  wonder  to  my 
family  and  friends.  Learning  a  .part  is  not 
so  much  a  matter  of  memory  as  it  is  of  con- 
centratioii,  and^l  possess  that  also~T,'o  aTfarked 
degree.  "But,  while  I  memorize  with  facility, 
I  forget  as  easily.  Perhaps  I  should  not  say 
forget:  rather,  I  store  away  in  my  mind  the 
impression  of  a  part  which  I  have  .icfii"  arned, 
and  when  I  need  it  again  all  I  have  to  do  is 
to  read  the  okl  role  over  once  or  twice-,  and  it 
all  flashes  liack  to  me.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  retain  any  part  when  one  learns  a  new  play 
each  week,  and  has  no  particular  reason  for 
thinking  of  the  previous  study.  Shakesjjeare's 
plays  are  exceptions  to  this  rule,  I  find.  I 
think  the  reason  is  that  Shakespeare  is  so  deep. 
His  language  is  so  beautiful,  so  full  of  mean- 
ing, and  expressed  so  differently  from  modern 
playwrights  that  one  has  to  study  him  very 
thoroughly  indeed  to  understand  his  lines 
rightly.  With  modern  plays  one  could  easily 
substitute  one's  own  words  and  derive  the 
same  or  nearly  the  same  effect." 

She  admits  that  stock  company  work  is  ex- 
tremely taxing,  but  finds  that  it  has  its  com- 
pensations in  permitting  her  to  remain  in  one 


place,  instead  of  roaming  all  over  the  coun- 
try with  practically  no  home  nor  opportunity 
to  make  warm  friends.  That  she  has  a  host 
of  these  was  clearly  proved  on  the  night  when 
she  closed  her  first  long  engagement  at  the 
Castle  Square  Theatre  in  the  winter  of  1900, 
when  the  house  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capac- 
ity with  an  enthusiastic  audience,  who  testified 
to  their  admiration  and  esteem  in  flowers  and 
in  farewell  gifts. 

Miss  Lawrence  is  always  interested  in  the 
people  she  meets,  many  of  whom  remind  her 
of  flowers  —  violets,  forget-me-nots,  roses,  pan- 
sies,  poppies,  and  even  sunflowers.  Names 
also  appeal  to  her,  ami  one  of  her  most  cher- 
ished friendships  she  owes  to  this  fact.  A 
child  who  had  seen  her  from  before  the  foot- 
lights venturecl,  to  call  at  her  hotel.  Miss 
Lawrence  was  about  to  send  excuses,  when  the 
beautiful  name  attracted  her  attention  and 
altered  her  decision.  She  also  has  a  great  deal 
of  sentiment  regarding  her  wardrobe,  planning 
all  her  gowns  as  to  color,  fabric,  and  fashion, 
and  finding  genuine  delight  in  clothing  her 
various  characters.  "For  instance,"  she  re- 
marked upon  one  occasion,  "  I  would  not  think 
of  using  the  gown  worn  as  Camille  for  any  other 
character,  for  to  me  that  gown  is  a  part  of  the 
character  itself.  Then,  too,  certain  shades 
seem  to  go  with  certain  people  and  be  a  part 
of  their  temperaments." 

The  Actors'  Church  Alliance,  that  admirable 
organization  tending  to  bring  about  a  closer 
understantling  between  the  stage  people  and 
the  rest  of  mankind,  has  a  powerful  counsellor 
and  advocate  in  Miss  Lawrence.  To  her  per- 
sonal aid  and  enthusiasm  is  largely  due  the 
success  of  the  Boston  chapter,  numbei'ing  over 
four  hundred  members.  Her  good  works  are 
many,  but  are  seldom  tliscovered  by  any  save  the 
recipients.  A  great-hearted  benevolence,  ask- 
ing no  questions,  histant  and  constant  in  its 
sincerity,  is  one  of  her  jjronounced  traits. 

Among  Miss  Lawrence's  most  cherished  pos- 
sessions are  an  immense  silver  loving-cup,  pre- 
sented her  as  a  Christmas  gift  by  patrons  of 
the  Castle  Square  Theatre;  a  girdle  and  cestus 
pendant,  composed  of  sixty-nine  fifty-cent 
pieces,  engraved,  which,  together  with  a  bag 
of   gold    and    monogramed    pieces,    amounting 


326 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


to  five  hundred  (loll;ir.s,  was  presented  to  her 
on  the  memorable  occasion  of  her  farewcll-to- 
Boston  a])pearanpe  in  1900.  Among  the  plays 
(far  too  numei'ous  to  he  given  in  detail)  in 
which  she  has  sustained  important  rol(>s  may 
he  mentioned  "Tiie  J>ady  of  Lyons,"  "  Frou 
Frou,"  "Captain  Leltcrijlnir,"  "She  Stooj)s 
to  Conquer,"  "The  Prisoner  of  Zenda,"  "Fe- 
dora," "Nathan  Hale,"  "Under  Two  Flags," 
"  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  "  The  Merchant  of  Venice." 


CORA  AGNES  BENNESON,  counsellor- 
at-law  and  s]iecial  connnissioner. — 
Wherever  in  history  a  ]ieison  is  found 
whose  ])lan  of  life  has  been  drawn  from 
within,  whose  course  has  been  majiped  out 
without  precedents,  that  man  or  woman  justly 
challenges  attention.  The  last  third  of  a  cen- 
tury has  furnished  not  a  few  women  of  inde- 
pendent thought  antl  action  who  have  vindi- 
cated the  right  of  each  individual  to  do  that 
for  which  he  or  she  is  fitted  by  nature.  Younger 
women  too  easily  forget  the  debt  they  owe 
these  women  of  earnest  conviction  and  liberal 
spirit. 

To  find  Miss  Benneson  well  established  in 
the  heart  of  a  conservative  conmiunity  in  what 
is  for  women  a  new  profession,  accorded  on 
every  hand  jjrofessional  and  scholarly  recogni- 
tion, allows  one  to  judge  of  her  initiative,  in- 
tellectual power,  and  gentle  persistence.  Her 
youth  fell  at  a  period  when  women  were  be- 
coming active  forces  in  society.  Colleges  and 
universities  were  being  opened  to  them  as  well 
as  to  men.  Girls  were  Ix'ginning  to  study,  not 
because  it  was  the  fashion,  but  because  they 
were  impelled  by  an  awakening  self-conscious- 
ness. 

The  circumstances  of  Miss  Benneson's  birth 
and  parentage  made  it  quite  impossible  that 
she  should  be  provincial  or  her  oj)inions  nar- 
i-ow.  Th(>  conununity  in  which  her  eai'ly  years 
were  s])ent  was  made  uj)  of  jjeople  from  all 
tile  older  ])arts  of  the  country.  Her  father, 
liolx'i't  Smith  BciiiH'snn,  went  when  a  young 
man  from  Philadelphia  to  (^uincy.  III.,  where 
he  became  an  influciitiid  and  wealthy  citizen. 
He  w;is  born  in  Newark,  Del.,  the  son  of  the 
Rev.    Thomas    and    Jane    (Carlyle)    Benneson 


(name  originally  Benson).  He  was  of  a  strong, 
long-lived  family,  and  seemed  always  to  be 
the  embodiment  of  health  and  good  cheer.  Be- 
cause of  his  integrity  and  ability  as  a  financier 
he  was  naturally  called  to  positions  of  trust. 
He  combined  the  keen  insight  of  a  man  of 
affairs  with  an  nctive  iidcrest  in  matters  of 
public  moment,  es])ecially  education.  Through 
his  efforts  the  original  act  levying  taxes  for 
school  {purposes  in  Illinois  was  passed  by  the 
L(>gislature.  For  fourteen  years  he  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Boanl  of  l']ducation  of  Quincj',  a 
longer  time  one  of  its  members.  While  Mayor 
he  i)re,'-erved  the  credit  of  that  city  by  giving 
his  personal  notes  for  its  debts. 

Miss  Benneson's  mother,  Electa  Ann  Park 
Benneson,  was  a  descendant  of  Richard  Park, 
who  came  from  England  and  was  a  proprietor 
in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  ]6o5.  His  house  stood 
"near  the  cow  conmion,"  the  land  at  present 
bounded  by  Linna\an  Street,  Garden  Street, 
and  Massachusetts  Avenue.  In  1647  he  crossed 
the  Charles  River  into  that  part  of  the  town 
familiarly  known  as  Cambridge  A^illage  (the 
territory  since  comprised  in  Brighton  and  New- 
ton), where  he  had  eleven  acres  and  a  house 
within  a  few  feet  of  the  spot  now  occupied  by 
the  Eliot  Church.  A  little  to  the  north-west 
of  this  lay  his  large  tract  of  six  hundred  acres, 
bordering  on  the  Charles  River.  His  only  son, 
Thomas  Park,  inherited  this  estate,  ^^'hen  di- 
vided among  his  heirs,  1693-94,  it  comprised 
seven  hundred  twenty-two  acres  and  part  of  a 
corn-mill  on  Smelt  Brook.  (See  Jackson's  His- 
tory of  Newton,  ]).  3S2,  and  maj)  affixed.) 

Miss  Benneson's  grandfather,  Daniel  Har- 
rington Park,  descended  in  the  fourth  genera- 
tion from  Richard  Park,  was  born  in  Massa- 
chusetts, but  was  taken,  when  in  his  second 
year,  by  his  father  to  Connecticut.  In  man- 
hood he  became  a  resident  of  \Vrmont,  where 
he  married  \\'elthy  Ladd.  In  that  State,  at 
South  Royalton,  Miss  Benneson's  mother  was 
born. 

^\'hen  a  young  woman,  Annie  Park,  as  she 
was  generally  called,  taught  school  for  a  few 
years  near  th(>  birthiilace  of  her  father  in 
Brighton,  Mass.  Some  of  its  prominent  citi- 
zens, once  her  pupils,  still  hold  her  instruc- 
tion   in  grateful  remembrance.     While  visiting 


CORA   A.  BENNESON 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


327 


frieiuls  in  Quiiicy,  111.,  she  met  Robert  Benne- 
son,  to  whom  she  was  afterward  married,  ami 
there  they  fouiuled  their  home.  Their  interests, 
whether  eilueational,  religious,  or  philanthropic, 
were  identical.  Mr.  l^enneson  valued  his  wife's 
sountl  judgment  and  keen  intuition  in  business 
matters  above  that  of  all  other  counsellors. 
Each  respected  the  individuality  of  the  other 
and  of  their  children.  They  helped  to  estab- 
lish the  Unitarian  church  in  that  section  of  the 
West,  gave  to  it  liberally  both  of  their  labor 
and  of  their  means,  and  were  devotetl  to  its 
interests  throughout  their  lives.  For  many 
years  Mrs.  Benneson  was  superintendent  of  the 
Sunday-school.  "Do  right  because  it  is  right" 
was  the  keynote  of  her  teaching.  Her  activity 
was  not  confined  to  her  home  and  church. 
Any  movement  aiming  at  the  good  of  the  com- 
nmnity  found  in  her  a  ready  helper.  In  what- 
ever she  undertook  her  foresight  and  execu- 
tive ability  led  her  to  be  successful.  She  was 
much  interested  in  the  Woodland  Home,  an 
asylum  for  orphans  and  friendless,  ami  united 
all  of  the  churches  of  her  city  in  a  large  fair 
for  its  benefit,  over  which  she  presided.  During 
the  Civil  War  she  devoted  herself  to  the  sol- 
diers' families  and  to  the  wounded  in  the  hos- 
pitals, even  receiving  two  from  the  latter  into 
her  own  home,  where  they  were  cared  for  until 
convalescent. 

Mrs.  Benneson  was  always  the  same — self- 
sacrificing,  courageous,  forceful,  not  easily  sur- 
prised, remarkably  even-tempered  and  well- 
balanced.  Her  feelings  found  expression  in 
deeds  of  kindliness  rather  than  in  words.  She 
had  scholarly  instincts,  rare  literary  taste,  and 
constantly  took  up  new  studies.  In  the  inter- 
vals of  a  busy  life  she  wrote  easily  and  well. 
That  her  children  should  excel  in  authorship 
would  have  been  her  greatest  satisfaction. 

Mi,ss  Benneson,  the  youngest  of  four  sisters, 
inherited  her  father's  physicjue  and  her  mother's 
mental  characteristics.  She  was  a  stui'dy  child, 
orderly,  accurate,  self-reliant,  aml)iti(jus,  and 
persevering.  Her  mother,  who  studied  all  hei- 
children,  soon  perceived  that  the  wisest  way  to 
direct  her  was  as  far  as  possible  to  answer  her 
questions  exactly  and  fully  and  to  exi)lain  to 
her  principles  and  the  relation  of  things.  Under 
this  loving  guidance  and  in  the  companionship 


of  her  sisters  antl  a  young  cousin  who  was  one  of 
the  household,  she  had  a  happy  childhood.  Her 
happiness,  however,  was  by  no  means  passive. 
Diligent  in  all  the  activities  that  impel  healthy 
young  minds,  she  wrote  ami  studied  with  a  zeal 
that  might  have  put  to  shame  much  older 
heads.  She  had  leai'iied  to  read  before  the 
family  knew  what  she  was  about,  and  when  she 
became  ab.sorbed  in  a  book  one  could  call  her 
name  aloud  without  her  hearing  it,  an  experi- 
ment fretjuently  made  by  the  other  children. 

The  five  little  girls  hail  many  novel  and  in- 
genious ways  of  entertaining  themselves.  One 
of  their  enterprises  was  the  editing  of  a  maga- 
zine called  The  Experiment,  which  was  reatl 
aloud  every  week  in  the  family  circle.  In  its 
columns  appeared  Miss  Benneson's  first  writ- 
ings. At  eight  she  contributed  a  satire  on  a 
fashionable  woman's  call,  entitled  "A  Visit," 
which  won  the  prize  the  mothei-  had  offered,  '^o 
receive  it  the  embarrassed  author  had  to  be 
dragged  from  under  the  bed,  where  she  had 
hidtlen  during  the  reading. 

At  nine,  by  her  own  request,  her  father  al- 
lowed her  to  help  keep  his  books.  In  his  old 
ledgers  are  still  to  be  seen  her  chiklish  figures, 
correctly  and  carefully  entered. 

At  twelve  she  was  reading  Latin  at  sight, 
had  acquaintance  with  much  of  the  best  litera- 
ture, and  was  industriously  collecting  and  tabu- 
lating historical  facts.  Her  mother  noted  her 
ability  to  get  at  the  pith  of  an  argument  and 
to  sum  up  a  conversation  in  a  few  words  of  her 
own.  Permitted  to  take  pencil  and  paper  to 
church,  she  drew  trees  as  she  listened  to  the 
tliscour.ses,  the  trunk  representing  the  text,  or 
main  thought,  the  branches  the  ideas  leading 
out  from  it.  In  her  judgment  the  merits  of  a 
sermon  depended  upon  whether  or  not  it  could 
be  "  treed."  At  school  she  easily  excelled  other 
children  of  her  age.  At  fifteen  she  had  finished 
the  course  at  the  Quincy  Academy,  the  equiva- 
lent of  that  of  a  good  high  school.  At  eighteen 
.she  was  gratluated  from  the  (|)uincy  Seminary. 
l'"rom  that  time  until  she  entered  college  she 
had  her  full  share  of  social  life,  of  which  her 
father's  hou.se  was  a  hospitable  centre. 

The  homestead  of  the  Bennesons  is  a  large 
mansion  situated  above  a  series  of  terraces, 
surrounded  by  trees  and  shrubs,  and  conunand- 


328 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ing  a  magnificent  view  of  fourteen  miles  of  the 
Mississippi.  To  Miss  Benneson,  who  was  a 
good  rower  and  knew  everj'  inlet  and  island  of 
the  neighboring  river,  it  was  a  part  of  life.  She 
watched  with  untiring  interest  the  steamers 
plying  to  and  fro  between  St.  Louis  and  St. 
Paul,  the  flare  of  the  pine  torches  when  they 
neared  the  landings  at  night  amidst  the  melo- 
dious chanting  of  the  negro  deck-hands,  the 
varying  moods  of  the  restless  stream  itself  in 
sunshine  and  in  storm,  its  daily  busy  traffic 
and  evening  glow,  and  eagerly  awaited  its  su- 
preme moment,  when  it  tossed  ofT  the  crashing 
ice-blocks  in  the  spring,  piling  them  high  along 
shore.  Whether  seen  from  her  windows  or 
from  her  boat,  the  Mississippi  had  always  for 
her  a  personality  indelibly  associated  with  her 
childhood  and  youth:  it  was  her  unconscious 
friend,  helping  her  to  think  and  act. 

In  the  home  there  was  great  harmony  and 
incentive  to  noble  living.  The  men  of  note 
who  were  there  entertained,  especially  Alcott 
and  Emerson,  made  a  great  impression  on  Miss 
Benneson,  who  while  still  in  her  teens  was  in- 
clined to  philosophic  study.  Indeed,  Emerson 
has  always  been  an  inspiration  to  her.  One  of 
her  hapjiiest  summers  was  spent  at  the  Old 
Manse  in  Concord,  amidst  the  scenes  that  he 
has  immortalized. 

When  the  question  of  her  higher  education 
was  considered,  Miss  Benneson  chose  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  then  recently  opened  to 
women.  She  entered  with  advanced  rank,  antl 
completeil  the  four  years'  course  in  three.  The 
first  college  girl  to  greet  her  on  her  arrival  in 
Ann  Arbor  was  Alice  Freeman  (afterward  Alice 
Freeman  Palmer),  then  a  Senior.  She  was  one 
of  a  band  of  earnest  women  that  had  assem- 
bled frf)m  all  sections  of  the  country  in  response 
to  the  new  opportunities.  They  studied  hard 
and  said  not  much  about  the  great  cause  for 
which  they  stood,  laut  the  consciousness  of  it 
drew  them  very  closely  together.  Some  have 
since  become  famous.  The  lives  of  all  have 
been  the  richer  for  what  they  there  received. 
Their  friendship  and  that  of  the  men  who  stood 
loyally  by  them  Miss  Benneson  regards  as  one 
of  the  best  gifts  of  her  Alma  Mater.  Her  first 
public  appearance  m  college  was  during  her 
l'"reshman  year,  in  a   Homeric  controversy,  in 


which  she  took  the  position  that  Homer  wrote 
the  Iliad,  arguing  from  the  internal  evidence 
of  the  book.  She  spoke  extemporaneously,  at 
that  time  unusual  for  a  woman;  and  her  manner 
of  presenting  argument,  then,  as  always,  for- 
cible, won  the  day.  In  her  Senior  year  she  was 
elected  one  of  the  editors  of  The  Chronicle,  the 
leading  college  paper,  the  first  woman  to  fill 
this  office. 

After  receiving  the  degree  of  A.B.  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  Mi.ss  Benneson  began  the 
study  of  law.  It  was  a  deliberate  choice.  She 
was  not  forced  by  circumstances  to  take  up  a 
profession,  but  it  was  impossible  that  her  mind 
should  remain  inactive  and  her  life  ineffective. 
Her  choice  was  not  opposed  by  lier  family  or 
friends.  Her  application  for  admission  to  the 
Law  School  of  Harvard  University,  signed 
by  five  Harvard  alunmi,  was  refused  on  the 
ground  that  the  equipments  were  too  limited 
to  make  suitable  provision  for  receiving  women. 
It  was  no  detriment  to  her  legal  education  that 
she  returned  to  the  University  of  Michigan, 
where  she  received  instruction  from  Judges 
Cooley,  Campbell,  and  Walker,  Professors  Wells 
and  Kent,  one  of  the  strongest  law  faculties  ever 
assembled  in  America.  In  her  law  class,  which 
numbered  one  hundred  seventy-five,  there  were 
but  two  women.  They  had,  however,  no  preju- 
dice to  encounter.  Respect  anfl  courtesy  greeted 
them  on  every  hand.  Miss  Benneson  was  sec- 
retary of  her  class,  presiding  officer  in  the  lead- 
ing debating  society,  and  judge  of  the  Illinois 
Moot  Court. 

After  receivi.ng  her  higher  degrees,  LL.B.  and 
A.M.,  and  being  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Michi- 
gan and  Illinois,  Miss  Benneson  made  a  journey 
around  the  world,  occupying  more  than  two 
years.  This  was  accomplished  without  a  day's 
illness,  detention,  or  accident.  Starting  from 
San  Francisco  in  company  with  a  friend,  a 
Massachusetts  woman,  she  travelled  continu- 
ally westward,  visiting  Hawaii,  Japan,  China, 
liurma,  India,  Arabia,  Abyssinia,  Egypt,  Pal- 
estine, Turkey,  and  all  of  the  principal  coun- 
tries of  I'Airope.  I'ar  fmni  being  the  ordinary 
journey  of  the  ordinary  globe  trotter,  it  was  an 
extended  study  of  the  customs,  manners,  and 
laws  of  many  nations.  Curiosity  is  not  a 
touchstone  in  foreign  travel,  but  a  kindly  nat- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


329 


uie  and  human  sympathy  relax  even  the  sto- 
lidity of  a  Chinaman.  Doors  opened  easily  to 
Miss  Benneson,  both  those  to  the  home  and  to 
the  heart.  Where  .some  would  have  seen  only 
odd  dress  and  curious  customs,  she  found  the 
spirit  and  motive  of  the  real  life.  She  was  able 
to  discriminate  without  being  critical.  The 
journey,  too,  was  full  of  thrilling  incidents, 
among  them  a  camping  expedition  in  the  Yo- 
semite;  horseback  rides  over  the  lava  tracts  to 
the  Burning  Lakes  and  down  and  up  the  steep 
walls  of  the  gulches  of  Hawaii;  the  tour  of 
Canton  under  English  escort  at  the  time  of  the 
Tonquin  War;  the  elephant  and  dromedary 
rides  m  India  and  Egypt;  the  sight  of  the  fa- 
mous Highland  regiment,  the  Black  Watch, 
marching  out  to  battle,  and  the  sound  of  the 
artillery  fire  of  the  British  squares;  a  journey 
with  the  pilgrims  returning  after  Easter  from 
Jerusalem  to  Damascus;  an  adventure  with 
brigands  in  Greece;  the  coming  unawares  upon 
the  breathing  Hermes  of  Praxiteles  just  un- 
earthed ;  the  mountain  climbing  in  Switzerland ; 
the  exploration  of  the  Norwegian  fjords. 

Miss  Benneson  has  the  distinction  of  being 
one  of  the  few  that  have  visited  the  law  courts 
of  all  of  the  principal  civilized  countries  as  well 
as  their  chief  governing  assemblies. 

Upon  her  return,  Miss  Benneson  lectured  on 
her  travels — first  in  her  native  city,  where  she 
gave  an  account  of  her  entire  journey,  speak- 
ing seventeen  times  consecutively  to  deeply  in- 
terested audiences;  afterward  in  St.  Paul,  Min- 
neapolis, Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and 
many  other  cities.  Her  lectures,  everywhere 
well  attended,  were  found  instructive  by  those 
who  had  travelled  as  well  as  by  those  who  had 
not,  for  with  her  trained  mind  and  keen  per- 
ception she  was  able  to  give  an  interpretation 
as  well  as  a  narration  of  facts. 

In  1886  Miss  Benneson  edited  for  a  time  the 
Law  Reports  of  the  West  Publishing  Company 
at  St.  Paul,  Minn.  In  1887  she  accepted  a  call 
to  a  fellowship  in  history  at  Bryn  Mawr  College, 
where  she  remained  until  June,  1888.  The  fol- 
lowing September  she  came  to  Cambridge, 
returning  not  only  to  the  seat  of  her  ancestors, 
but  unconsciously  choosing  a  location  near 
Richard  Park's  first  house.  She  is  environed 
by  historic  and  literary  associations,  being  mid- 


Way  between  the  Washington  Elm  and  the 
Longfellow  house,  within  a  stone's  throw  of 
Radcliffe  College  and  in  sight  of  Harvard. 

Miss  Benneson  did  not  find  herself  a  stranger 
in  Massachusetts.  Kinsmen  and  old  friends 
welcomed  her.  Among  the  new  was  Lucy 
Stone,  in  whose  home  she  became  a  fre- 
quent guest,  meeting  there  others  of  similar 
tastes. 

In  1894  she  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  the  following  year  was  ap- 
pointed special  commissioner  by  Governor 
Greenhalge. 

Various  organizations  attribute  their  success 
in  large  measure  to  the  foresight  of  Miss  Benne- 
son when  framing  their  constitution  and  by- 
laws, notably  the  Unity  Clubs  of  Ann  Arbor, 
Mich.,  and  Quincy,  111.,  which  she  founded,  the 
College  Club,  and  Woman's  Club  House  Cor- 
poration of  Boston,  of  which  she  was  incorpo- 
rating counsel. 

AVhile  attending  to  an  ever-increasing  prac- 
tice, Miss  Benneson  has  been  a  constant  student. 
Her  contributions  to  literature  on  questions 
concerning  government  are  of  recognized  value. 
A  paper  upon  "  Executive  Discretion  in  the 
United  States,"  read  before  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1898, 
attracted  wide  attention.  That  was  followed 
by  one  upon  "  Federal  Guarantees  for  Main- 
taining Republican  Government  in  the  States." 
The  Popular  Science  Monthly  in  speaking  of 
this  paper  said:  "No  more  suggestive  title  has 
ever  been  presented  to  such  a  body."  In  rec- 
ognition of  valuable  papers  contributed,  Miss 
Benneson  was  made  a  fellow  of  the  Association 
in  1899,  and  in  1900  was  elected  secretary  of 
the  Social  and  Economic  Science  Section.  An- 
other paper  on  "The  Power  of  our  Courts  to 
interpret  the  Constitution,"  also  read  before 
the  Association,  has  led  to  the  announcement 
of  a  book  dealing  with  the  same  general  subject. 
Aside  from  these,  articles  from  her  pen  have 
frequently  appeared  in  various  magazines.  At 
the  First  International  Council  of  Women,  held 
at  Washington,  D.C.,  1888,  she  read  a  paper  on 
"College  Fellowships  for  Women,"  which  has 
had  much  influence  in  increasing  their  oppor- 
tunities for  original  research.  In  June,  1899, 
she  gave  the  Alumni  Poem  at  the  University  of 


;}3ti 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN    OF    NEW    ENGLAND 


Michigan,  and  in  19()o  tlui  Ode  of  iicr  class  ul 
its  annivorsary  nieoting. 

Notwithstaiidiiif:;  lici-  professional  duties  and 
her  student  life,  Miss  liennesou  has  not  been 
indifferent  to  any  luuuan  interest.  She  has 
been  a  keen  observer  of  all  the  activities  of 
women,  has  l)een  (juick  to  deplore  any  ti'tidency 
that  would  destroy  womanliness  in  the  hifjhest 
sense  and  as  ready  to  aid  any  movement  that 
would  give  women  a  fuller  and  richer  life  and 
make  tliem  more  efficient  members  of  society. 

"The  cominfi;  woman,  "  writes  Miss  Henneson, 
"will  not  hesitate  to  do  whatever  she  feels  will 
benefit  humanity,  and  she  will  develop  her  own 
faculties  to  the  utmost  because  by  .so  diiing  she 
can  best  .■^erve.  t-he  will  have  a  home,  of  cour.se. 
She  will  not  marry,  however,  for  the  sake  of  a 
home,  because  she  will  be  seli-supporting.  The 
home  she  will  liel|)  to  found  will  not  be  for  the 
.selfish  gratihcation  of  two  individuals,  but  a 
centre  of  light  and  harmony  to  all  that  come 
within  the  sphere  of  its  radiance.  Many  so- 
called  duties,  that  drain  the  nerve  force  of  the 
modern  woman,  the  coming  woman  will  omit 
or  delegate.  One  duty  she  will  not  delegate — 
the  character  moulding  of  her  children.  The 
woman  of  the  future  comes  not  to  destroy,  but 
to  fulfil  the  law.  She  will  not  confine  her  in- 
fluence to  a  limited  circle.  It  will  be  felt  in 
the  nation's  housekeeping.  AAherever  she  is 
needed  there  will  she  be  found." 

Miss  BennesOn  believes  that  reforms  cannot 
be  forced  upon  society,  but  must  come  through 
a  natural  evolution,  and  that  one  can  do  an- 
other no  more  serious  injury  than  to  deprive 
him  of  lifjerty  of  ojiinion  and  action.  Hence 
she  is  never  dogmatic  or  aggressive.  Her  rule 
of  conduct,  though  i)erhaps  not  .so  formulated, 
seems  to  be  "to  study  hard,  think  (juietly,  talk 
gently,  act  frankly,  await  occasions,  hurry 
never."  From  her  earliest  years  her  life  has 
been  characterizeil  by  calmness  and  delibera- 
tion. She  carries  the  burdens  of  others  easily, 
and  seems  to  have  none  of  her  own. 

"  Verite  sans  ))eur"  is  Miss  Benneson's  motto, 
adopted  when  she  was  eighteen  yeai's  old  and 
so  faithfully  adhered  to  that  her  fi'iends,  seeing 
it  even  on  her  office;  walls,  have  come  to  asso- 
ciate it  with  her  name.  Following  truth  with- 
out fear  and  seeing  the  best  that  is  in  every 


one,  she  has  become  to  others  a  constant  stim- 
ulus to  new  and  high  achievement.  They  can- 
not bring  into  her  atmosjjhere  what  is  trifling 
or  degrading.  She  ojjens  to  them  a  larger  life, 
helping  them  by  showing  them  how  to  help 
themselves.  Her  secret  of  happy  living  is  to 
convert  difhculties  into  blessings  by  making 
them  contribute  to  self-mastery  ami  spiritual 
development. 

Maiiv  Esther  Tkukhlood,  A.M. 


ELLAC.  R.  WHITON  (Mrs. Royal  Whiton) 
was  born  in  lirookline,  Mass.,  March  9, 
1857,  daughter  of  Alvin  A.  and  Eleanor 
J.  (Woodbury)  Rice.  Her  father  died 
in  Decembei-,  1S6.5,  and  her  mother  in  March, 
1902. 

Ella  C.  Rice  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Boston  and  Brookline,  and  early 
entered  upon  a  business  life.  She  was  married 
March  9,  ISS7,  to  Royal  ^^'hiton,  who  was  born 
July  2S,  1S4(),  in  Hingham,  Mass.,  son  of  Royal 
and  Rebecca  A.  (Lothrop)  Whiton.  Mr.  WHiiton 
is  a  descendant  in  the  eighth  generation  of 
James  Whiton  (or  Whiting),  who  was  in  Hing- 
ham as  early  as  1647. 

Mrs.  Whiton  for  a  number  of  years  has  taken 
an  active  part  in  club  life  and  philanthropic 
work.  She  was  associated  for  some  time  with 
the  workers  for  the  Charity  Club  Hospital  and 
later  for  the  Aged  Couples'  Home  and  in  recent 
years  with  the  Dorchester  Woman's  Club.  She 
was  a  charter  member  of  that  club,  and  served 
it  for  five  years  as  treasurer.  She  did  very 
efficient  work  in  securing  the  building  of  the 
beautiful  club-house  of  the  Dorchester  Woman's 
Club  House  As.sociation,  of  which  from  its  or- 
ganization .she  has  been  the  {^resident.  This 
house,  now  six  years  old,  was  the  first  woman's 
club-house  of  any  importance  in  Massachusetts, 
and  has  always  been  managed  by  women.  Its 
success  has  been  largely  due  to  Mrs.  Whiton's 
untiring  efforts.  Through  her  skilful  financial 
management  it  will  begin  its  seventh  year  en- 
tirely free  from  debt. 

Mrs.  Whiton  is  interested  in  all  well-considered 
movements  for  the  public  good,  and  is  a  re- 
sourceful, unselfish,  and  conscientious  worker. 
The  good  of  her  cause  is  always  her  first  thought, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


331 


and  she  works  with  untiring  zeal  to  accomplish 
the  end  in  view.  Mrs.  Whiton  has  the  confi- 
dence and  esteem  of  those  with  whom  she  has 
been  so  long  and  ultimately  associated  in  club 
work  and  other  benevolent  endeavor  to  which 
her  life  has  been  devoted. 


MARIA  WILDER  GOING,  Depart- 
ment President  Massachusetts  Wo- 
man's Relief  Corps  in  1901,  was 
born  m  Littleton,  Mass.,  August  7, 
1845,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Deacon  Henry 
Tufts  and  Martha  (Wilder)  Taylor.  Her  father, 
born  in  Littleton,  July  22,  1816,  was  the  son 
of  William  Taylor,  a  native  of  Concord,  Mass., 
and  Lydia  Whitcomb,  his  wife,  whose  birth- 
place was  Littleton.  The  Taylor  family  was 
of  English  origin.  Mrs.  Going's  maternal  grand- 
parents were  Harrison  and  Keziah  (Powers) 
Wilder,  both  natives  of  Sterling,  Mass.  Some 
of  her  Wilder  ancestors  were  soldiers  in  the 
Revolutionary  War.  Deacon  Henry  Tufts  Tay- 
lor filled  many  honorable  positions  in  Littleton. 
For  nineteen  consecutive  years  he  was  principal 
of  one  of  the  public  schools,  and  for  several 
years  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  School 
Committee.  He  was  recognized  as  a  teacher 
of  unusual  ability  and  as  an  earnest,  devoted 
man,  with  rare  talents  for  leadership.  To  his 
inspiring  mfluence  his  daughter  attributes  her 
interest  in  public  affairs.  He  married  April 
28,  1841,  Martha  Wilder,  of  Sterling,' who  was 
born  in  that  town,  April  21,  1817.  Settling 
in  Littleton,  they  became  identified  with  its 
public  interests,  and  were  prominent  members 
of  the  Unitarian  church  for  fifty-one  years. 

Mrs.  Going  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  her  native  town  and  at  Lawrence  Academy, 
Groton,  and  soon  after  her  graduation  she  be- 
came a  teacher.  Inheriting  from  her  pai-ents 
an  intense  love  of  music,  she  began  its  study 
when  she  was  only  ten  years  old,  and  before 
reaching  her  twelfth  birthday  was  organist  in 
the  Unitarian  church,  which  had  the  first  pipe 
organ  in  the  town.  She  sub.sequently  devoted 
much  time  to  nmsical  studies,  and  in  1890  or- 
ganized and  equipped  an  orchestra,  of  which 
she  became  the  managing  dii-ector.  The  mar- 
riage of  Maria  Wilder  Taylor  and  Myron  Fran- 


cis Going  took  place  on  the  25th  of  December, 
1867.  Mr.  Going  is  a  native  of  Townsend, 
Mass.  On  October  18,  1861,  he  enlisted  for 
three  years  in  the  Twenty-sixth  Massachusetts 
Regiment  of  Volunteers.  At  the  expiration  of 
this  term  of  service  he  was  honorably  discharged. 
He  re-enlisted  as  a  private,  and  was  promoted 
to  Commissary  Sergeant.  For  several  years  he 
has  been  a  member  of  Abraham  Lincoln  Post, 
No.  11,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Charlestown.  This  post's 
auxiliary,  Abraham  Lincoln  Relief  Corps,  No. 
39,  Mrs.  Going  joined  m  1888.  After  filling 
several  minor  offices  in  the  corps,  she  was 
elected  president,  and  performed  her  duties  in 
such  a  creditable  manner  that  higher  honors 
in  the  oi-der  were  bestowed  upon  her.  As  De- 
partment Aide,  Assistant  Inspector,  and  In- 
stalling Officer,  she  attended  many  corps  meet- 
ings in  different  parts  of  the  State.  In  1898 
she  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Department 
Executive  Board;  in  1899  Department  Junior 
Vice-President.  The  following  year  she  became 
Senior  Vice-President,  and  at  the  annual  con- 
vention in  1901  was  unanimously  elected  De- 
partment President. 

During  her  term  of  office  Mrs.  Going  trav- 
elled several  thousand  miles,  participating  in 
various  patriotic  assemblies.  A  summary  of 
her  year's  work  was  given  in  her  address  to 
the  Department  Convention  held  in  the  Park 
Street  Church,  Boston,  in  February,  1902. 

Referring  to  Memorial  Day,  she  said;  "The 
interestmg  report  of  the  Department  Chaplain 
will  show  that  this  sacred  day  was  appropri- 
ately and  universally  observed  throughout  the 
State.  Our  corps,  moved  by  a  common  im- 
pulse, united  with  their  respective  posts,  in 
paying  homage  to  our  fallen  heroes.  As  year 
by  year  rolls  by,  Memorial  Day  brings  to  each 
of  us  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  significance, 
not  only  to  the  survivors  of  the  Civil  War,  but 
to  every  loyal  citizen  of  this  nation.  With 
sadness  we  recount  each  passing  year  a  diminu- 
tion in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic.  .  .  .  While  we  speak  of  the  brave 
and  dauntless  soldier,  let  us  not  forget  the  gal- 
lant sailors  who  lie  so  silently  sleeping  in  the 
depths  of  the  sea,  whose  rolling,  restless  billows 
chant  their  only  requiem." 

In  regard  to  the  strewing  of  flowers  on  the 


33:^ 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ocean  waves,  she  added:  "I  am  heartily  in 
sympathy  with  the  recommendation  of  Past 
National  President  Mary  L.  Carr,  adopted  by 
the  Nineteenth  National  Convention,  and  earn- 
estly hope  that  this  beautiful  ceremony  will  be 
incorporated,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  memorial 
services  of  every  corps  in  this  department." 

Among  other  points  touched  upon  in  the 
address  was  the  official  visit  made  in  Janu- 
ary to  the  Soldiers'  Home  on  Powder-horn 
Hill,  including  the  hospital,  where  battle- 
scarretl  veterans,  worn  antl  weary,  shatteretl 
in  body  and  mind,  are  nursed  and  cared  for. 

A  tribute  to  the  army  nurses  was  followed 
by  the  reading  of  a  letter,  dated  Cambridge, 
December  31,  1901,  addressed  to  Mrs.  Maria  W. 
Going,  Department  President  Massachusetts 
W.  R.  C,  by  Fanny  T.  Hazen,  President  Army 
Nurse  Association  of  Massachusetts,  gratefully 
acknowledging  the  generous  New  Year's  gift 
of  two  hundred  dollars  to  that  organization. 

Mrs.  Going  also  commended  the  Sons  of 
Veterans,  the  Daughters  of  Veterans,  and  dis- 
cussed in  an  eloquent  and  thorough  manner 
other  topics  relating  to  the  united  work  of 
the  G.  A.  R.  and  W.  R.  C. 

She  was  the  recipient  of  many  gifts  in  appre- 
ciation of  her  devoted  labors  for  the  cause,  her 
administration  being  recognized  as  one  of  great 
efficiency.  At  the  public  reception  held  on  the 
evening  of  February  12,  1902,  when  the  his- 
toric Park  Street  Church  was  crowded  with 
guests,  Mrs.  Going  presided,  and  in  a  happy 
and  dignified  manner  introilucetl  the  several 
speakers.  Among  them  were  the  Hon.  Rufus 
A.  Soule,  President  of  the  State  Senate,  antl 
the  Hon.  J.  J.  Myers,  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  who  extended  the  greetings 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  of  Governor  Crane; 
John  E.  Gilman,  Past  Department  Conunander 
G.  A.  R.,  Commissioner  of  Soldiers'  Relief  for 
the  city  of  Boston,  who  represented  Mayor 
Collins;  Judge  Torrance,  of  Minnesota,  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  G.  A.  R. ;  Mrs.  Calista 
Robinson  Jones,  National  President  W.  R.  C. ; 
and  prominent  officials  in  Massachusetts. 

Mrs.  Going  was  ai)])ointe(l  Coun.'^ellor  on  the 
staff  of  Mrs.  Lyman,  the  incoming  Department 
President,  and  is  contiiuiing  her  work  for  the 
order.     She  served  as  treasurer  of  the  W.  R.  C. 


table  in  the  Daughters  of  \'eterans'  Fair,  held 
in  Tremont  Temple,  November,  1902,  and  dur- 
ing the  year  has  performed  duties  in  various 
official  capacities.  She  has  attended  National 
Convention  for  several  years  as  a  representative 
from  Massachusetts,  and  has  served  on  impor- 
tant committees  and  as  a  National  Aide.  Her 
cordial  manners  anil  able  efforts  in  the  State 
and  national  work  of  patriotic  organizations 
have  won  for  her  many  friends.  She  is  secre- 
tary of  the  Executive  Connnittee  of  Arrange- 
ments for  the  National  Convention  in  Boston, 
August  (1904),  a  position  of  great  responsibility; 
is  a  member  of  the  reception,  entertainment, 
and  other  conmiittees,  and  is  devoting  her  time 
and  talents  for  the  success  of  this  great  gather- 
ing of  patriotic  women.  Her  portrait  hangs 
upon  the  walls  of  the  Department  headquarters 
in  Boston,  having  been  presented  by  Abraham 
Lmcoln  Corps  of  Charlestown,  in  appreciation 
of  her  services. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Going  moved  in  1881  from 
Charlestown  to  Somerville,  Mass.,  where  they 
have  since  resided.  They  had  one  son,  Henry 
Bertram  Going.  He  was  born  December  28, 
1869,  was  graduated  from  the  public  schools  of 
Somerville,  and  afterward  was  in  business  with 
his  father.  A  great  bereavement  came  to  them 
in  the  loss  of  this  beloved  son,  who  passed  to  a 
higher  life,  November  21,  1903,  in  the  thirty- 
fourth  year  of  his  age. 


ADELAIDE  NICHOLSON  BLODGETT 
/  \  was  born  in  Fitchburg,  Mass.,  Janu- 
X  ^  'iry  10,  1847.  She  is  the  daughter  of 
Charles'  Nicholson,  a  sea  captain  of 
the  old-fashioned  type,  a  man  of  integrity 
and  ability.  The  son  of  an  officer  in  the  French 
army.  Captain  Nicholson  came  to  this  country 
from  France  at  the  age  of  twelve.  He  married 
Mary  Ann  Varney,  who  was  born  in  Boston, 
and  who  lived  at  the  North  End,  in  former  days 
the  court  end  of  the  town,  as  it  has  been 
called.  Captain  Nicholson  died  some  twenty 
years  ago. 

Mrs.  Blodgett,  on  her  mother's  side,  is  a 
descendant  of  Nicholas  Browne,  who  settled 
in  Lynn,  Mass.,  before  1638,  and  a  few  years 
later  removed  to  Reading.     He  was  a  Deputy 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


333 


to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  m  1641, 
1655,  1656,  and  1661. 

Her  great-grandfather,  Seth  Ingersoll  Browne 
(WiUiam,'  Cornelius,^  Nicholas'),  was  one  of 
the  "Mohawks"  who  helped  throw  the  tea 
into  Boston  Harbor,  December  16,  1773,  and 
was  a  non-commissioned  officer  m  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill. 

Captain    and    Mrs.    Nicholson    removing    to 
Newton    when    their    daughter    Adelaide    was 
a  mere  child,  she  received  her  early  etlucation 
in   the  schools  of   that   town,   attending  later 
Maplewood  Institute  in  Pittsfield,  Mass.     She 
married  Mr.  W.  H.  Blodgett,  a  member  of  the 
well-known   Boston   firm   of   Joel   Goldthwaite 
&  Co.,  June  14,  1865,  and  settled  in  Newton, 
where   she   has   since   resided.     Mr.   and   Mrs. 
Blodgett  have  two  children,  Grace  Allen  and 
William  Ernest.     The  daughter,   Grace  Allen, 
a-  graduate  of  Smith  College,  is  married  to  Dr. 
R.  H.  Seelye,  one  of  the  most  skilled  surgeons 
of    Western    Massachusetts,    and    resides    in 
Springfield,  where  she  is  a  power  in  the  educa- 
tional  and    moral    forces   of    the    comnumity. 
William  Ernest  Blodgett  is  a  graduate  of  both 
Harvard  College  and  Harvartl  Medical  School. 
He  is  making  a  specialty  of  orthopedic  surgery. 
Mrs.   Blotlgett  has  always   been   a  student, 
and,    while    travelling   extensively    in    Europe 
with  her  children,  was  as  busy  with  books  and 
music   as   they.     She  has   been   a   member   of 
the  Eliot  (Congregational)  Church  for  thirty- 
six  years,  and  has  given  herself  with  much  en- 
thusiasm to  its  needs  a«d  concerns.     She  is  now 
president   of   the   Woman's   Home   Missionary 
Association  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Islantl. 
She  was  for  three  years  president  of  the  Social 
Science  Club  of  Newton,  which  has  for  one  of 
its  good  works  the  support  of  a  vacation  school 
in  Nonantum  (a  manufacturing  village  in  New- 
ton) at  an  outlay  of  six  humlred  dollars  a  year. 
She  was  president  of  the  Newton  Federation 
of  Women's  Clubs,  and  was  elected  treasurer 
of  the  Massachusetts  State  Federation  of  Clubs 
at  the  time  of  its  founding,  a  position  which 
she  filled  for  eight  consecutive  years. 

Though  Mrs.  Blodgett  has  filled  many  public 
positions  admirably,  it  is  in  her  own  home  that 
she  is  at  her  best.  It  is  here  that  one  finds 
many  evidences  of  her  cultured  tastes,  and,  see- 


ing the  personality  of  the  mistress,  does  not 
wonder  at  her  power  of  hiaking  and  keeping 
friends.  m.  a.  s. 


CAROLINE  YOUNG  WENTWORTH, 
M.D.,  Ch.B.,  of  Newton  Highlands, 
Mass.,  was  born  in  South  Berwick, 
Me.,  being  the  daughter  of  Benjamin 
F.  and  Mary  Elizabeth  (Young)  Wentworth. 
Her  maternal  grandmother  was  a  Quaker.  On 
the  paternal  side  her  first  ancestor  in  this  coun- 
try was  Elder  William  AVentworth,  who  came 
to  New  England  less  than  twenty  years  after 
the  arrival  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock, 
and  less  than  ten  years  after  the  arrival  of  John 
Winthrop  and  the  settlement  of  Boston.  In 
1639  he  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  "  combi- 
nation" for  a  government  at  Exeter,  N.H. 
Some  years  later  he  settled  in  Dover,  N.H., 
where  he  served  as  Ruling  Elder  of  the  church 
and  for  several  years  as  Selectman.  The  long 
roll  of  his  descendants  includes  many  distin- 
guished names,  both  in  colonial  and  in  later 
times. 

The  Wentworth  family  in  England  is  traced 
back  to  a  Saxon  land-owner  living  in  Strafford 
in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  in  the  eleventh 
century,  and  designated  in  the  Domesday 
Book  as  Rynald  or  Reginald  de  Wynterwade. 
Dr.  Wentworth  in  her  girlhood  years  attended 
the  public  schools  of  Wakefield,  Mass.,  and 
subsequently  took  the  course  at  the  State 
Normal  School  in  Framingham.  After  her 
graduation  she  taught  m  the  public  schools  of 
Newton  and  in  Arthur  Oilman's  Preparatory 
School  in  Cambridge.  In  1895,  after  a  four 
years'  course  of  study  at  the  Boston  Univer- 
sity School  of  Medicine,  she  received  therefrom 
the  degree  of  M.D.,  having  previously  taken 
(1894)  the  degree  of  Ch.B.  (Bachelor  of  Surgery). 
She  then  spent  a  year  as  surgical  interne  in  the 
Massachusetts  Homoeopathic  Dispensary,  and 
has  held  an.  appointment  on  the  surgical  staff 
of  that  institution  ever  since.  She  is  widely 
interested  in  philanthropic  movements,  and 
holds  the  office  of  visiting  physician  in  a  number 
of  practical  charitable  institutions  in  Boston 
and  Newton. 
Shortly  after  her  graduation  Dr.  Wentworth 


334 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


opened  an  office  in  Newton  Highlands,  where 
she  has  built  up  a  large  practice.  She  stands 
not  only  for  skill  and  ability  in  her  profession, 
but  as  an  influence  for  good  in  the  community. 


LINA  FRANK  HECHT  has  been  almost 
from  the  beginning  of  her  residence 
^  in  the  city  of  Boston  the  centre  of 
all  philanthropic  activity  in  Jewish 
circles. 

Born  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  November  27,  1848, 
Lina  P>ank  was  one  of  eight  children,  four  sons 
and  four  daughters — namely,  Sarah,  Alexander, 
Daniel,  Lina  (Mrs.  Hecht),  Emma,  Rosa,  Abra- 
ham, and  William — who  formed  the  united 
household  of  Simon  and  Fanny  (Naumburg) 
Frank. 

The  parents,  coming  from  Germany  and 
building  a  happy  and  comfortable  home  for 
their  children  of  the  new  world,  bequeathed  to 
them  nobility  of  character  and  a  gracious  pres- 
ence, in  which  inheritance  Lina  fully  partici- 
pated. 

On  January  23,  1867,  she  married  in  Balti- 
more Jacob  H.  Hecht,  a  promising  young  mer- 
chant. After  passing  a  year  in  San  Francisco, 
they  took  up  their  residence  in  Boston,  where 
Mr.  Hecht  became  a  prominent  figure  in  com- 
mercial and  philanthropic  life. 

Together  they  worked  not  only  for  the  up- 
building of  the  poor  of  their  own  faith,  but  for 
the  betterment  of  their  city,  for  State,  and  for 
country.  Their  names  are  to  be  found  on  the 
boards  of  State  and  city  institutions  and  on  the 
membership  rolls  of  nearly  every  prominent 
charitable  institution  of  Boston.  They  were 
blessed  with  cultivated  and  artistic  appreciation. 
Painters  and  nmsicians  found  in  them  generous 
patrons,  and,  with  the  literary  men  and  women 
of  our  day,  often  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of 
their  beautiful  home  on  Commonwealth  Av- 
enue. Not  having  any  children  of  her  own, 
Mrs.  Hecht  took  to  her  own  heart  and  hearth- 
stone five  nieces  and  a  nephew,  who  bear  to-day 
loving  testimony  to  her  sympathetic  care  and 
wise  guidance. 

Of  a  profoundly  religious  nature  and  religious 
training,  the  holy  language  that  makes  "char- 
ity" synonymous  with  "justice"  readily  finds 


expression  in  Mrs.  Hecht's  life.  AVhile  very 
faithful  to  the  claims  of  blood,  here  benevolence 
knows  no  limit  of  race,  creed,  or  color.  Her 
days  are  given  up  literally  to  the  noble  privi- 
lege of  ministering  to  the  needs  of  others. 

She  has  been  the  active  president  of  the  He- 
brew Women's  Sewing  Society  since  its  organi- 
zation. This  is  a  society  of  over  five  hundred 
members,  who  give  personal  service  in  addition 
to  material  comfort  to  the  hundreds  of  suffering 
poor  who  flock  to  our  shores.  The  society  aims 
to  make  its  beneficiaries  self-supporting,  and, 
besides  food,  clothing,  medicine,  medical  at- 
tendance, and  "country  weeks,"  has  advanced 
capital  to  establish  many  worthy  families  in 
business. 

Mrs.  Hecht's  fertile  brain,  her  executive 
ability,  and  personal  magnetism  have  all  been 
called  into  play  to  make  this  society  one  of  the 
most  prominent  women's  organizations  in  the 
country,  not  only  because  of  its  far-reaching 
and  helpful  influence,  hut  by  reason  also  of  its 
financial  standing. 

Fourteen  years  ago,  when  so  many  strange 
people  of  strange  thought  and  habit  came  to 
Boston,  Mrs.  Hecht  opened  a  school  to  assimi- 
late and  Americanize  the  immigrants,  in  order 
that  these  human  beings  might  not  become  a 
burden  upon  the  Commonwealth,  but  a  part  of 
it.  In  her  wisdom  she  realized  that  the  prog- 
ress of  the  world  rests  upon  "  the  breath  of  the 
school-children,"  and  that  they  in  turn  influ- 
ence the  parents.  The  Baroness  de  Hirsch  and 
Baroness  Rothschild  both  approvetl  the  plan 
when  Mrs.  Hecht  presented  it  to  them  in  Paris 
in  1896,  and  both  became  generous  contribu- 
tors. The  citizens  of  Boston,  Jew  and  non- 
Jew,  recognized  the  civilizing  and  Americaniz- 
ing power  vested  in  this  institution,  called  the 
Hebrew  Industrial  School,  and  also  became 
subscribers.  Mr.  Hecht  served  as  treasurer, 
and  was  a  liberal  patron,  believing  that  there 
was  no  better  work  than  that  of  helping  to  make 
good  citizens  and  home-makers,  as  the  school 
strives  to  do. 

In  the  death  of  her  husband,  February  24, 
1903,  Mrs.  Hecht  was  deprived  of  a  compan- 
ion entirely  at  one  with  her  in  her  hopes 
and  aims,  anrl  it  was  a  loss  felt  by  all  who 
came   within   the   influence   of   his  sweet   and 


LINA   F.  HECHT 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


335 


kindly  nature  and  the  iiuiny  benefited  by  his 
generosity. 

Born  in  Hainstadt,  grand  (Uichy  of  Baden, 
March  15,  1834,  Jacol)  H.  Hecht  was  one  of  the 
eight  children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elias  Hecht,  who 
came  to  this  country  with  their  i)arents  in  1848, 
and  settled  in  Baltimore,  Md.  As  noted  above, 
the  greater  part  of  his  business  life  was  spent 
in  Boston.  He  held  various  official  positions, 
and  was  a  contributing  member  of  nearly  all 
the  charitable  institutions  of  the  city.  He  was 
president  of  the  United  Hebrew  Benevolent 
Association  of  Boston,  a  director  of  the  German 
Aid  Society,  the  first  president  of  the  Elysium 
Club,  and  a  member  of  the  Bostonian  Society 
and  of  the  Boston  Art  Club. 

In  his  will,  dated  January  30,  I'Mi,  Mr. 
Hecht  made  many  public  beciuests.  To  show 
the  breadth  of  his  sympathies  and  the  varied 
nature  of  his  charities,  also  his  confidence  in 
his  wife's  judgment  ami  in  her  fidelity  to  trusts, 
a  few  of  its  jirovisions  may  here  be  mentioned. 
A  consideral)le  sum,  not  to  exceed  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  from  the  estate  she  was  per- 
mitted to  apply  at  her  discretion,  within  a  year 
from  his  death,  for  the  benefit  of  worthy  per- 
sons who  were  in  need.  Mrs.  Hecht  is  also 
given  the  right  to  devote,  if  she  sees  fit,  the 
income  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  annually  to 
the  Hebrew  Industrial  School.  Harvard  Col- 
lege is  to  receive  eventually  the  sum  of  ten 
thousand  dollars  as  a  scholarship  fund,  prefer- 
ably for  students  of  Hebrew  parentage,  and  a 
fund  of  five  thousand  dollars  to  be  known  as 
the  Hecht  fund,  the  income  to  be  applied  to 
the  Schiff  Semitic  Museum.  Among  other  be- 
quests may  be  named  five  thousand  dollars 
each  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital 
anil  A.si30ciated Charities  of  Boston;  five  hundred 
dollars  each  to  the  Benoth  Israel  Sheltering 
Home,  the  Boston  Provident  Association,  the 
National  Farm  School,  Philadelphia,  and  the 
Industrial  School  for  Deformed  and  Crippled 
Children;  three  hundred  dollars  each  to  the 
Hebrew  Ladies'  Helping  Hand  Association,  the 
Newsboys'  Reading  Room,  the  Charitable  Burial 
Association,  the  Boston  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  the 
Y.  M.  C.  U.;  one  thousand  dollars  to  the  Boston 
Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association;  and  two 
hundred  dollars  to  the  Salvation  Army. 


Mrs.  Hecht  is  the  honorar)'  vice-president 
of  the  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  Phila- 
delphia and  a  vice-president  of  the  Civil 
Service  Reform  As.sociation.  She  was  vice- 
president  of  the  National  Council  of  Jewish 
Women,  and  is  now  the  vice-president  of  the 
New  England  section  of  that  organization. 
She  has  served  for  many  years  as  a  member 
of  the  board  of  the  W'omen's  Educational  and 
Industrial  Ihiion,  a  position  in  which  her 
services  have  been  greatly  appreciated.  Both 
the  Hebrew  Federated  Charities  and  the  As- 
sociated Charities  of  Boston  are  benefited  by 
her  active  participation  in  their  affairs.  She 
has  served  on  the  Ijoard  of  the  Public  Bath 
Department  of  the  city. 

Asitle  from  personal  donations,  Mrs.  Hecht 
has  been  zealous  in  raising  money  for  worthy' 
causes,  and  the  fairs  and  entertainments  that 
she  has  organized  have,  through  her  own  un- 
tiring efforts  ami  the  enthusiasm  she  has  aroused 
in  others,  brought  in  phenomenal  sums. 

Unselfishness  is  Mrs.  Hecht's  most  marked 
characteristic,  and  her  whole  life  has  been 
filled  with  thought  and  service  for  others. 
Although  she  forgets  herself,  her  gracious  image 
is  enshrined  in  many  hearts.  Her  friends  enjoy 
fier  sympathetic  temperament  and  graceful 
presence,  antl  the  poor,  who  are  also  her  friends, 
praise  her  kind  heart  and  generosity. 

As  the  Hebrew  matron  of  old,  so  "she  spread- 
eth  out  wide  her  open  palm  to  the  poor.  She 
openeth  her  mouth  with  wisdom,  and  the  law 
of  kindness  is  on  her  tongue. 

"Strength  and  dignity  are  her  clothing;  and 
she  smileth  at  the  coming  of  the  last  day.  Let 
her  own  works  praise  her  in  the  gates." 


JOSEPHINE  ST.  PIERRI']  RUFFIN,  the 
founder  and  first  president  of  the  Woman's 
Era  Club,  of  Boston,  was  born  in  this  city. 
The  ilaughter  of  John  and  Eliza  Matilda 
(Menhenick)  St.  Pierre,  on  the  paternal  side 
she  is  of  mingled  French,  African,  and  abo- 
riginal American  blood,  and  on  the  maternal 
side  is  of  Engli.sh,  or  jjossibly  Welsh,  stock,  her 
mother  having  been  a  native  of  Bodmin,  Corn- 
wall, p]ngland.  Eliza  Matilda  Menhenick  and 
John  St.  Pierre  were  married  in  Boston  in  1830 


336 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


by  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Jenks,  of  the  Green 
Street  Church  (Trinitarian  Congregational). 

Jean  Japfiiies  St.  Pierre,  father  of  John  St. 
Pierre  and  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Ruffin,  came  to 
Massachusetts  from  Martinique  probably  early 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  and,  settling  in 
Taunton,  married  Betsey  Hill,  of  that  town. 
She,  Mrs.  Betsey  Hill  St.  Pierre,  grandmotlier 
of  Mrs.  Ruffin,  was  the  grand-daughter  of  an 
African  prince,  who,  having  been  sent  by  his 
father  to  conduct  a  gang  of  slaves  to  the  sea- 
coast,  was  himself  kidnapped  and  brought  to 
America.  Landing  in  a  Northern  seaport,  he 
escaped  from  his  captors,  and  made  his  way 
to  an  Indian  settlement  in  the  vicinity  of 
Taunton.  Being  kindly  received,  he  married 
an  Indian  girl,  became  a  land-owner,  and,  es- 
tablishing a  home,  reared  a  family,  which  was 
called  by  the  country  people  "the  royal  family." 

This  history,  which  has  been  handed  down 
from  former  generations  to  the  pi'esent,  is  at- 
tested in  part  by  ancient  land  deeds  and  other 
papers,  which  Mrs.  Ruffin  has  in  her  jxjsse.ssion. 
In  one  of  these  time-worn  documents  the  re- 
quest is  made  that  the  original  estate  be  kept 
as  a  safe  refuge  for  such  of  the  family  as  shall 
be  living  in  the  time  of  a  great  and  bloody 
war,  foretold  by  the  African-born  ancestor  as 
surely  coming  to  break  the  bonds  of  the  slave. 

It  may  here  be  added  concerning  the  invol- 
untary but,  so  far  as  appears,  contented  exile, 
that  in  "the  sunset  of  life"  he  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  a  seer  and  a  prophet,  and  a 
collection  of  his  prophecies  was  printed  in  a 
pamphlet,  a  copy  of  which  is  kept  among  the 
family  papers.  The  original  farm,  "  Rocky 
Woods,"  of  which  he  was  the  owner,  is  still 
held  and  occupied  by  one  of  his  descendants. 
On  this  farm  is  the  family  burial-place. 

John  St.  Pierre  was  born  in  Boston.  After 
his  father's  death  his  widowed  mother  removed 
with  her  little  family  to  a  farm,  at  Blake's 
Landing,  near  the  Taunton  River,  in  the  town 
of  that  name.  Mr.  St.  Pierre,  as  above  men- 
tioned, was  married  in  Boston,  and  subsequently 
for  a  number  of  years  was  engaged  in  business 
as  a  clothes  dealer  in  this  city.  His  sixth  chiUl, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  named  for  the 
Empress  Josephine  (a  native,  be  it  remem- 
bered, of  the  island  of  Martinique)  at  the  request 


of  a  French  lady,  her  mother's  friend,  who  gave 
her  a  christening  robe. 

The  early  education  of  Josephine  St.  Pierre, 
received  mostly  in  the  public  schools  of  Salem, 
Mass.,  was  supplemented  later  by  instruction 
from  private  tutors  in  New  York.  For  a  few 
months  she  was  a  pupil  in  the  Franklin  School, 
Boston.  While  still  of  school  age,  she  was 
married  to  George  Lewis  Ruffin,  who  has  been 
described  as  "one  of  the  handsomest  and  ablest 
colored  men  in  Boston." 

Mr.  Rufiin  was  born  December  16,  1834,  in 
Richmond,  Va.,  of  free  colored  parents,  who 
were  eilucated  and  were  possessed  of  some 
means.  In  1853  the  family  removed  to  Bos- 
ton. He  here  attended  the  Chapman  Hall 
School.  Some  years  later  he  studied  law  in 
the  office  of  Jewell  &  (laston,  and  in  1869  he 
was  graduated  from  the  Harvard  Law  School. 
He  servetl  as  a  member  of  the  House  in  the 
State  Legislature  in  1870  and  1871  and  as  a 
Councilman  of  Boston  in  1876  and  1877.  In 
November,  1883,  he  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Butler  Judge  of  the  municipal  court  of  Charles- 
town,  being  the  first  colored  man  to  be  apjiointed 
on  the  bench  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 
This  position  he  held,  "serving  with  fidelity 
and  eflnciency,"  until  his  death  on  November 
19,  1886. 

To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ruffin  were  born  four  chil- 
dren: Hubert  St.  P.,  Florida  Yates,  Stanley, 
and  George  L.  The  death  of  Judge  Ruffin  was 
followed  in  a  few  years  by  that  of  his  eldest 
son,  Hubert  St.  P.,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
Suffolk  bar.  Fitted  for  college  at  the  Boston 
Latin  School,  Hubert  St.  Pierre  Ruffin  entered 
Harvard  in  the  class  of  1882,  and  on  leaving 
college  studied  law  with  his  father.  At  the 
Latin  School,  as  testified  by  one  who  was  in 
the  same  class  with  him,  "his  keen  wit,  genial 
disposition,  and  chivalric  courage  made  him  a 
favorite  with  the  boys;  while  his  high  scholar- 
ship, displayed  distinctly  in  the  beauty  and 
exactitude  of  his  translations  from  the  classics, 
won  for  him  the  admiration  and  esteem  both 
of  his  classmates  and  instructors.  Mr.  Ruffin 
was  in  learning  and  natural  abilities  eminently 
fitted  for  the  profession  which  he  chose.  Skil- 
ful and  ready  in  debate,  c[uick  in  repartee,  and 
eloquent  and  logical  in  argument,  he  meriteil 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


337 


the  distinction  which  was  his,  of  being  one  of 
the  best  young  lawyers  at  the  Boston  bar." 

Florida  Yates  Ruffin  was  graduated  from  the 
Boston  High  and  Normal  Schools,  and  was  the 
second  colored  woman  to  receive  an  appoint- 
ment as  teacher  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston. 
She  is  now  the  wife  of  U.  A.  Ridley  and  the 
mother  of  two  children.  As  the  first  secretary 
of  the  Woman's  Era  Club  and  one  of  its  leading 
members,  she  aided  her  mother  in  making  a 
great  success  of  the  first  convention  of  colored 
women  in  the  country. 

Stanley  Ruffin,  a  graduate  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology  and  an  inventor, 
is  the  general  manager  and  treasurer  of  a  man- 
ufacturing company  in  Boston. 

George  L.  Ruffin,  the  youngest  son,  is  a 
graduate  of  the  English  High  School  of  Boston. 
He  has  marked  musical  ability,  and  for  some 
years  he  was  a  boy  soprano  at  the  Church  of 
the  Advent.  He  is  a  member  of  the  vested 
choir  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  has  been  a 
member  of  the  Handel  and  Haydn  Society  and 
of  the  Cecilia  Musical  Society,  and  is  now  the 
organist  of  St.  Augustine's  Church,  Boston. 

At  an  early  age  Mrs.  Ruffin  became  iden- 
tified with  reform  movements:  the  advance- 
ment of  woman  and  the  welfare  of  the  colored 
race,  especially  of  the  children,  were  (juestions 
that  strongly  appealed  to  her  sympathies.  At 
the  time  when,  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
many  colored  people  were  fleeing  from  oppres- 
sion in  the  South  and  pouring  into  Kansas, 
often  arriving  in  destitute  circumstances,  she 
called  the  women  of  her  neighborhood  at  the 
West  End  together  for  the  purjxxse  of  devising 
ways  and  means  of  helping  the  needy  refugees. 
An  organization  was  formed,  named  the  Kansas 
Relief  Association,  of  whicli  she  was  made  presi- 
dent. Under  her  direction  and  aided  by  the 
wise  counsels  of  William  Lloyd  (iarrison,  work 
was  immediately  begun,  and  carried  forward 
with  zeal  and  alacrity,  resulting  in  the  shipment 
to  Kansas  of  many  bales  and  boxes  of  clothing, 
both  new  and  old,  and  also  in  the  sending 
of  money  through  Kidder,  Peabody  &  Co. 

Success  in  this  philanthropic  effort  led  to 
co-operation  with  the  A.ssociated  Charities,  then 
just  starting  in  Boston,  Mrs.  Ruffin  acting  as 
a    visitor   for   about   eleven    years.     She    also 


joined  in  the  work  of  the  Country  Week  So- 
ciety, devoting  herself  to  the  task,  considered 
exceptionally  difficult,  of  finding  places  in  the 
country  for  colored  chiklren. 

Mrs.  Ruffin  has  been  for  many  years  an  ac- 
tive member  of  the  Massachusetts  Moral  Edu- 
cational A.ssociation  and  of  the  Massachusetts 
School  Suffrage  Association  and  a  member 
of  the  executive  board  of  each.  As  editor  of 
the  Woman's  Era,  she  has  the  privilege  of 
membership  in  the  New  England  Woman's 
Press  Association.  The  Woman's  Era  (now 
dormant,  December,  1903,  but  with  hopes  of 
being  revived)  was  the  organ  of  the  colored 
women  of  America,  and  exerted  an  influence 
that  was  widely  recognized. 

Mrs.  Ruffin  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Child-training 
in  the  South,  which  has  accomplished  good  re- 
sults. It  is  interested  in  a  school  at  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  among  whose  regular  visitors  were  several 
prominent  women  of  that  State. 

As  the  first  president  of  the  Woman's  Fa-a 
Club  of  Boston,  Mrs.  Ruffin  has  gained  a  na- 
tional reputation.  This  club  was  formed  "for 
colored  women  and  by  colored  women,  to  the 
end  that  problems  of  vital  interest  to  the  col- 
ored jjopulation  might  be  discussed."  From 
the  beginning  the  club  evinced  a  progressive 
spirit,  and  the  meetings  were  full  of  interest. 
Mrs.  Ruflin  is  an  able  woman,  well  read,  keen- 
witted, pleasing  in  manner,  and  has  the  uplift- 
ing of  the  colored  race  sincerely  at  heart.  She, 
more  than  any  other  woman,  formed  the  club, 
and  much  of  the  success  is  due  to  her  good 
sense  and  enterprise. 

In  L'^QS  it  was  decided  to  hoUl  a  national 
convention  of  colored  women  in  Boston.  This 
convention  was  decitledly  interesting,  ami  the 
outcome  was  the  formation  of  a  federation  of 
colored  women's  clubs.  Since  1895  the  W^oman's 
Era  Club  has  been  connected  with  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Federation,  and  its  president 
has  participated  in  the  sessions  of  the  State 
conference.  Mrs.  Ruffin  has  also  been  elected 
a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Federa- 
tion and  an  officer  on  its  boartl. 

The  Woman's  Era  Club  continues  its  meet- 
ings twice  each  month,  and  a  few  white  women, 
who  were  cordially  welcomed  to  membership, 


338 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


have  participated  in  its  deliberations.  "  We 
never  drew  a  color  line,"  said  one  of  the  mem- 
bers. Mrs.  Hannah  C.  Smith,  former  corre- 
sponding secretary,  states  that  its  object  is 
educational  rather  than  benevolent,  but  that 
it  has  \mdertaken  a  number  of  philanthrojjic 
plans  and  carried  them  tlirough  successfully. 
Several  scholarships  in  colored  educational  in- 
stitutions have  been  purchased,  and  in  this 
way  many  who  would  not  have  l)ad  an  educa- 
tion otherwise  have  been  provide<l  for.  At 
the  outset  the  club  was  divided  into  several 
classes  and  each  placed  under  the  direction  of 
a  leader.  These  classes  discu.ssed  civics,  do- 
mestic science,  literature,  public  improve- 
ments, and  questions  of  importance  to  the  col- 
ored race!  Circulars  written  by  members  of 
the  club  uj)on  important  questions  have  been 
issued,  and  numerous  copi<^s  circulated.  Money 
has  been  raised  and  expended,  which  has  aided 
in  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  colored  race  in 
Boston  and  other  cities.  Assistance  has  also 
been  given  to  worthy  charities. 

In  1900  the  club  accepted  an  urgent  invita- 
tion to  join  the  General  Federation,  and  their 
application  was  forwarded  by  the  State  secre- 
tary. Mrs.  R.  D.  Lowe,  president,  promptly 
returned  a  certificate  of  membership,  and  offi- 
cially expressed  her  pleasure  at  the  action  of 
the  club.  It  was  then  entitled  to  be  repre- 
sented at  the  biennial  convention  of  the  Na- 
tional Federation  at  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  in  June, 
1900.  Mrs.  Ruffin  was  chosen  its  delegate. 
She  journeyed  to  Milwaukee  as  a  representa- 
tive also  from  the  New  England  Woman's 
Press  Association  and  from  the  Massachusetts 
Federation  of  Women's  Clubs.  The  progranune 
conmiittee  of  the  National  FediM'ation  refused 
to  allow  Mrs.  Ruffin  to  appear  before  the  con- 
vention and  extenil  greetings.  She  was  de- 
nietl  recognition  as  a  delegate,  notwithstanding 
the  elo(iuent  pleadings  of  rej)resentatives  from 
many  States.  Telegrams  armouncing  this  de- 
cision were  sent  to  all  parts  of  th(>  country, 
and  hunilnnls  of  editorials  were  ]nil)lished  by 
the  press,  conmientiiig  on  the  subjcci,  whicli 
had  become  one  of  national  interest.  Many 
protests  were  officially  promulgated  by  local 
clubs,  and  some'  have  witlidiawn  from  the 
Federation. 


Throughout  all  this  discussion  Mrs.  Ruffin 
has  maintained  an  attitude  of  womanly  dignity, 
and  has  the  cordial  sympathy  and  regard  of 
thousands  of  friends. 

In  November,  1900,  the  Woman's  Era  Club 
issued  an  official  statement  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter, addressed  to  the  members  of  clubs  of  the 
Ceneral  Federation,  its  conclusion  being  .summed 
up  as  follows.  Could  anything  Ije  clearer  tljan 
the  logic  of  their  jjosition? 

"The  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
has  no  color  line  in  its  constitution.  There  is 
nothing  in  its  constitution,  in  its  oft-published 
statement  of  ideas  and  aims,  in  its  supposed  ad- 
vanced positifin  upon  humanitarian  ([uestions, 
to  lead  any  club,  with  like  aims  and  views,  to 
imagine  itself  ineligible  for  membership.  The 
A\'onian's  P>a  Club  having  been  regularly  ad- 
mitted, no  legal  or  moral  ground  can  possibly 
be  found  upon  which  it  could  be  ruthlessly 
thrown  out  at  the  pleasure  of  a  few  individuals." 

The  action  taken  by  the  General  Federation 
at  the  biennial  convention  lield  at  I^os  Angeles 
in  May,  1902,  was  such  as  to  render  it  practi- 
cally impossible  for  any  coloretl  club  to  .secure 
recognition.  The  reply  of  the  Woman's  Era 
Club  to  (juestions  in  regard  to  its  status  in 
1903  is  this:— 

"It  stands  just  as  it  stood  before,  and  just 
as  it  would  have  stood  had  the  reorganization 
plan  been  carrietl  tlirough  successfully.  As  a 
part  of  the  State  Federation,  it  has  member- 
ship in  the  general  body;  as  an  individual  club, 
it  has  all  the  legally  executed  documents  which 
eminent  legal  authority  declare  justifies  our 
club  in  considering  itself  as  much  an  individual 
member  of  the  G.  F.  W.  C.  as  any  other  cluli 
in  that  bodv"  (Annual  Report  of  the  AVoinan's 
Era  Club  fo'r  1902-1903). 

".hme  1,  1903,  the  annual  meeting  was  held, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  the  histor}'  of  the  club 
there  was  a  change  in  presidents. 

"The  retiring  president,  Mrs.  Josephine  St.  P. 
Ruffin,  foun(l(>r  of  the  club,  has  for  eleven  con- 
tinuous and  harmonious  years  occupied  the 
l)osition  of  club  president,  with  honoi'  not  only 
to  herself  and  its  members,  but  to  the  whole 
race.  She  positively  decrmcil  anf)ther  re-elec- 
tion becau.se  of  the  prej^siu'e  of  other  work.  In 
her  retirement   the  club  keenlv  feels  its  loss; 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


339 


and,  to  assuage  to  an  extent  tliis  feeling  and 
retain  a  claim  upon  her  ability  and  foresight, 
and  still  to  have  her  valuable  aid  and  counsel, 
tlie  clulj  voted  to  create  for  her  the  position 
of  honorary  president  with  active  rights. 

"The  newlv  elected  officers  for  the  year 
190:M904  are:  President,  Mrs.  Hannah  Ciike 
Smith;  First  Vice-President,  Mrs.  R.  C.  Richard- 
son; Recording  Secretary,  Mrs.  M.  Cravatt 
Simpson;  Corresponding  Secr(>tary,  Mrs.  K.  T. 
Moore;  Treasurer,  Mrs.  E.  Taylor-Cotton;  Au- 
ditor, Mrs.  M.  E.  Wingfiekl."  " 

The  report  shows  that  the  Woman's  Era 
Clul)  continued  its  useful  activities  during  1902- 
1903  with  good  results,  that  year  being  pro- 
nounced the  most  successful  in  the  club's  ex- 
istence. One  thing  upon  which  the  club  justly 
congratulated  itself  in  the  report  was  the 
"l)rfimineiit  part  it  had  taken  in  promoting 
the  gootl  work  of  enlarging  Mrs.  Sharpe's  home 
school  in  Liberia."  Of  the  American  Mount 
Coffee  School  Association,  formed  in  January, 
1903,  to  aid  this  school,  Dr.  Edward  Everett 
Hale  was  chosen  president  and  Mrs.  Ruffin  a 
vice-presitlent. 

In  the  same  season  Mrs.  Ruffin  delivered  her 
lecture  on  "  Moral  Corn-age  as  a  Factor  in  Social 
Regeneration"  before  the  Revere  Woman's 
Club,  the  Lynn  Suffrage  Club,  the  Ladies'  Phys- 
iological Listitute,  the  Jersey  City  Heights 
Club,  anil  in  the  West. 


MARTHA  ELIZABETH  FOSS  MANN, 
M.D.,  a  well-established  medical 
practitioner  in  Boston,  was  born 
in  this  city,  March  9,  1848, 
daughter  of  Charles  Meade  and  Martha  Eiiz- 
al:>eth  (Hatchman)  Foss.  Her  father,  who 
was  for  many  years  a  prosperous  jeweller  in 
Boston,  came  of  the  old  New  Hampshire  Foss 
family.  Dr.  Mann's  great-gram  If  ather  Foss 
was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  enlisting  at  Rye, 
N.H.,  and  serving  under  General  Stark  at 
the  battle  of  Bennington.  At  the  cIo.se  of  the 
war  he  took  u|i  laml  in  Meredith,  N.H.,  where 
he  subsecjueutly  resided  until  his  death. 
A  maternal  ancestor,  John  Hatchman,  was  also 
a  Revolutionary  soldier;  and  through  these 
valiant  and  patriotic  men  Dr.  Mann  holds  mem- 


bership in  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution, belonging  to  Boston  Tea  Party  Chapter. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  educated  in 
the  public  schools  of  Boston  and  at  one  of  the 
leading  private  schools,  where,  after  being 
graduated  from  the  high  school,  she  continued 
her  studies  for  four  years. 

On  February  22,  1871,  she  married  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Houstcjn  Mann,  a  graduate  of  the  Har- 
vard Medical  School  and  a  soldier  in  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Massachusetts  Infantry  tluring  the  Civil 
War.  Four  children  we're  born  of  this  marriage, 
all  sons,  namely:  Benjamin  Percy,  November 
9,  1871;  Charles  Foss,  April  23,  1873,  who  died 
April  4,  1877;  Houston,  December  31,  1875; 
and  Arthur  Meade,  February  5,  1879. 

In  1881  Dr.  Benjamin  H.  Mann  died;  and 
his  widow,  with  her  three  children,  returned 
to  her  father's  home.  Deciiling  to  adopt  the 
medical  profession,  she  enteretl  Boston  Uni- 
versity in  1882,  received  her  degree  in  1885, 
and  immediately  began  practice  in  Boston. 
For  seven  years  she  was  the  assistant  of  the 
eminent  Dr.  Horace  Packard  in  his  private 
practice  and  hospital  work.  Dr.  Mann  has 
served  for  five  years  as  secretary  of  the  Boston 
Homoeopathic  Medical  Society,  was  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Boston  Gynaecological  Society,  was 
president  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Medical 
Society,  is  a  member  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Homoeopathy  and  of  the  Massachusetts 
Homoeopathic  Medical  Society,  and  is  instructor 
and  lecturer  at  Boston  University. 

From  her  youth  Dr.  Mann  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Congregational  church,  but  she  at- 
taches more  importance  to  daily  works  than  to 
creed.  Though  possessing  much  natural  apti- 
tude for  her  {)rofession,  which  was  fostered  by 
her  association  with  her  husband,  her  success 
has  been  due  to  concentration  of  purpose  and 
unceasing  labor  rather  than  to  any  fortuitous 
circumstances. 


SARAH  BRADLEE   FULTON,  in  whose 
memory    the    Medford    (Ma.ss.)    Chapter 
of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Rev- 
olution is  namei!,  was  a  native  of  Dor- 
chester,  Mass.     Her  ttrst  known  paternal  an- 
cestor was  Nathan'  Bradley,  .sometimes  called 


340 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Nathaniel,  who  was  born  in  1631.  In  1668 
Nathan'  Bradley  owned  two  acres  of  the 
"Great  Lots,"  and  in  1680  he  was  sexton  of  the 
town  of  Dorchester.  His  duties  as  sexton  were 
to  "  ring  the  bell,  cleanse  the  meeting-house, 
anil  carry  water  for  baptism."  While  the  bell 
stood  on  the  hill,  he  was  to  have  "£4  a  year 
and  after  the  bell  is  brought  to  the  meeting 
house,  £3  lO*."  He  died  July  26,  1701.  By 
his  wife  Mary,  daughter  of  Richanl  Evans, 
of  Dorchester,  he  had  six  children,  his  eldest 
son  being  Nathan,^  born  March  12,  1674-5. 
Samuel,^  son  of  Nathan^  Bradley  by  his  second 
wife,  Lydia,  spelled  his  name  Bradlee.  He 
was  a  weaver  and  fisherman.  He  married 
Mary  Andrus,  February  11,  1730,  and  in  1753 
removed  from  Dorchester  to  Boston. 

To  Samuel'  and  Mary  (Andrus)  Bradlee  was 
born  December  24,  1740,  a  daughter,  Sarah, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch.  In  1767  Sarah 
Bradlee  married  John  Fulton,  of  Boston, 
son  of  John  Fulton  and  his  wife,  Ann  Wire 
(or  Weir).  They  had  ten  children,  the  third 
of  whom  was  Ann  Weir,  the  tenth  Elizabeth 
Scott.  Of  the  other  eight  the  following  is  a 
brief  record :  Sarah  Lloyd  married  Nathan  Wait, 
of  Medford;  John  Andrus,  whose  first  wife 
was  Mehetabel  Owen,  and  his  second,  Harriet, 
resided  in  New  London,  Conn.;  Mary  died 
young;  Lydia  married  John  Bannister,  of  Bos- 
ton; Frances  Burns  married  Thomas  Tilden, 
of  Boston;  Mary  (second)  married  David  Gush- 
ing, and  resided  in  Hull,  Mass. ;  Samuel  Bradlee 
married  Mary  Barron,  of  Boston;  Lucretia 
Butler  married  Samuel  Smallidge,  and  resided  in 
East  Cambridge,  Mass. 

A  sketch  of  Sarah  Bradlee  Fulton,  written 
by  Miss  Helen  T.  Wild,  Regent  of  the  chapter 
bearing  her  name,  was  read  at  one  of  its  meet- 
ings. It  has  been  published  in  the  American 
Monthhi  Magazine,  Washington,  D.C.,  and  in 
the  Medford  Historical  ReijiMtr.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting story  of  her  patriotic  services,  and  is 
herewith    reprinted : — 

"SARAH  BRADLEE  FULTON. 

"DoncHESTKR,  1740.     Mkpford,  1835. 

"The  names  of  the  men  who  fought  in  the 
war  of  the  American  Revolution  are  carefully 


preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  State,  luit  the 
women  who  through  all  those  sad  years  en- 
dured hardship  and  loss,  and  who  toiled  at 
the  spinning-wheel  and  in  the  hospitals  for 
their  country's  cause,  have  long  ago  been 
forgotten.  Only  here  and  there  a  woman's 
name  is  found  on  the  roll  of  honor  of  Revolu- 
tionary days. 

"  Among  the  Metlford  women  whom  history 
has  remembered,  Sarah  Bradlee  Fulton  has  a 
prominent  place.  We  have  been  proud  to 
name  our  chapter  for  her,  honoring  with  her 
all  the  unknown  loyal  women  who  worked  in 
this  dear  old  town  of  ours  for  the  cause  of  lib- 
erty. 

"  Mrs.  Fulton  was  a  member  of  the  Bradlee 
family  of  Dorchester  and  Boston.  In  1767 
she  married  John  Fvilton,  and  ten  years  later 
they  came  to  Medford  with  their  little  sons  and 
daughters,  and  made  their  home  on  the  east 
side  of  Main  Street,  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  south  of  the  bridge,  on  the  south  side 
of  what  is  now  Tufts  Place.  Her  lirother, 
Nathaniel  Bradlee,  lived  in  Boston,  at  the 
corner  of  Tremont  and  Hollis  Streets.  His 
carpenter's  shop  and  his  kitchen,  on  Saturday 
niglits,  when  friends  and  neighbors  gathered 
to  enjoy  his  codfish  suppers,  were  meeting- 
places  for  Boston's  most  devoted  patriots. 
From  this  shop  a  detachment  of  Mohawks 
who  'turned  Boston  Harlior  into  a  teapot' 
went  forth  on  their  work  of  destruction.  In 
the  kitchen  Mrs.  Bradlee  antl  Mrs.  Fulton  dis- 
guised the  master  of  the  house  and  several 
of  Ills  comrades,  and  later  heated  water  in  the 
great  copper  boiler,  and  provided  all  that  was 
needful  to  transform  these  Indians  into  re- 
spectable Bostonians.  Natl^aniel  Bradlee's 
principles  were  well  known;  and  a  spy,  ho])ing 
to  find  some  proof  against  him,  i)eered  in  at 
the  kitchen  window,  but  saw  these  two  women 
moving  about  so  ciuietly  antl  naturally  that 
he  passed  on,  little  dreaming  what  was  really 
in  ])rogress  there. 

"  A  year  and  a  half  later  Sarah  Fulton  heard 
the  alarm  of  Paul  Revere  as  he  'crossed  the 
bridge  into  Medford  town,'  and  a  few  days 
after  the  place  became  the  headquarters  of 
General  Stark's  New  Hampshire  regiment. 
Then    came    the   battle   of    Bunker   Hill.     All 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


341 


day  the  people  of  Medfonl  watched  the  battle 
with  anxious  hearts:  many  a  son  and  brother 
were  there— dying,  maybe,  just  out  of  their 
reach.  At  sunset  the  wounded  were  brought 
into  town,  and  a  large  open  space  by  Wade's 
Tavern,  between  the  bridge  and  South  Street, 
was  turneil  into  a  field  hospital.  Surgeons 
were  few,  but  the  women  did  their  l)est  as  mu'ses. 
Among  them  the  steady  nerves  of  Sarah  Fulton 
made  her  a  leader.  One  poor  fellow  had  a 
bullet  in  his  cheek,  and  she  removed  it.  She 
almost  forgot  the  circumstance  until,  years 
after,  he  came  to  thank  her  for  her  service. 

"  During  the  siege  of  Boston,  detachments 
of  British  soldiers  often  came  across  the  river 
under  protection  of  their  ships,  .searching  for 
fuel  in  Metlford.  One  day  a  loail  of  wood 
intended  for  the  troops  at  Cambridge  was  ex- 
])ected  to  come  through  town,  and  one  of  these 
bantls  of  soldiers  was  there  before  it.  Sarah 
Fulton,  knowing  that  the  wooil  would  be  lost 
unless  something  was  done,  and  hoping  that 
private  jjroperty  would  be  respecteel,  sent  her 
husband  to  meet  the  team,  buy  the  load,  and 
bring  it  home.  He  carried  out  the  first  part 
of  the  {programme,  but  on  the  way  to  the  house 
he  met  the  soldiers,  wht)  seizetl  the  wood. 
When  his  wife  heard  the  story,  she  flung  on  a 
shawl  and  went  in  pursuit.  Overtaking  the 
})arty,  she  took  the  oxen  by  the  horns  ami  turned 
them  round.  The  men  threatenetl  to  shoot 
her,  but  she  .shouted  ilefiantly,  as  she  started 
her  team,  'Shoot  away!'  Astonishment,  ad- 
miration, and  amusement  were  too  much  for 
the  regulars,  and  they  unconditionally  sur- 
rendered. 

"Soon  after  Major  Brooks,  later  our  hon- 
ored Governor,  was  given  despatches  by  Gen- 
eral Washington  which  must  be  delivered  in- 
side the  enemy's  lines.  Late  one  night  he 
came  to  John  Fulton,  knowing  his  patriotism 
and  his  intimate  knowledge  of  Boston,  and 
asked  him  to  undertake  the  trust.  He  was 
not  able  to  go,  but  his  wife  volunteered.  Her 
offer  was  accepted.  A  long,  lonely,  and  dan- 
gerous walk  it  was  to  the  waterside  in  Charles- 
town,  but  she  reached  there  in  safety,  and, 
finding  a  boat,  rowed  across  the  river.  Cau- 
tiously making  her  way  to  the  place  she  sought, 
she  delivered  her  ilespatches,  ami  returned  as 


she  had  come.  \\'heu  the  first  streak  of  dawn 
appeared,  she  stood  safe  on  her  own  door- 
stone.  In  recognition  of  her  services  General 
Washington  visited  her.  It  is  said  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  fashion  of  the  day,  John  Fulton, 
on  this  occasion,  brewed  a  potation  whose 
chief  ingredient  was  the  far-famed  jiroduct  of 
the  town.  The  little  silver-mounteil  ladle 
was  dipped  in  the  steaming  concoction,  and 
the  first  glass  from  Mrs.  Fulton's  new  punch- 
bowl was  sipped  by  his  Excellency.  This  was 
the  proudest  day  of  Sarah  Fulton's  life.  The 
chair  in  which  he  sat  and  the  punch-bowl  and 
ladle  were  always  sacred,  and  are  still  treas- 
ured by  her  descendants. 

"  Years  after.  General  Lafayette  was  her 
guest,  and  we  can  safely  say  he  was  .seated  in 
General  Washington's  chair,  served  with  punch 
from  the  same  jjunch-bowl,  and  entertained 
with  the  story  of  that  memorable  visit. 

"Sarah  Fulton  was  never  afraid  of  man  or 
beast:  as  .she  once  told  her  little  grandson, 
she  'never  turned  her  back  on  anything.'  Her 
strength  of  mind  was  matched  by  her  streitgth 
of  body.  After  the  Revolution  she  made  her 
home  on  the  old  road  to  Stoneham,  which  at 
the  first  town  meeting  after  her  death  was 
named  Fulton  Street  in  her  honor.  More  than 
a  mile  from  the  square,  the  cellar  of  the  house 
can  still  be  seen,  and  many  Medford  people 
remember  the  building  itself. 

"In  spite  of  the  long  distance  Sarah  Fulton, 
even  in  extreme  old  age,  was  in  the  habit  of 
walking  to  and  from  the  I'nitarian  church  every 
Sunday.  Those  who  knew  her  could  scarcely 
comprehend  that  she  hatl  passed  fourscore 
and  ten  years. 

"  Her  humble  home  was  always  hospitably 
open,  especially  to  the  children  of  her  brothers, 
who,  if  they  could  leave  the  luxury  of  their 
own  homes  and  come  to  Medford  for  a  visit, 
felt  their  happiness  was  complete.  She  saw 
grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren  grow 
up  arounil  her,  ami  in  the  atmosphere  of  their 
love  and  reverence  she  spent  her  last  days. 
One  night  in  November,  1835,  a  month  before 
her  ninety-fifth  birthday,  she  lay  down  to  sleej), 
and  in  the  morning  her  daughters  found  her 
lying  with  a  peaceful  smile  on  her  face,  dead. 
They  laid  her  in  the  old  Salem  Street  Cemetery, 


342 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


and  there  she  sleeps,  among  her  old  friends  and 
neighbors. 

"Patriotism,  courage,  and  righteousness 
were  among  her  possessions." 

A  chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  named  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Fulton 
was  organized  in  Medford,  December  17,  1896, 
with  seventeen  memlM-rs.  Its  charter  was 
presented  January  26,  1897.  The  first  officers 
were:  Regent,  Mrs.  Mary  S.  Cioodale;  Vice- 
Regent,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Loomis;  Secretary,  Miss 
Helen  T.  Wild;  Registrar,  Mrs.  Enmia  W. 
Goodwin;  Treasurer,  Miss  Adeline  B.  Gill; 
Historian,  Miss  Eliza  M.  Gill. 

During  Mrs.  Goodale's  administration  a  tab- 
let was  erected  to  mark  the  site  of  the  home 
of  Mrs.  Fulton  during  the  Revolution.  During 
the  Spa^iish  War  the  members  of  the  chapter 
were  active  in  work  for  the  soldiers.  They 
gave  liberally  of  time,  work,  and  money  to 
assist  the  enlisted  men  of  Medford,  and  also 
contributed  to  the  Massachusetts  ^'olunteer 
Aid  Association. 

December  5,  1898,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Loomis 
was  elected  Regent.  During  her  term  of 
office  the  chapter  erected  a  memorial  in  the 
Salem  Street  Cemetery,  Medford,  to  mark  the 
last  resting-place  of  Mrs.  Fulton.  The  stone 
used  was  the  doorstep  of  the  hou.se  on  Fulton 
Street  where  she  lived  for  many  years  anil 
where  she  died.     It  is  inscribed: — 

Sarah  Bradlee  Fulton, 
a  heroine  of  the  revolution. 

ERECTED   BY   THE   SARAH    liliADLEE    FULTON    CHAP- 
TER,   D.  A.  R. 
1900. 

In  April,  1899,  a  loan  exhibition  was  held 
by  the  chapter  in  the  Royal  House,  Medford, 
which  was  attended  by  a  large  number  of 
persons  from  far  and  near.  The  proceeds 
enabled  the  ladies  in  1901  to  open  the  Royal 
House  to  the  public  for  a  ixTmanent  exhibition. 
They  also  published  a  descriptive  jiamphlet 
relating  to  it.  The  house  also  is  the  head- 
(piarters  of  the  chai)ter.  The  mansion,  which 
is  a  fine  example  of  colonial  architecture,  was 
remodelled  by  Isaac  Royall  in  1732,  and  it 
is  known  to  have  existe<i  in  a  plainer  form  as 


early  as  1690.  During  the  siege  of  Boston 
it  was  the  headquarters  of  the  New  Hampshire 
division  of  the  Continental  army. 


FRANCI'^S  LAUGHTON  MACE,  one  of 
the  best  beloved  poets  of  Maine,  was 
born  in  Orono,  on  January  15,  1836. 
She  died  at  Los  Gatos,  Cal.,  July  20, 
1899.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Sumner  Laugh- 
ton,  M.D.,  and  his  wife,  Mary  A.  Parker  Laugh- 
ton.  Dr.  Lauglit(m  was  a  ibhysician  of  excel- 
lent standing  in  his  profession.  He  removed 
to  Foxcroft  when  Frances  was  a  year  old,  and 
removed  thence  with  his  family  to  liangor  when 
she  was  about  fourteen.  She  had  already  made 
excellent  i)rogress  in  the  schools  of  Foxcroft, 
reading  all  the  iEneid  of  Virgil  and  his  Bucolics 
at  twelve  and  thirteen,  and  writing  much  under 
the  tutelage  and  with  the  encouragement  of 
both  friends  and  teachers. 

The  principal  of  the  Foxcroft  Academy  at 
the  time  she  was  a  student  there  was  Mr. 
Thomas  Ta.sh,  afterward  of  Portland,  and  of 
much  ability  as  a  teacher,  well-known  in  Maine 
educational  circles.  He  gave  her  work  not  only 
close  and  friendly  criticism,  but  warm  apjire- 
ciation.  "It  was  he,"  she  said  long  after- 
ward, "who  gave  me  courage  to  persevere." 

In  Bangor  she  continued  her  studies  at  the 
high  school,  completing  the  course  at  sixteen, 
and  with  private  teachers.  She  was  always  an 
eager  and  diligent  student,  and  her  thorough- 
ness and  zeal  are  evidenced  in  her  themes 
themselves  and  in  her  often  lavish  use  of  classic 
allusion  and  imagery.  Her  first  verses  were 
printed  in  the  Waterville  Mail  when  she  was 
only  twelve  years  old.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore her  poems  began  to  attract  attention,  and, 
some  of  them  coming  under  the  eye  of  the  editor 
of  the  New  York  Journal  of  Conunerce,  she  was 
invited  to  contribute  to  that  paper.  The  series 
of  poems  published  in  that  journal  includes 
some  of  the  loveliest  and  most  significant  of 
her  minor  verse. 

In  1855  she  was  married  to  Mr.  Benjamin  ?I. 
Mace,  a  lawyer  of  Bangor,  where  they  resided 
till  the  hope  of  firmer  health  for  both  induced 
their  removal  to  San  Jose,  Cal. 

The  twoscore  and  more  of  years  of  Mrs.  Mace's 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


343 


life  in  Bangor  after  her  marriage  were  very 
fruitful  years.  Notwithstanding  the  cares  of 
her  home  and  of  the  eight  little  ones  who  came 
to  gladden  it  (four  of  them  living,  to  go  with  her 
to  the  Californian  home),  she  was  still  an  in- 
defatigable student.  Her  vocation  as  poet  was 
to  her,  as  Mrs.  Browning  had  said  of  her  own 
calling  long  before,  "a  serious  thing."  Every- 
thing that  could  contribute  to  the  enrichment 
and  tlignity  of  her  poetry  was  made  to  yield 
^ts  revenues:  classic  story  and  local  legend  alike 
were  woven  into  it.  She  was  constantly  seek- 
ing its  betterment  and  continually  increasing 
the  stores  of  knowledge  and  association  which 
should  enhance  its  charm. 

Mrs.  Mace's  work  is  very  strongly  localized. 
Indeed,  by  far  the  best  known  and  best  loved 
of  her  poems  have  their  roots  deep  in  home 
soil.  Her  sweetest  lyrics  are  those  which  crys- 
tallize some  intimate  experience  or  a.ssociution 
of  her  own.  Choice  as  is  the  workmanslii})  of 
her  longer  and  more  studied  poems,  it  is  the 
slighter  and  more  spontaneous  ones  that  win 
and  hold  the  affection. 

This  is  strikingly  evident  in  her  first  volume, 
"Legends,  Lyrics,  and  Sonnets,"  published  in 
1883.  The  tenderness,  the  serenity,  the  satis- 
fied affection,  the  moral  and  spiritual  elevation 
of  the.se  poems,  impress  one  throughout  the 
book.  All  the  loves  her  life  had  known,  with 
all  the  fruition  of  them,  are  garnered  in  this 
little  gray-garbed  volume;  and  her  fame  would 
have  been  secure  in  it  had  she  never  written 
more. 

Although  this  collection  includes  some  of  the 
most  spontaneous  of  her  minor  verse,  antl  though 
it  is  by  these  lyrics  rather  than  by  her  longer 
poems  that  she  is  most  lovingly  remembered, 
the  book  held,  too,  work  that  conunanded  the 
attention  of  the  wider  and  more  critical  world 
outside  her  immediate  circle  of  friends  or  her 
accvistomed  readers.  "Israfil,"  one  of  the 
longest  and  most  finished  poems  in  the  volume, 
was  published  in  Harper  s  Magazine  in  1877. 
It  is  one  of  the  strongest  and  stateliest  of  her 
poems,  and  is  instinct  with  a  profound  and  in- 
sistent faith.  Many  of  the  poems  in  this  and 
in  the  succeeding  volume  were  suggested  by  the 
scenery  and  associations  of  the  Mount  Desert 
region,  and  will  link  her  fame  with  its  own. 


In  this  volume  are  printetl  the  well-known 
verses,  "Only  Waiting."  This  tender  lyric  was 
written  when  she  was  a  girl  of  eighteen,  and 
was  first  published  in  1854  in  the  Waterville 
Mail,  appearing  with  the  signature  "Inez."  It 
has  since  been  printed  in  many  hooks  of  sacred 
song.  That  it  travelled  far  and  touched  many 
hearts  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Mace  re- 
ceived letters  of  gratitude  for  its  consolation 
from  every  State  and  Territory  in  the  Union. 
Despite  the  irrefragable  proofs  that  attest  her 
own  writing,  her  claim  to  its  authorship  was  at 
one  time  disputed.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that 
Dr.  James  Martineau,  having  included  "Only 
Waiting"  in  his  "  Hynms  of  Praise  and  Prayer," 
gave  her,  in  the  second  edition,  credit  for  it, 
and  wrote  Mrs.  Mace  a  most  cordial  letter  of 
ajjpreciation. 

A  second  volume  of  poems  was  published  in 
1887,  with  the  title,  "  Under  Pine  ami  Palm." 
These  verses  are  of  great  sweetness  and  pathos. 
The  lines  of  dedication,  in  which  she  say.s — with 
a  touching  allusion  to  a  haltit  of  her  girlhood, 
that  of  turning  at  once  to  her  nearest  and  dear- 
est ones  with  each  "poem  as  it  was  completed — 
she  comes  to 

"  Read  once  more 
My  latest  verse  to  those  who  loved  me  first," 

are  exceedingly  graceful  and  tender.  And  only 
a  little  less  wistful  are  "The  Woods  of  Maine," 
from  which  we  make  (juotation  here:— 

"  To  all  the  wide,  wild  woods  of  Maine 
The  singinj;  birds  have  come  again; 
In  thickets  dense  and  skyward  bough 
Their  nests  of  love  are  builded  now; 
And  daybreak  hears  one  blithesome  strain 
From  ail  the  wide,  wild  woods  of  Maine. 

■'  In  all  the  deep,  green  woods  of  Maine 
The  myriad  wild  flowers  wake  again; 
On  mossy  knoll,  by  whispering  rill, 
Their  new  life  opens,  shy  and  still; 
Unseen,  unknown,  as  spring  days  wane, 
They  sweeten  all  the  woods  of  Maine. 

"  The  fair  and  fragrant  woods  of  Maine! 
To  dwellers  far  on  shore  and  plain 
The  forest's  breath  of  healing  flows 
In  every  wandering  wind  that  blows; 
And  life  throbs  fresh  in  every  vein 
Where  bloom  the  boundless  woods  of  Maine." 


.•^44 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF   NEW  ENGLAND 


The  book  opens  with  a  long  poem,  "The  Heart 
of  Katahclin,"  suggesting  the  very  atmosphere 
of  Maine's  kingUest  mountain.  Following  it 
are  a  series  of  lyrical  memories,  seven  in  num- 
ber, entitled  "Midsunuiier  on  Mount  Desert." 
The  .collection  includes  also  tlie  poem  read  at 
tlie  unveiling  of  the  copy  of  the  W(>stmiiister 
Abbey  bust  of  the  jtoet  Longfellow  in  Port- 
land,"Me.,  in  LSSf). 

The  second  half  of  the  volume  contains 
jjoems  written  fluring  her  residence  in  Califor- 
nia, in  many  instances  suggested  by  its  scenery, 
its  associations,  and  especially  by  its  beauty 
and  ])romise.  Such  poems  as  "The  New  Italv," 
"Los  Angeles,"  "Mount  Hamilton,"  and  "Ves- 
pers at  San  Juan"  show  her  quick  intuition  of 
the  forces  around  her  and  her  swift  divination 
of  the  future  they  were  sha|)ing.  Yet  it  is  evi- 
dent that  her  thoughts  were  always  straying 
to  more  familiar  tilings  and  to  remembered 
scenes. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  out  of  this  longing 
remembrance  of  home,  out  of  the  sorrows  that 
one  after  another  came  to  her  in  these  later 
years,  and  out  of  the  long  (piiescence  of  a  linger- 
ing physical  helplessness,  of  which  one  or  two 
of  her  later  poems  give  most  i)athetic  reminder, 
there  were  born  a  nol)le  patience,  a  serene  and 
sufficing  trust,  a  larger  and  devouter  thought, 
hallowing  all  that  she  had  wrought  before. 

Olive  E.  Dana. 


KATHERINE  MAY  RICKER,  one  of 
the  most  ])opular  of  the  younger 
contralto  singers  of  New  England, 
is  a  member  of  one  of  the  oldest 
and  best  known  families  of  Maine,  the  Rickers 
of  Poland  Springs.  They  are  of  "ancient 
lineage,  descending  from  the  feudal  and  knightly 
family  of  Riccar  in  Saxony  in  the  fourteenth 
century."  The  motto  of  the  Riccar  arms 
(now  in  the  possession  of  the  Poland  Sjirings 
branch  and  said  to  be  well  attested)  was 
"Sai)ientia  domun  Dei,"  "Wisdom  the  gift 
of  God."  Members  of  this  Saxon  family 
settled  in  later  times  on  the  Island  of  Jersey, 
whence  came  George  and  Maturin  Riccar, 
brothers,  the  ancestors  of  most,  if  not  all, 
of    the    name    in    America,    a    numerous    and 


widely  scattered  progeny.  George,  the  elder 
brother,  was  the  first  to  come,  advised,  it 
is  believed,  by  Parson  Reyner.  He  settled 
at  Cocheco,  now  Dover,  N.H.,  about  the 
year  1670.  Maturin,  from  whom  is  descended 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  followed  a  few 
years  later.  Both  married  here,  and  reared 
families,  George  being  the  father  of  nine 
children  and  Maturin  of  at  least  four.  They 
lived  near  together  in  garrison  houses  on 
Dover  Point. 

Tradition  has  it  that  they  were  greatly 
attached  to  each  other,  each  frequently  de- 
claring that  he  did  not  want  to  know  of  the 
other's  death.  The  Indians,  so  the  story 
runs,  planned  to  kill  them  both,  and  accord- 
ingly lay  in  wait  for  them  one  morning,  one 
at  each  house.  Hearing  the  shot  that  killed 
his  brother,  the  other  ran  to  the  door  and 
was  himself  instantly  shot,  so  that  they  tlied 
within  five  minutes  of  each  other.  The  "Jour- 
nal of  Rev.  John  Pike,"  minister  in  Dover 
at  that  time,  relates  the  incident  somewhat 
differently,  recording  under  date  of  June 
4,  1706:  "George  Riccar  and  Maturin  Riccar 
of  Cocheco  were  slain  by  Indians.  George 
was  killed  while  running  up  the  lane  near 
the  garrison;  Maturin  was  killed  in  his  field,  and 
his  little  son  Noah  carried  away."  The  first 
narrative,  however,  is  that  ]iassed  down  the 
line  by  Jabez  Ricker,  the  grandson  of  Maturin. 
Noah,  the  child  captured,  was  taken  to  Canada, 
where  he  became  a  Catholic  priest.  After 
the  massacre  of  the  brothers  their  families 
left  Dover  P«int,  and  went  to  Garrison  House 
Hill  in  Somersworth,  N.H.,  there  being  seven 
garrison    houses   near   together. 

Miss  Ricker's  line  of  descent  from  Maturin' 
is  through  Joseph,"  Jabez,'  Wentworth,^ 
Albert  G.''  (born  in  1812,  married  Charlotte 
Schillinger,  of  Poland),  and  Wentworth  Pottle" 
Ricker,  her  father  (a  cousin  of  the  Rickers 
of  Poland  Spring  House),  who  married  Dorcas 
Ann  Merrill,  daughter  of  Leonard  Merrill, 
one  of  the  influential  men  of  Falmouth  and 
a  descendant  of  Cajitain  James  Merrill,  who 
settled  there  early  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  old  homestead,  erected  in  .  1727,  was 
Miss  Ricker's  birthplace,  and  is  at  present 
occujjied  by  her  family. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


345 


The  stanch  patriotism  and  hberaUty  of 
James  Merrill  and  his  neighbors  at  New  Casco, 
as  the  part  of  the  town  where  they  lived  was 
called,  is  shown  by  the  following  letter,  which, 
accompanied  b\-  fourteen  cords  of  wood, 
was  sent  to  8anmcl  Adams,  Esq.,  chairman 
of  the  conmiittoc  for  the  poor  of  Boston  in 
the  troubled  times  preceding  the  outbreak  of 
the   Revolution: — 

"March  11,  [/"TS.  Gentlemen:  We  herewith 
transmit  to  you  by  Captain  Wormwcll  and 
Captain  Lock  some  wood,  which  we  cheerfully 
give  to  our  suffering  brethren  that  are  now 
standing  in  the  gap  between  us  and  slavery. 
We  are  but  few  in  numbers  and  of  small  ability, 
and,  as  we  earn  our  bread  by  the  sweat  of 
our  brow,  shall  ever  hold  in  utter  detestation 
both  men  and  measures  that  would  rob  us  of 
the  fruits  of  our  toils,  and  are  ready  with 
our  labors,  with  our  lives,  and  with  our  estates 
to  stand  or  fall  in  the  common  cause  of  liberty. 
And  if  we  fall  we  shall  die  like  men  and  Chris- 
tians and  enjoy  the  glorious  privileges  of  the 
sons  of  Cod. 

"This  from  your  humble  servants  of  said 
Parish,  New  Casco:  Sanmel  Cobb,  Nathaniel 
Carl,  James  Merrill." 

The  sterling  qualities  exhibited  by  Captain 
Merrill  have  been  transmitted  to  his  descend- 
ants, wIkj  have  been  leaders  in  all  matters 
of   progress   and   occupied    positions   of   trust. 

Miss  Rieker  received  her  early  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  Falmouth  and  at 
Westbrook  Seminary.  Her  nmsical  ability, 
inherited  from  both  parents,  who  were  singers 
of  local  reputation  and  possessed  voices  of 
more  than  ordinary  merit,  evinced  itself  in 
childhood.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  she  began 
vocal  culture  under  Charles  R.  Adams,  of 
Boston,  remaining  one  season.  Returning 
home,  she  contimied  her  study  with  William 
H.  Dennett,  of  Portland,  to  whom  she  feels 
that  she  owes  a  great  deal  of  her  success. 
By  his  advice  she  next  stutlied  with  the  great 
maestro,  Olivieri.  During  her  studies  with 
Mr.  Dennett  she  was  engaged  as  conti'alto 
of  the  Williston  choir,  remaining  until  her 
departure  for  Europe  in  May,  LS94.  She 
was  also  a  member  of  the  afternoon  choir 
at     the    Second     Parish    Church,    under    Mr. 


Kotzschmar.  Her  hrst  public  appearance 
was  in  the  "Pirates  of  Penzance,"  given 
by  the  society  people  of  Portland.  Her 
wonderful  voice  and  dramatic  power  came 
as  a  surprise  to  the  large  audience,  and,  although 
her  part  was  a  minor  one,  repeated  demands 
were  made  for  her  little  solo.  The  success 
of  that  night  was  the  beginning  of  her  rapiiUy 
briglitening  career.  She  was  now  in  demand 
at  all  amateur  operas,  one  of  her  most  popular 
roles  being  Katisha  in  "The  Mikado."  While 
in  Portland  she  was  a  memljcr  of  several 
musical  clubs  and  other  organizations,  among 
them  being  the  Haydn  (Quartette,  wliicli 
laecame  (piite  famous  thnjughout  Ni'W  England, 
the  Rossini  Club,  the  Haydn  Association, 
and  the  Portland  Singers'  Club.  Later  she 
became  a  member  of  tlie  McDowell  Club 
of   Boston. 

With  Mrs.  John  Rand,  Miss  Alice  Linwood 
Philbrook,  and  Miss  Florence  G.  Knight, 
sh(^  was  sent  to  re|)resent  tlie  Portland  Rossini 
Club  at  the  Columbian  Exposition.  They 
won  for  their  club  a  diploma  of  sjjecial  honor 
for  meritorious  work;  and,  in  addition.  Miss 
Rieker  and  her  cousin.  Miss  Knight,  were 
awarded  individual  diplomas  for  the  most 
artistic  i^erformance  of  the  whole  convention, 
the  only  individual  diplomas  given  to  singers. 
The  awards  were  made  by  tw(dve  of  the  lead- 
ing musical  critics  of  the  world. 

Li  1894  she  went  abroad,  beginning  her 
European  study  with  Signor  Vannuccini  in 
London,  contiiuiing  under  the  same  master 
in  Florence  and  again  in  London  the  second 
season,  when  by  his  advice  she  studied  also 
with  Signor  Randegger  in  oratorio  and  English. 
While  in  Europe  she  received  much  social 
attenti(jn,  l)oth  in  London  and  in  Italy.  Ever 
since  her  return  to  Boston  she  has  tilled  the 
position  which  she  now  holds,  that  of  contralto 
in  the  choir  of  Central  Congregational  Church, 
one  of  the  best  church  positions  in  Boston. 
She  has  also  devoted  herself  to  concert  and  ora- 
torio work.  At  the  Maine  Musical  Festivals  of 
1S98  and  1900  she  sang  with  D.  Ffrangcon 
Davies  in  the  oratorio  of  "Elijah,"  her  success 
being  only  second  to  his.  Her  voice  is  peculiarly 
suited  to  the  contralto  score  of  that  work. 
Another   great   success   was   achieved    by   her 


346 


REPRESENTATIN  E   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  February,  1S99,  when  at  a  few  liours'  notice 
she  sang  in  Mendelssohn's  "St.  Paul,"  given 
by  the  Handel  and  Haydn  Society.  She 
has  also  sung  in  Liza  Lelunann's  "  Persian  Gar- 
tlen"  several  times.  As  a  concert  singer 
she  is  in  constant  demand,  appearing  chiefly 
in  New  England. 

Gifted  with  a  charming  personality,  Mi.ss 
Kicker  has  a  host  of  warm  friends,  social  and 
musical.  She  is  a  true  Maine  girl,  fond  of 
the  place  of  her  birth.  Her  summers  are 
spent  at  the  old  liomestead,  so  full  of  her 
childhood's    memories. 


ADA  AIEXANDER   ACHORN,   D.O.- 

/\  Mrs.  Achorn  was  born  in  .luda,  AVis., 
XV  March  1,  1S6L  Her  father,  George 
W'ashinglon  Alexander,  of  Scotch- 
Irish  descent,  was  born  in  LS21  in  Columbus, 
Ohio.  In  LS35  he  removed  with  his  father's 
family  to  Indiana.  Her  mother,  who.se  maiden 
name  was  Ruth  Little,  was  born  in  LS23  in 
Oxford,   Ind. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alexander  migrating  to  Iowa 
a  few  years  after  the  birth  of  their  daughter 
Ada,  she  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  that  State.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  she 
began  teaching  school.  This  vocation  she 
followed  successfully  until  her  marriage  to 
Clinton  F^dwin  Achorn,  which  took  place  at 
Cherokee,  Iowa,  January  10,  1882.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Achorn  have  one  son,  Kendall  Lincoln 
Achorn,  born  October  20,  1882.  He  is  now 
a  Senior  in  the  Lawrence  scientific  department 
of  Harvard  LTniversity. 

For  several  years  Mrs.  Achorn  was  enthu- 
siastically engaged  iii  temperance  work  among 
young  people,  she  lieing  in  the  Independent 
Order  of  Gootl  Templars,  to  her  the  best  of  all 
organizations  for  its  purpose,  which  she  many 
times  worthily  represented  in  district  and  State 
sessions,  and  in  which  she  still  holds  member- 
ship. SJie  did  her  first  temi)erance  work  as 
a  member  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance LTnion,  and  she  belonged  to  that  so- 
ciety until  her  entire  time  was  needed  for  her 
practice.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Woman's 
Relief  Corps,  E.  0.  C.  Ord  Corps,  No.  105, 
Department    of    Iowa,    which    she    repeatedly 


served  in  the  capacity  of  treasurer,  secretary, 
and  president.  She  also  belongs  to  the  Daugh- 
teis  of  the  American  Revolution,  Dorothy  Dix 
Chapter,  Waltham,  Mass.,  deriving  her  title 
to  membership  through  her  descent  from 
Joseph  Alexander,  her  father's  paternal  grand- 
father, who  enlisted  at  Simsbury,  Pa.,  and 
.served  under  General  Putnam  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  He  was  a  private  and  after- 
ward successively  Ensign,  Lieutenant,  and 
Captain  of  Pennsylvania  troops. 

As  a  natui'al  outcome  of  experience  in  other 
social  organizations,  she  became  a  leading 
member  of  the  Political  E(iuality  Club  of  her 
home  town,  and  had  the  honor  to  serve  on  the 
connnittee  which  arranged  the  jirogranune 
for  the  flrst  celebration  of  "  Foremothers'  Day" 
ever  held  in  the  country. 

Several  years  ago,  I)eing  in  ill  health,  her 
attention  was  directed  to  osteopathy  as  offer- 
ing some  hope  of  restoration.  The  results  were 
so  favorable  that  she  with  her  husband  took 
up  the  study  at  the  Northern  Institute  of  Os- 
teopathy, in  Minneapolis,  Miim.,  and  after 
finishing  the  course  they  each  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Osteopathy.  In  1897 
they  located  themselves  in  Boston  for  the  prac- 
tice of  their  profession.  Here  Mrs.  Achorn 
is  a  pioneer  in  her  work,  being  the  first  woman 
to  engage  in  the  practice  of  osteopathy  in  New 
England.  In  June,  1897,  when  the  Boston 
Institute  of  Osteopathy  was  organizerl,  she 
became  the  .secretary  ami  treasurer  anil  one 
of  its  instructors,  and  she  has  been  actively 
identified  with  that  institution  to  the  present 
time. 

She  is  a  member  of  the  American  Osteopathic 
Association  and  of  the  Massachusetts  Osteo- 
pathic Society.  She  re])resented  the  Boston 
Institute  of  C)ste()pathy  at  the  sixth  annual 
meeting  of  the  American  Osteopathic  Asso- 
ciation, held  in  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  August  6, 
7,  8,   1902. 

On  account  of  its  recent  introduction  the 
science  of  osteopathy  is  allowed  a  few  words  of 
explanation  in  these  pages. 

The  following  paragraphs  are  copied  from 
an  address  delivered  by  .1.  Martin  Littlejohn, 
Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  F.S.Sc,  and  F.R.S.L.,  Diplo- 
mate  in  Osteopathy,  before  the  Royal  Society 


ADELAIDE    F.  CHA.SE 


iBRh^-^ 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


347 


in  London,  and  first  printeil  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Science  of  Osteopathy  of  February,  1900 : — 

"  Osteopathy  was  first  formulated  by  An- 
drew T.  Still,  M.D.,  in  1874.  He  claimed  that 
a  natural  flow  of  blood  is  health;  that  disease 
is  the  effect  of  local  or  general  (listurl)ance 
of  the  blootl;  that  to  excite  the  nerves  causes 
the  muscles  to  contract  and  compress  the  venous 
fiow  of  blood  to  the  heart;  and  that  the  hones 
coukl  be  used  as  levers  to  relieve  pressure  on 
nerves  and  arteries. 

"The  name  Osteopathy  was  applied  to  the 
new  science  on  account  of  the  fact  that  the 
displacement  of  bones  occupied  the  first  place 
in  the  category  of  causes  or  lesions  producing 
diseased  conditions.  .  .  .  The  underlying  factor 
is  that  of  body  order  and  physics  tleveloped  in 
comiection  with  animal  mechanics.  .  .  . 

"Osteopathy  attempts  to  specialize  the  me- 
chanical j3ruici])le  in  dealing  with  all  kinds 
of  curable  diseases,  acute  as  well  as  chronic, 
graduating  pressure,  tension,  vibration,  and 
all  the  mechanical  forms  of  physical  stimula- 
tion, in  their  application  to  muscles,  bones, 
blood-vessels,  nerves,  and  organs  of  the  body, 
so  as  to  gain  therapeutic  effects."  It  "repu- 
diates drugs  as  foreign  to  the  organism." 


ADELAIDE    FLORENCE   CHASE,  editor 

/\       and  publisher  of  the  Club  Calendar,  is 

/     \    a    native    of    Fitchburg,    Mass.     She 

comes  of  long  lines  of  ancestry  dating 

back  to  the  early  settlement  of  the  Bay  Colony. 

The  daughter  of  Arrington  and  Sarah  (Brown) 
Gibson,  .she  is  of  the  .seventh  generation  of  the 
family  founded  by  John  Gibson,  to  whom  land 
was  granted  in  Caml)ridge  (then  called  New- 
towne),  August  4,  1634.  The  line  of  descent 
is:  John';  John,  Jr. ,M5orn about  1641;  Timothy,' 
born  about  1679;  Reuben,*  born  in  Sudtniry, 
1725;  Israel,''  born  in  Fitchburg,  1765;  Arring- 
ton," born  in  Ashby  in  1813;  Adelaide  Florence, 
born  May  5,  1862. 

John  GiKson,  Jr.,^  fourth  child  of  John'  and 
his  wife  Rebecca,  .served  in  King  Philip's  War. 
He  married  in  16(>S  Rebecca  Errington,  daugh- 
ter of  .\braham'  and  Rebecca  (Cutler)  Erring- 
ton,  of  Cambridge,  and  grand-daughter  of 
Deacon  Robert'  Cutler,  of  Charlestown. 


Deacon  Timothy^  Gibson  died  in  Stow, 
Mass.,  in  1757.  His  first  wife,  Rebecca,  the 
mother  of  his  twelve  children,  died  in  1754. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  Stephen^  and  Sarah 
(Wootlward)  Gates.  Stephen'  Gates,  her  grantl- 
fathcr,  came  over  in  the  "Diligent"  in  1638. 

Reuben*  Gibson  was  one  of  the  four  Gibson 
brothers  who  settled  in  that  part  of  the  old 
town  of  Lunenburg  which  in  1764  became 
Fitchburg.  Reuben's  farm  of  one  hundretl 
acres,  on  Pearl  Hill,  was  ileeded  to  him  by  his 
father  in  1744.  He  was  Sergeant  in  ('aptain 
Ebenezer  Wood's  company,  which  marched 
from  Fitchburg  on  the  Lexington  alarm  of 
April  19,  1775.  In  1776  lie  was  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Safety  and  Correspomlence. 
From  the  records  he  appears  to  have  been  a 
Captain  of  militia.  He  and  his  brothers,  it  is 
said,  wen;  "all  good  fighting  men,  famous  for 
great  strength  and  courage."  The  house  of 
his  brother  Isaac  was  a  garrison  house,  the 
"Fort  Gibson"  of  1748,  the  time  of  the  Indian 
raid  on  the  town.  Captain  Reuben  Gibson 
married  at  Sudbury  in  1746  Lois  Smitli,  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas  and  Elizabeth  Smith  and  grand- 
daughter of  John  and  Sarah  (Hunt)  Smith,  of 
Sudbury. 

Israel^  Gibson  was  the  seventh  of  a  family 
of  eight  children.  He  died  in  Fitchburg  in 
1818.  His  wife,  Lucinda  Whiting,  a  native  of 
Hanover,  Mass.,  died  July  15,  1870,  in  the 
ninety-fourth  year  of  her  age.  They  hail  nine 
children. 

Arrington"  Gibson,  the  "Arrington  Gibson, 
3d,"  of  the  Fitchburg  records,  married  April 
14,  1834,  Sarah  Brown.  She  was  born  in  Fitch- 
burg, February  16,  1815,  daughter  of  Amos  antl 
Sally  (Mclntire)  Brown. 

Amos  Brown,  Mrs.  Chase's  maternal  grantl- 
father,  was  a  son  of  Zachariah  Brown,  of  Con- 
cord, Mass.,  who  marrieil  November  27,  1766, 
Martha  Brown,  of  Watertown  (or  Waltham), 
daughter  of  Daniel  Brown. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arrington"  Gibson  reared  eleven 
children,  three  .sons  and  eight  daughters,  Ade- 
laide Florence  being  the  youngest-born.  She 
was  graduated  from  tlie  Fitchburg  High  School 
in  1880.  After  teaching  school  in  that  city 
for  a  few  months  she  entered  the  office  of  the 
Fitchhunj  Daily  Sentinel,  and  improved  her  op- 


348 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


portuiiity  to  leani  the  iicwspiiper  business  from 
its  beginning  through  all  its  branches. 

On  December  8,  1883,  she  was  married  to 
Herbert  Leon  Chase,  a  native  of  New  Hamp- 
ton, N.H.  For  some  years,  or  until  May  1, 
1898,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chase  resided  in  Fitchburg. 
Their  home  is  now  in  \\'altham,  Mass.  Mr. 
Chase  is  an  o|)ti('ian,  liis  place  of  business 
l)eing  in  Boston.  Some  of  his  ancestors  served 
in  the  Revolution.  Mrs.  Chase  was  one  of  the 
charter  members  of  th(>  Fitchlnu'g  Woman's 
Club,  organized  in  18(K).  Realizing  that  a 
periodical  devoted  exclusively  to  the  interests 
of  the  women's  ciui)s  in  New  England  would 
be  a  useful  publication,  .she  estal)li.shed  in  1900 
the  Club  Calendar,  witli  oflices  in  Tremont 
Temple  Building,  Boston,  and  at  Walthani, 
Mass.  As  a  reporter,  city  editor  on  daily 
newsjtapers,  and  contvil)utor  to  magazines,  Mrs. 
Chase  liad  acquired  the  practical  knowledge 
necessary  for  the  success  of  her  enterprise. 
As  its  editor,  .she  has  been  uniusually  hon- 
ored as  the  guest  of  leading  women's  clubs. 
She  has  often  spoken  by  invitation  imder 
their  auspices  upon  subjects  pertaining  to  the 
plans  and  work  of  women's  clubs. 

The  Fitchbm'g  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution,  was  organized  at  her 
suggestion,  and  she  was  appointed"  its  first 
regent.  This  office  she  resigned  when  moving 
from  Fitchburg  to  Boston,  but  she  retained  her 
membership  in  the  chapter. 


SIBYLLA  ADELAIDE  BAH.EY  CRANE 
was  born  in  East  Boston,  Ma.ss.,  July 
30,  1851,  daughter  of  Henry  Bailey 
and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Bellamy.  Her 
father  was  a  contractor  and  Inhlder.  His 
ancestors  were  residents  of  Scituate,  Ma,ss. 
Her  mother,  a  native  of  Kittery,  Me.,  was  the 
daughter  of  John  H.  and  Fanny  (Keen)  Bel- 
lamy and  grand-daughter  of  John  Bellamy, 
Jr.,  of  Kittery,  who  married  November  21, 
1791,  Tam.sen,  daughter  of  Samuel  King  and 
Mary  (Orne)  Haley. 

Sibylla  A.  Bailey  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Boston,  and  for  a  number  of  years 
she  followed  the  profession  of  teacher  in  that 
city.     She  was  a  lover  of  music  and  the  fine 


arts,  and  became  an  accomplished  performer 
on  the  piano  and  a  pleasing  vocalist. 

On  September  1,  1891,  she  was  married  in 
Boston  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Oliver  Crane,  a  native 
of  Montclair,  N.J.,  and  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College,  cla,ss  of  1845.  Dr.  Crane  had  been 
a  missionary  in  Turki'y  for  some  years  in  his 
early  manhood,  and  later  pastor  of  a  Presby- 
terian church  in  Carbonilale,  Pa.  liefore  mar- 
riage Mrs.  Crane  had  made  a  brief  trip  to 
Euro])e.  After  that  event  she  accompanied 
her  hu.sl)an(l  in  an  extended  foreign  tour, 
travelling  in  the  British  Isles,  on  the  Continent, 
and  in  tlie  I'^ast,  spending  a  winter  in  Cairo 
and  visiting  Syria,  the  scene  of  Dr.  Crane's 
missionary  labors  many  years  before.  A  large 
number  of  i)hotographs  and  other  souvenirs 
attested  the  assiduity  with  which  their  labors 
as  collectors  were  i)ursued,  from  the  Pyramids 
of  Egypt  to  the  Alhaiubra.  On  their  return 
from  abroad  they  took  up  their  residence  in 
Boston.  Here  Dr.  Crane  died  on  November 
29,  ]89(i. 

Mrs.  Crane  was  loved  l)y  a  large  circle  of 
friends,  not  only  for  her  talents  and  social 
qualities,  but  also  for  her  amiable  disposition, 
which  was  a  marked  trait  in  her  character 
from  childhood.  She  inherited  an  admirable 
physique,  and  had  superior  executive  ability, 
which  made  her  a  good' presiding  officer.  She 
was  prominent  in  musical  and  social  circles 
and  in  various  patriotic  and  other  organiza- 
tions, and  contributed  liberally  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  many  worthy  objects. 

At  the  time  of  her  death,  which  occurred 
in  Feljruary,  1902,  she  was  president  of  the 
Daughters  of  Mas.sachusetts,  vice-president  of 
the  Wednesday  Morning  Club,  vice-i)resident 
of  the  Castilian  Club,  and  vice-regent  of  the 
Boston  Tea  Party  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution.  She  was  for  several 
years  treasurer  of  the  New  England  Woman's 
Club  and  a  member  of  the  Executive  Council 
of  the  Boston  Woman's  Business  League,  alsjo 
a  director  in  the  Woman's  Club  House  Cor- 
poration, a  member  of  the  Woman's  Charity 
Club,  of  the  New  England  Woman's  Press 
A.ssociation,  of  the  Moral  Education  Associa- 
tion, of  the  Women's  Educational  and  Indus- 
trial Union,  of  the  beneficent  society  connected 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


349 


with  the  New  England  Conservatory  of  the 
Cercle  P'rancais  de  I'Alliance,  and  of  the  Society 
for  the  University  Education  of  Women. 

General  Henry  B.  Carrington,  of  Hyde  Park, 
Mass.,  who  was  intimately  acquainted  witli 
Mrs.  Sibylla  Crane  as  the  wife  and  afterward 
the  widow  of  his  beloveil  classmate,  the  Rev. 
Oliver  Crane,  D.D.,  pays  the  following  tribute 
to  her  memory: — 

"I  did  not  know  her  personally  until  shortly 
before  their  marriage,  in  the  consvunmation 
of  whicli  my  wife  and  myself  greatly  rejoiceil. 
His  literary  and  poetical  tastes  found  in  her 
congenial  attributes  the  complement  to  his 
most  ardent  wi.shes.  Living  so  near  my  home, 
they  were  like  brother  and  sister  to  me.  In 
his  last  illness  the  intimacy  became  more  con- 
stant, until,  as  his  last  request,  I  })romi.scd 
to  give  to  her  the  affection  and  care  of  a  ti'ue 
brother  as  long  as  she  should  survive  his  de- 
parture. And  then,  in  the  examination  of 
the  literary  and  cla.ss  material  left  by  him, 
I  shared  with  her  the  care  and  disposition  of 
the  same.  .  .  .  Tho.se  years  of  intimate  acquaint- 
ance, thus  ripened  into  years  of  a  practical 
brotherhootl,  were  gilded  with  ever-growing 
appreciation  of  her  noble  qualities  as  wife, 
daughter,  and  friend.  Her  dignity  antl  grace 
as  a  woman  and  her  refinement  in  tastes  were 
marked  characteristics  that  any  stranger  would 
honor.  Her  tender  sympathies  and  liberal 
charities  abounded  wlierever  invoked  by  the 
sick  or  the  needy,  and  the  serenity  and  poLse 
of  her  character  harmonized  with  attributes 
which  distinguished  her  from  almost  any  other 
of  her  sex." 


ELIZABETH  WILLIAMS  MITCHELL, 
of  Boston,  Mass.,  real  estate  agent, 
is  a  native  of  Newport,  Monmouth- 
shire, England.  Born  February  7, 
1874,  daughter  of  William  and  Susan  (Allen) 
Williams,  she  came  to  this  country  in  1885, 
her  parents,  with  five  boys  and  two  girls, 
leaving  Liverpool  on  April  22  by  the  "  Grand 
Republic"  of  the  White  Star  Line  and  arriving 
in  New  York,  May  5.  The  family  went  to 
Salem,  N.H.,  where  the  children's  grand- 
father,   Henry    Buck,    who    had    inunigrated 


some  years  previously,  received  them.  Their 
mother  was  born  in  England,  December  10, 
1848,  and  their  father,  July  8,  1847.  They 
were  married  September  21,  1869.  The 
father  was  a  farmer,  and  still  follows  that 
calling  in  Salem,  N.H.  In  religion  both 
parents  are  Methodists.  One  boy  and  two 
girls  were  born  to  them  in  Salem,  N.H.,  making 
ten  children  hi  all — namely,  Thomas,  Alfred, 
Elizabeth  (the  subject  of  this  sketch),  John, 
Sarah  Jane,  William  Henry,  George,  Susan, 
Hikla    May,    and    Harold    Allen. 

Mrs.  Mitchell  began  to  attend  the  common 
schools  in  Newjjort,  England,  when  she  was 
about  five  years  oKl,  and  continued  her  studies 
in  the  Salem  schools  until  she  was  fourteen. 
At  the  age  of  twenty  she  came  to  Boston, 
and  took  the  full  covu'se  at  Comer's  Business 
College,  where  she  was  graduated  November 
30,  1897.  On  December  2  she  ailvertised 
in  the  Boston  Herald  for  a  position,  and  thereby 
obtained  employment  the  next  day  with  the 
E.  J.  Hammond  Lumber  Company  in  the 
Exchange  Building.  She  left  that  place  after 
three  months  to  take  a  position  with  L.  P. 
Hollander  &  Co.,  dry  goods  merchants  of 
Boston,  but  gave  this  up  shortly  to  become 
private  .secretary  of  Miss  E.  P.  Sohier,  the 
secretary  of  the  Free  Public  Library  Com- 
mission. Retaining  this  position,  at  the  same 
time  she  accepted  the  office  of  agent  for  the 
Massachu.setts  Volunteer  Aid  Association,  in 
which  Mi.ss  Sohier  was  an  active  worker. 
As  agent,  besides  attending  to  an  unusually 
large  correspondence,  she  had  to  investigate 
every  case  for  relief  called  to  the  attention 
of  the  Association,  visiting  the  dwellings  of 
the  objects  of  the  relief,  ascertaining  what 
was  needed,  and,  when  the  case  was  a  worthy 
one,  supplying  the  same,  such  as  fuel,  clothing, 
food,  and  lodging.  In  the  performance  of 
her  duties  she  was  frecjuently  obliged  to  travel 
both  in  and  out  of  the  State.  Yet,  busy  as 
her  secretaryship  and  agency  made  her,  she 
was  able  to  add  to  her  occupations  that  of 
collector  for  the  Associated  Charities  in  their 
admirable  work  of  promoting,  by  their  home 
savings  effort,  the  habit  of  saving  among  the 
poor.  This  she  did  evenings,  and  the  work 
took  her  into  the  poorer  families  of  the  sundry 


350 


REPRESENTATIVE    WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


nationalities  comprising  the  city's  immigrant 
population  at  both  the  North  and  South 
Ends,  enabling  her  to  acquire  valuable  ex- 
perience. The  sums  so  collected  by  her  at 
each  visit  varietl  from  five  to  twenty-five 
cents,  the  Associated  Charities  becoming 
trustees  therefor  until  the  amount  became 
large  enough  to  bank,  when  the  owner  was 
duly  notihed  and  atlvised  what  bank  to  place 
it  in.  In  this  period  she  also  performed  the 
arduous  duty  of  visitor  for  tlie  AsvSociated 
Charities,  investigating  ami  reporting  cases 
of  extreme  poverty  coming  umler  her  notice. 
Nor  was  this  all:  at  one  time  she  simultaneously 
served  in  no  less  than  eight  different  cajjacities 
of   importance. 

Her  hrst  experience  in  the  real  estate  busi- 
ness was  in  assisting  the  agent  of  the  tenement 
house  ])ro])erty  of  the  Boston  Co-operative 
Building  Company,  located  in  different  parts 
of  the  city.  To  this  she  devoted  every  iSatur- 
day,  visiting  every  tenement,  and  seeing  that 
a  code  of  rules  made  by  the  proprietors  was 
observed. 

In  1899  she  gave  up  her  engagement  with 
the  As.sociated  Charities  to  take  charge  of  a 
number  of  tenement  houses  on  Lan.sdowne 
Street  for  J.  F.  F.  Brewster,  a  Boston  real 
estate  dealer.  A  year  later  she  had  charge 
of  a  number  of  apartment  hou.ses  in  the  Mount 
Bowdoin  district  in  Dorchester,  rented  by 
the  month.  Later  she  obtained  charge  of 
the  Ellis  Memorial  Building  in  South  Boston, 
owned  by  the  Improved  Dwelling  Association, 
containing  fifty-six  tenements.  She  resigned 
her  agency  for  the  Massachusetts  Volunteer 
Aid   As.sociation   in   May,    190L 

Besides  the  estates  already  named,  she 
now  has  charge  of  property  on  Rochester 
and  Eustis  Streets,  Edgerly  Place,  and  other 
localities.  She  has  been  remarkably  success- 
ful in  handling  the  properties  entrusted  to 
her.  She  gives  them  her  pensonal  super- 
vision, and  orders  all  repairs  when  necessary, 
never  taking  a  conmiission  for  such  services 
except  from  the  proprietors.  Of  her  own 
volition  she  follows  the  example  of  the  Bos-' 
ton  Co-operative  Building  Company,  obliging 
all  tenants  to  observe  a  number  of  printed 
rules  displayed  on  sundry  parts  of  the  estates 


subject  to  them  (this  in  relation  to  tenement 
or  apartment  property).  Her  tactful  enforce- 
ment of  the  rules  has  made  a  profitable  in- 
vestment of  all  the  tenement  property  in  her 
hands,  while  at  the  same  time  the  mutual 
regard  for  each  other's  rights  required  of  the 
tenants  by  Ww.  rules  has  made  healthier  and 
hapi)ier  homes  for  all.  She  collects  rents 
from  about  five  hundred  families,  and,  although 
her  rules  are  strict,  they  are  obeyed.  One 
of    her    tenants    says: — 

"Mrs.  Mitchell  lias  pretty  strict  rules,  but 
she  is  kind  and  helpful  to  us  in  many  ways. 
She  means  what  she  says.  It  is  one  of  her 
rules  that  all  tenants  must. pay  in  advance,  but 
if  we  have  been  sick,  and  are  out  of  money,  she 
lets  our  rent  run  until  we  are  able  to  pay  it." 

Another  says:  "  Mrs.  Mitchell  has  done  a  won- 
derful lot  of  good  arovmd  here.  She  is  always 
bright  and  cheerful  when  she  comes  to  see 
us.     She  always  says  something  encouraging." 

About  four  years  ago  three  blocks  of  tene- 
ments on  Lansdowne  Street,  Roxbury,  were  ' 
placed  under  her  management.  She  saw  there 
was  urgent  neetl  of  a  kindergarten  in  the 
vicinity.  Her  appeal  to  the  city  having 
been  refused,  she  succeeded  in  getting  the 
Kindergarten  Training  School  to  furnish 
teachers.  She  then  had  her  office  arranged 
for  a  school-room,  reserving  only  one  corner 
for  her  desk,  where  she  attends  to  business 
thrice  a  week.  Every  day,  from  nine  o'clock 
till  one,  twenty  small  children  attend  this 
school,  with  two  training-school  girls  for 
teachers.  In  the  same  school  there  are  weekly 
classes  for  girls  in  reading  and  sewing  and  a 
gymnasium  for  boys.  •  By  special  effort  a 
branch  of  the  Public  Lilirary  was  established 
in  the  school-room,  so  that  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood has  free  access   to  good   reading. 

In  regard  to  the  statement  that  many  of 
the  ])oor  do  not  appreciate  a  bath-tub,  but 
use  it  as  a  receptacle  for  various  articles,  she 
says:  "None  of  my  tenants  neglect  their 
bath-tubs.  In  the  first  place,  I  would  not 
allow  it;  and,  in  the  second,  the  tenants  show 
a  desire  for  cleanliness  when  encouraged  in  it." 

The  sanitary  condition  of  her  houses  is 
unusually  good,  as  she  makes  every  effort 
to   promote   the   cleanliness   and   good   health 


EI,LA    WORTH    PENDRHGAST 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


351 


of  the  tenants,  ami  allows  none  who  are  in- 
toxicated to  remain. 

By  making  the  comfort  of  her  tenants  her 
chief  object  Mrs.  Mitchell  believes  that  every 
other  purpose  of  her  business  is  best  served. 
Then  she  feels  a  conscientious  obligation  to 
tlo  good  whenever  the  occasion  offers  in  the 
course  of  her  business  relations  with  her  tenants. 
Among  the  laboring  people  she  has  frequent 
occasion  to  give  a  word  of  advice  in  season. 
Gaudy  furniture  bought  on  the  instalment 
plan  in  the  home  of  a  poor  family  (juickly 
arouses  her  indignation.  She  discourages 
such  purchases  when  she  can  do  so  without 
giving  offence.  Siie  is  also  opi)osed  t(j  the 
practice  among  many  poor  families  of  in- 
suring its  members,  as  constituting  a  deplorable 
leak  of  their  slender  rescnu'ces. 

Besides  caring  for  dwellings  as  described, 
she  buys,  .sells,  and  lea.ses  estates,  and  trans- 
acts insurance  business.  In  former  years  her 
business  was  carried  on  under  the  name  of 
E.  A.  Williams:  it  is  now  conducted  under 
that  of  E.  W.  Mitchell.  -She  was  married 
to  William  Frederick  Mitchell,  October  15, 
1902,  in  Boston,  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Martin 
Saville,  of  St.  Mark's  Church,  Dorchester. 

Mr.  Mitchell  was  born  in  Auburn,  Me., 
September  2,  1876,  son  of  Almon  and  Clara 
(Henderson)  Mitchell.  His  mother  was  Eng- 
lish -  born.  His  father,  born  in  AVebster, 
Me.,  was  son  of  Hiram  Mitchell,  who  was  a 
land-owner  and  a  man  of  importance  in  the 
district.  At  the  Mitchell  homestead  were 
preserved  sundry  ancestral  relics,  including 
a  bayonet  that  saw  service  in  the  Revolution. 
Mr.  Mitchell  was  brought  up  in  Sabattus, 
Me.,  receiving  his  early  education  in  the  schools, 
grammar  and  high,  of  the  district.  In  April, 
1S90,  he  obtained  employment  in  the  print- 
ing department  of  the  Hollingsworth  &  Whitney 
Company,  paper  manufacturers.  Sub.se(juently 
he  had  charge  of  their  stereotyping  depart- 
ment for  four  years.  In  the  fall  and  winter 
seasons  of  this  period  he  attended  evening 
school.  When  the  late  war  with  Spain  began, 
he  enlisted  in  Jmie,  1898,  in  the  Ignited  States 
Hospital  Corps,  and  went  to  Fort  Myer, 
Va.,  arriving  there  July  5,  1898,  and  serving 
in  the  general  hospital  for  about  six  months. 


Then  he  accompanied  the  corps  upon  the 
United  States  transport  "Sheridan,"  by  way 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Suez  Canal, 
to  Manila,  in  (he  Philippines,  where  he  arrived 
April  7,  1899,  soon  after  the  breaking  out 
of  the  insin-rection  of  the  natives  against 
American  control.  While  there  he  saw  the 
bombardment  of  ParaiuKjue  and  the  skirmish 
known  as  the  battle  of  Quinguia.  He  aided 
in  removing  the  wounded  from  the  field  to 
the  "Sheridan"  after  the  last-named  action, 
and  subse(iuently  shared  in  attending  to 
their  needs;  and  he  went  back  to  Manila 
with  the  body  of  Colonel  Stoutenburg,  of  a 
Nebraska  regiment. 

From  what  he  saw  of  the  natives  Mr.  Mitchell 
acquired  a  high  opinion  of  their  intelligence 
and  of  their  fitness  for  self-government.  He 
saw  none  of  the  cruelties  allegetl  to  have  been 
inflicted  on  them  by  our  soldiers,  whereas 
he  was  a  witness  to  the  general  gootl  treat- 
ment of  Filij)ino  prisoners,  especially  of  the 
wounded  at  our  soldiers'  hands.  Returning 
to  Boston  in  the  fall  of  1901,  he  spent  the 
ensuing  year  in  the  capacity  of  nurse  at  the 
City  Hospital.  He  also  became  a  law  student 
of  the  Boston  University  Class  of   1903. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  following  University 
organizations:  the  Class  Senate,  the  Quiz 
Club,  the  Bigelow  Club,  and  the  William  E. 
Russell  Club.  Since  his  marriage  he  has 
been  engaged  in  the  real  estate  business,  it 
having  no  connection  with  that  of  Mrs.  Mitchell. 
He  makes  a  specialty  of  looking  up  titles 
to  real  estate.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  and  of  the  Harvard  Improvement  Asso- 
ciation of  Dorchester;  and  he  is  Prelate  in  the 
Cross  and  Crown  Commandery  of  the  Knights 
of  Malta. 

In  religion  Mrs.  Mitchell  is  an  Episcopalian. 
She  was  a  member  of  the  Girls'  Friendly 
Society  of  Boston  and  of  the  Athene  Club 
of   Dorchester. 


ELLA    WORTH    PENDERGAST;    Past 
Regent  of  Bunker  Hill  Chapter,  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution,  was 
born   July   25,    1851,   in    Boston.     She 
is  the  daughter  of  Ira  Allen  and  Emily  Thomp- 


352 


REPRESENTAT1\E   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


son  (Jones)  Worth,  of  Charlestown,  and  on 
the  paternal  side  comes  from  Vermont  and 
Nantucket  Quaker  stock.  Her  father  is  a 
lineal  descendant  in  the  seventh  generation 
of  William  Worth,  of  Nantucket  (son  of  John 
Worth,  of  Devonshire,  England),  the  Hne  being 
William';  John,'  born  in  1666;  Richard,'  1692; 
Lionel,"  1737;  William,^  1762;  Samuel,"  1795; 
Ira  Allen,'  born  October  23,  1828,  during  the 
temporary  stay  of  his  parents  at  Farnham, 
Canada.  Lionel'  Worth,  brother  of  William,' 
settled  at  Salisbury,  Mass.;  and  Richartl' 
Worth,  another  brother,  settletl  at  Newbury 
and  later  removed  to  New  Jensey. 

William'  Worth  married  in  Nantucket  in 
1665  Sarah  Macy,  daughter  of  Thomas'  Macy. 
John,"  their  only  son,  married  Miriam  Gardner, 
daughter  of  Richard  Gardner,  Sr.  RichanP 
Worth  married  in  1729,  fifth  month,  twentieth 
day,  Sarah  Hoeg.  Lionel'  married  in  1761 
Martha  Mitchell,  a  native  of  Cuba,  but  then 
a  resident  of  Kittery,  Me.  This  marriage,  it 
is  said,  brought  Spanish  blood  into  the 
family. 

W^illiam,'*  eldest  child  of  Lionel"  and  Martha, 
was  born  in  Loudon,  N.H.  He  died  at  Starks- 
boro,  Vt.,  in  1849,  twelfth  month,  twenty- 
third  day.  His  wife  was  Bet.sy  Tibbetts. 
Samuel,"  their  eighth  child,  born  in  Loudon, 
removed  with  his  father  to  Starksboro,  Vt. 
He  died  at  Farnham,  Canada,  not  long  after 
the  birth  of  his  son  Ira.  Samuel"  Worth  mar- 
ried in  February,  1822,  Mrs.  Phebe  Husted 
Carpenter,  a  widow,  daughter  of  Ezekiel  Husted 
and  granfl-daughter  of  Jethro  and  Rachel 
(Brewer)  Husted.  Her  Husted  ancestors  were 
among  the  early  Dutch  settlers  of  Schenec- 
tady, N.Y. 

Mrs.  Pendergast's  mother,  a  native  of  Charles- 
town,  Mass.,  was  born  July  14,  1832,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Joshua  and  Abigail  (Thompson)  Jones. 
Her  father,  Joshua  Jones,  was  born  in  1799 
in  Burlington,  being  a  son  of  Aaron  and  Re- 
becca (Beard)  Jones  and  grandson  of  Joshua 
Jones,  who  was  of  Woburn  in  Revolutionary 
times.  Rebecca  Beard,  wife  of  Aaron  Jones, 
is  said  to  have  been  of  Scotch  descent. 

Abigail,  wife  of  Joshua  Jones  of  Charles- 
town  and  grandmother  of  Mrs.  Pendergast, 
was  a  daughter  of  Captain  Jonathan"  Thomp- 


son, who  was  born  in  Woburn,  April  26,  1760, 
son  of  SamueP  and  Abigail  (Tidd)  Thompson. 
Samuel,^  born  in  Woburn,  October  30,  1731, 
was  of  the  fifth  generation  in  descent  from 
James  Thompson,  of  Woburn,  who  became 
a  member  of  the  church  in  Charlestown  in 
August,  1633,  and  in  1640  was  one  of  the  thirty- 
two  men  who  subscribed  to  the  town  orders 
of  Woburn,  where  he  settletl.  The  Thomp- 
son line  of  ancestry  is:  James,'  Jonathan,' ' 
Samuel,"''  Jonathan,"  .•\l)igail,'  Mrs.  Pender- 
gast's maternal  grandmotlier,  who  was  born 
August  23,  1800,  and  died  December  28,  1876. 
(See  "Memorial  of  James  Thompson  and  his 
Descendants,"  by  the  Rev.  Leander  Thomp- 
son, that  book  being  also  the  authority  for  the 
civil  and  military  records  of  Thompson  ances- 
tors following.) 

Samuel  Thoiniison,  great-great-grandfather 
of  Mrs.  Pendergast,  was  fitted  for  college  be- 
fore he  was  seventeen,  but  on  account  of  his 
father's  sudden  death  chang'd  his  plans  and 
retnained  at  home,  the  family  needing  his  help. 
The  house  on  Elm  Street,  North  Woburn,  in 
which  he  lived,  and  where  he  died  August  17, 
1820,  was  built  by  his  father  about  1-730,  and 
partly  rebuilt  by  himself  in  1764.  He  became 
a  surveyor,  and  engaged  in  important  surveys 
in  Woburn  and  in  other  towns,  some  of  his 
work  being  on  the  Middlesex  Canal. 

While  on  the  latter  survey,  he  discovered  in 
Wilmington  a  wild  apj)le-trce  who.se  fruit  he 
named  the  "Pecker,"  as  the  tree  showed  that 
woodpeckers  abounded  in  that  region.  He 
sub.sequently  named  this  variety  of  apples 
"the  Thomp.son."  Many  trees  were  grafted 
by  Samuel  Thompson  and  his  brother  Abijah. 
They  gave  grafts  of  the  trees  to  a  friend  and 
neighbor.  Colonel  Loanmii  Baldwin,  who  cul- 
tivated them  with  great  .success  and  distributed 
the  fruit  far  and  wide.  This,  we  are  told,  is 
the  true  story  of  the  "Baldwin"  ap{)le,  formerly 
the  "Thompson,"  as  certified  by  the  monu- 
ment at  Wilmington. 

In  1758,  during  the  French  and  Indian  War, 
Samuel  Thomjison  held  a  commission  as  Lieu- 
tenant of  provincials,  and  was  stationed  for 
a  time  near  Lake  George.  "On  the  morning 
of  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  when  the  alarm  was 
given  that  the  British  troops  were  marching 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


353 


towaixl  Concortl,  he  iiml  his  two  brothers  were 
among  the  first  to  comprehend  the  grave  im- 
portance of  the  occasion.  Innnediately  seiz- 
ing his  musket,  he  hurried  to  the  scene  of  ac- 
tion, where  he  performed  heroic  service.  He 
brought  home  a  musket  taken  by  his  own 
hands  from  a  British  sohUer  whom  he  had 
wounded  in  the  conflict." 

Sanuiel  Thopipson  was  a  Deacon  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  of  Woburn  nearly  thirty- 
six  years.  Among  other  offices  which  he  held 
was  that  of  parish  clerk.  Selectman,  Represent- 
ative to  the  General  Court  for  eight  years, 
and  Justice  of  the  Peace  more  than  thirty 
years.  "  His  character  for  the  strictest  in- 
tegrity was  known  and  appreciated  through- 
out his  own  and  neighboring  counties;  and, 
although  he  was  a  constant  witness  of  liti- 
gation, he  was  universally  and  em])hati- 
cally  called,  by  those  who  knew  him,  a  peace- 
maker." 

His  death  occurred  August  17,  1820.  His 
first  wife  was  Abigail  Titld,  of  Woburn,  who 
died  in  176S;  his  second,  Lydia  Jones,  of  Con- 
cord, who  died  in  1788;  and  his  third,  Esther, 
widow  of  Jesse  Wyman  and  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Burbeen,  of  Wobvu'n. 

Jonathan  Thompson,  although  not  cjuite 
fifteen  years  of  age  when  the  alarm  of  war 
was  sounded  April  19,  1775,  borrowed  a  musket, 
and  followed  his  father  and  uncle  to  Concord, 
taking  with  him  the  leaden  weights  of  the 
scales,  which  he  had  moulded  into  bullets  at 
the  shop  of  a  neighbor. 

"  ( )n  his  arrival  at  Concord  the  more  direct 
fighting  was  past,  and  the  enemy  were  just 
starting  on  their  retreat  toward  Boston.  Notic- 
ing that  the  method  of  annoyance  employed 
by  his  countrymen  was  that  of  gaining  the 
head  of  the  retreating  columns  by  a  circuitous 
route,  and  then  from  a  favorable  position, 
previously  chosen,  pouring  their  shot  among 
the  ranks  till  all  had  passeil,  he  did  the  same. 
In  one  of  these  circuits,  to  their  nmtual  sur- 
prise, he  met  his  father,  who  at  once  exclaimed: 
'Why,  Jonathan,  are  you  here?  Well,  take 
care  of  yourself.  Your  uncle  Dani  d  has  been 
killed.  Be  prudent,  my  son,  and  take  care 
of  yourself.'  Father  and  son  then  each  pur- 
sued his  way.     Jonathan  foUowetl  the  retreat- 


ing army  to  Lexington  and  then  to  West  Cam- 
bridge, now  Arlington,  from  which  place  he 
crossed  over  to  Medford,  where,  with  others, 
he  sought  refuge  in  a  barn,  reaching  home 
safely  early  the  following  morning. 

"  He  subsequently  served  a  campaign  as 
fifer  and  several  more  as  a  private.  He  was 
at  Ticonderoga  and  in  Arnold's  flotilla  on  Lake 
Champlain,  the  vessel  during  the  action  there 
being  run  ashore  to  avoid  a  surrender,  and 
the  crew  escaping  into  the  neighboring  forest, 
where  for  three  days  they  dodgeil  the  Indians 
and  were  without  food.  They  at  last  escaped 
the  pursuit  by  swimming  a  river,  across  which, 
the  day  being  cold  and  the  Indians  having  no 
canoe,  their  savage  pursuers  declined  to  follow 
them.  Jonathan  Thompson  was  subsequently 
at  Stillwater,  at  Saratoga,  at  the  surrender  of 
Burgoyne,  White  Plains,  etc.,  serving  in  the 
army  about  three  years."  During  a  part  of 
the  time  he  served  as  drummer.  After  the 
Revolution  he  became  Captain  of  militia,  and 
until  his  death,  November  20,  1836,  was  famil- 
iarly called  Captain  John. 

Jonathan"  Thompson,  Mrs.  Pendergast's 
great-grandfather,  married  August  9,  1781, 
Mary,  daughter  of  Deacon  Jeduthan'^  Rich- 
ardson (Thomas,*  SamueP^'),  of  that  part  of 
Woburn  that  is  now  Winchester. 

Deacon  Jeduthan^  Richardson,  great-great- 
grantlfather  of  Mrs.  Pendergast,  was  a  Lieu- 
tenant in  the  Third  Company,  Second  Middle- 
sex County  Regiment,  in  the  Revolutionary 
War. 

Another  of  her  great-great-grandfathers, 
Joshua  Jones,  of  Woburn,  was  a  soldier  in  Cap- 
tain Walker's  company.  Colonel  David  Greene's 
regiment,  and  was  in  service  at  the  time  of  the 
Lexington  alarm,  April  19,  1775;  and  in  the 
same  company  was  a  fourth  great-great-grand- 
father, Samuel  Beard,  of  Wilmington. 

Ira  Allen  and  Emily  Thompson  (Jones) 
Worth  hatl  one  son,  Charles  Frederick,  who 
died  in  infancy.  They  removed  to  Charlestown 
when  their  daughter  Ella  was  a  year  old;  and 
she  received  her  education  in  its  public  schools, 
being  graduated  .with  honors  from  the  high 
school,  July  24,  1868,  the  day  before  her  seven- 
teenth birthday.  She  entereil  upon  the  active 
duties   of    life   by    accepting   an   appointment 


354 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


as  teacher  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Primary  School 
(No.  6).  While  holding  the  position,  her 
success  as  a  teacher  being  established,  she 
received  a  flattering  call  to  teach  in  Toledo, 
Ohio;  and  her  declination  was  received  with 
regret  by  the  superintendent  of  schools  of 
that  city. 

In  1873  she  resigned  her  position,  and  became 
the  wife  of  George  Henry  Pendergast,  a  well- 
known  and  highly  respected  citizen  of  Charles- 
town.  They  now  live  in  Somerville,  having 
recently  removed  to  their  new  home,  at  the 
corner  of  Broadway  and  Sycamore  Street. 
They  have  two  children:  Florence  Worth,  born 
April  17,  1886;  and  Harold  Worth,  born  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1892.  These  children  were  the 
nucleus  of  the  Jonathan  Thompson  Society 
of  the  C.  A.  R. 

Mrs.  Pendergast  was  actively  identified  with 
the  First  Universalist  Church  of  Charlestown  for 
many  years,  and  was  before  her  marriage  one 
of  a  party  of  young  amateurs  who  aided  the 
church  treasury  by  giving  theatrical  enter- 
tainments, in  which  she  filled  the  role  of  lead- 
ing lady  with  considerable  merit.  The  Norum- 
bega  Woman's  Club,  of  Charlestown,  welcomed 
her  as  a  member  soon  after  its  organization. 
She  accepted  an  election  as  its  vice-president, 
but  has  declined  the  honor  of  becoming  presi- 
dent, which  has  twice  been  tendered.  Although 
continuing  her  interest  and  membership  in 
the  club,  other  duties  prevented  her  from 
accepting  its  leadership.  Mrs.  Pendergast 
is  a  life  member  of  the  Hunt  Asylum  for 
Destitute  Children,  is  interested  in  the  Win- 
chester Home  for  Aged  Women,  and  has  been 
an  early  and  continuous  friend  of  the  Boston 
Floating  Hospital,  a  charity  very  near  her 
heart. 

In  February,  1898,  Mrs.  Pendergast  with 
others  organized  the  Jonathan  Thompson  So- 
ciety of  the  Children  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution, and  she  conducted  it  successfully  for 
over  two  years,  holding  most  of  the  meetings 
in  her  own  home.  In  April,  1900,  she  gave 
up  its  presidency  (but  continues  as  a  contribut- 
ing member),  and  assumed  the  duties  of  Regent 
of  Bunker  Hill  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution.  She  is  a  charter  mem- 
ber of  this  chapter,  and  served  three  years  as 


Vice-Regent  before  accepting  the  ofhce  of 
Regent.  The  chapter  prospered  under  her 
guidance.  Her  progressive  ideas,  executive 
ability,  and  efficient  management  met  the  ap- 
proval of  the  members.  The  term  of  office 
as  Regent  expired  in  April,  1902. 

Recently  requested  to  become  the  State 
Regent  of  the  Massachusetts  D.  A.  R.,  Mrs. 
Pendergast  on  account  of  home  cares  felt  obliged 
to  decline  the  honor,  as  she  did  two  years  ago, 
when  urged  to  take  the  position  of  State  Di- 
rector for  Massachusetts  Children  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution. 

Mrs.  Pendergast  is  a  woman  of  literary  talent 
and  the  author  of  several  poems.  The  ode  sung 
at  the  reunion  of  the  Charlestown  High  School 
Alunmi  Association  in  1S84  was  written  by  her 
for  that  occasion. 

Her  spacious  home  contains  many  relics, 
books,  and  souvenirs  of  value,  among  them 
being  the  sword  l)rought  home  by  Samuel 
Thompson  from  the  French  and  Indian  wars 
and  the  drumsticks  used  l)y  Jonathan  Thomp- 
.son  in  the  Revolution.  Upon  the  wall  hang 
the  Pendergast  coat  of  aims  and  the  Worth 
coat  of  arms,  both  framed  and  artistically  ex- 
ecuted. 

An  aunt.  Miss  Nancy  Pendergast,  who  is  a 
member  of  her  family,  was  an  army  nurse  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War,  and  served  in  the  hospitals  at 
Point  Lookout  and  Anna])olis. 


BARBARA  GALPIN.— For  twenty-five 
years  Mrs.  Galpin  has  been  identified 
with  the  SomerriUe  Journal,  which 
is  said  to  be  one  of  the  best  and  most 
widely  known  weekly  local  papers  in  the  United 
States,  l)eing  in  a  class  by  itself  in  tlie  matter 
of  literary  excellence,  home  attractions,  and 
editorial  enterprise. 

Mrs.  Galpin  was  born  in  Weathersfield,  Vt., 
daughter  of  Henry  Clay  Johnson.  Her  moth- 
er's maiden  name  was  Helen  Frances  Jones. 
From  four  years  of  age  she  lived  in  Claremont, 
N.H.,  where  she  attended  the  Stevens  High 
School.  At  sixteen  she  married  Henry  Wallace 
Galpin,  a  well-to-do  citizen,  many  years  her 
senior.  One  son,  George,  was  born  to  them. 
While  she  was  still  in  her  teens,  her  husband 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


355 


(Wed,  and  complications  in  business  matters 
wrecked  the  estate,  and  left  her  dependent 
upon  her  own  energies. 

Coming  to  Somerville  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  this  woman,  now  honored  in  social,  fra- 
ternal, and  professional  life,  took  her  place  at 
the  compositor's  case,  where  she  soon  became 
an  expert.  Incidentally  she  held  copy,  and 
at  her  own  motion  l)egan  to  edit  manuscript, 
through  which  cchting  she  first  attracted 
attention.  She  soon  became  a  proof-reader, 
and  gave  the  paper  its  distinction  for  ty- 
pographical as  well  as  literary  excellence. 
From  this  it  was  a  short  cut  to  editorial 
management,  which  she  combined  with  pro- 
motion of  circulation,  where  her  business 
ability  first  showed  itself.  When,  sixteen  years 
ago,  the  proprietor  became  the  treasurer  of 
Middlesex  County,  Mrs.  Galpin  assumed  the 
management  of  the  business  details,  while  re- 
taining oversight  of  the  circulation  schemes 
and  all  literary  and  special  features  of  the 
pa])er. 

The  Woman's  Page,  which  she  conducts, 
and  which  has  been  one  of  the  leaiiing  feat- 
ures of  the  paper,  has  been  on  as  high  a  level 
as  the  work  in  any  of  the  popular  literary 
weeklies,  and  would  of  itself  give  her  tlistinc- 
tion  in  journalism.  Her  many  series  of 
articles  on  travel,  both  in  America  and  in  Eu- 
rope, are  among  the  most  readable  and  in- 
structive of  their  kind  in  magazine  literature. 
One  of  the  most  complete  of  her  series  has 
been  issued  in  book  form,  under  the  caption 
"In  Foreign  Lantls."  Her  historical  articles 
have  attracted  even  more  attention,  and  one 
of  these  has  been  published  by  the  Somer- 
ville Historical  Society  as  its  first  official  issue. 
As  a  writer  of  verse  and  songs,  Mrs.  Galpin 
has  won  high  praise.  She  has  been  ecjually 
fortunate  in  public  speaking.  Her  promi- 
nence in  various  lines  of  activity  leil  to  invi- 
tations to  make  addresses  before  women's 
clubs,  historical  .societies,  and  various  other 
associations.  Her  platform  work  is  as  care- 
fully prepared  as  is  the  work  from  her  ]:)en,and 
her  reputation  as  a  speaker  is  well-nigh  equal 
to  that  in  literary  effort.  Her  most  important 
addresses  in  point  of  honor  were  before  the 
Suburban   Press  Association  of   New  England 


and  the  Woman's  Congress  at  the  Workl's 
Fair  in  1893. 

Mrs.  Galpin  has  given  her  son  a  liberal 
and  professional  education.  She  has  a  beauti- 
ful home  on  Spring  Hill,  with  a  valuable  li- 
brary, and  has  won  a  place  in  the  esteem  and 
respect  of  the  citizens  rarely  won  by  man  or 
woman  in  any  community.  It  was  an  article 
from  her  pen  that  led  to  the  first  meeting  of 
the  Heptorean  Club  of  Somerville,  of  which 
she  was  one  of  the  organizers.  She  became  a 
charter  member,  has  been  treasurer  since  the 
foundation  of  the  club,  has  been  on  the  Board 
of  Directors  from  the  first,  and  has  hatl  much 
influence  in  making  this  one  of  the  leading 
women's  clubs  of  the  country.  Mrs.  Galpin 
was  also  a  charter  member  of  the  New  Eng- 
lanil  Woman's  Press  Club,  of  which  she  was 
treasurer  for  several  years. 

At  the  completion  of  twenty-five  years  in 
journalism  in  one  office  and  under  one  manage- 
ment, in  the  fall  of  1903,  the  citizens  of  Somer- 
ville gave  Mrs.  Galpin  a  reception  and  dinner 
at  the  Vendome  in  Boston,  as  a  testimonial 
of  their  appreciation  of  her  efforts  in  all  lines 
of  work  in  the  city. 

The  Mayor,  Iildward  Glines,  presented  the 
greetings  of  the  city,  anil  other  city  officials, 
noted  educators,  and  celebrated  women  of  the 
State  paid  tribute  to  Mrs.  Galpin's  work  and 
character. 

Notwithstanding  her  busy  life,  she  has  been 
a  leailer  in  many  philantliropic  and  progres- 
sive civic  movements.  Few  women  have 
impressed  themselves  upon  the  community 
so  effectively  in  so  many  ways  as  has  she,  and 
in  everything  she  has  undertaken  she  has  been 
eminently  successful.  While  still  in  the  prime 
of  life,  she  is  winning  ilistinction  as  a  writer 
and  as  a  speaker,  in  society  and  in  philan- 
thropy, though  her  energies  are  largely  devoted 
to  the  literary  and  office  direction  of  a  pros- 
perous weekly  journal. 


SARAH  ELIZABETH   FULLER,  a  Past 
National  President  of  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps,  was  the  first  President  of  the 
Department  of   Ma.ssachusetts — the  pio- 
neer State  organization — and   has  a  record   of 


356 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


forty  years'  faithful  service  for  the  soldiers  of 
the  Union,  she  having  enrolled  herself  as  a 
worker  in  the  Christian  Commission  during  the 
early  days  of  the  Civil  War. 

She  was  born  August  1,  1S38,  in  Portland, 
Me.  She  is  descended  on  the  paternal  side 
from  a  titled  English  family,  whose  ancestry 
she  is  able  to  trace  back  for  over  three  hun- 
dred years,  and  on  the  maternal  side  is  of 
Scottish  extraction.  Her  father,  Samuel  Mills, 
was  born  July  23,  1S04,  and  dieil  January  31, 
1888.  He  married  Betsey  Haines,  who  was  born 
June  17,  1811,  died  February  21,  1886.  Sanuiel 
Mills  was  son  of  Jacob  Mills,  Jr.,  born  in  1763, 
and  his  wife,  Sarah  Taylor,  born  in  1765; 
grandson  of  Jacob  Mills,  born  in  1720,  and 
his  wife,  Elizabeth  Cutts,  born  in  1729;  and 
great-grand.son  of  John  Mills,  who  died  in  17S(). 

Many  of  her  ancestors  were  distinguislicHl 
for  piety  and  scholarship,  some  being  noted 
lawyers  and  two  great-uncles  filling  the  ofhce 
of  Secretary  of  State  in  Maine.  Her  grandsires 
on  both  sides  fought  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,  also  in  the  War  of  1812. 

Her  father,  Samuel  Mills,  who  was  an  intense 
abolitionist  and  a  public-spiriteil  citizen,  taught 
his  daughter  to  take  an  interest  in  the  leading 
topics  of  the  day.  When  only  a  school-girl, 
she  attended  with  him  meetings  which  were 
addressed  by  Daniel  Webster,  Rufus  Choate, 
Charles  Sunmer,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  other 
great  orators  of  that  j^eriod.  These  early  les- 
sons had  a  marked  effect  upon  her  character. 
Her  education  was  begun  in  the  public  schools 
of  Portland,  but,  her  parents  removing  to  East 
Boston  in  1849,  her  school  studies  were  com- 
pleted in  that  city. 

In  185.5  Sarah  E.  Mills  married  George  W. 
Fuller,,  of  Canton,  Me.  In  1861  the  call  for 
seventy-five  thousand  men  aroused  a  spirit  of 
patriotism  that  left  its  shadow  on  her  threshold. 
Mr.  P\iller  respondinl  to  the  call  for  volunteers, 
but  was  rejected  as  physically  unable  to  bear 
the  hardships  of  war.  In  1862  he  volunteered 
in  the  naval  service,  on  the  gunboat  "  Roanoke," 
but  his  frail  constitution  was  d(H'med  a  barrier. 
He  did  not,  however,  abandon  the  hope  of  serv- 
ing his  country.  On  February  12,  1864,  he 
enrolled  his  name  for  the  third  time,  and  was 
mustered  into  the  .service  six  days  later  as  a 


member  of  Company  C,  Fourth  Massachusetts 
Cavalry.  The  regiment  remained  in  camp  at 
Readville  until  April  24,  when  it  sailed  from 
Boston  for  Newport  News,  Va.,  on  the  steamer 
"  \\'estern  Metropolis."  At  Petersbiu'g  in  the 
following  June  Mr.  Fuller  was  stricken  with 
malarial  tyi)hoid  fever,  and  was  removed  to 
the  hospital  at  Portsmouth,  Va.  He  died  July 
2,  1864,  and  is  buried  in  the  National  Cemetery 
at  Hampton,  \'a. 

As  stated  aliove,  from  the  early  days  of  the 
Civil  War  Mrs.  Fuller  assisted  in  preparing  hos- 
pital stores  and  other  comforts  for  the  soldiers. 
She  also  participated  in  many  patriotic  con- 
certs given  in  Maine  and  M;issachusetts  for  the 
hosjMtal  fund.  The  ilay  after  the  news  of  the 
battle  of  Antietam  was  received  at  the  North, 
she  arranged  with  the  help  of  a  few  others  a 
concert  fnjm  which  four  hmidred  dollars  were 
realized.  This  money  was  converted  into  ar- 
ticles which  were  forwarded  to  the  front  in 
less  than  two  days  after  the  concert  was  given. 
For  seventeen  years  Mrs.  l^'uller  was  a  faithful 
member  of  the  Handel  and  Haydn  Society  of 
lioston. 

Remembering  with  gratitude  that  one  of  the 
noble  band  of  army  nurses  ministered  to  her 
husband  in  the  hospital,  she  has  consecrated 
her  life  to  the  soldiers'  cause.  She  represented 
Ward  One  of  Boston  on  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Christian  Conunission.  \Mien 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Rei)ublic  was  formed, 
its  objects  enlisted  her  sympathies.  In  1871 
she  assisted  in  forming  a  Ladies'  Aid  Society, 
auxiliary  to  Joseph  Hooker  Post,  No.  23,  of 
East  I^oston.  She  served  as  secretary,  vice- 
president,  and  president,  also  as  a  delegate  to 
the  State  convention  of  Ladies'  Auxiliary  So- 
cieties, held  at  Fitchburg,  February  12,  1879. 
At  this  convention  the  Woman's  State  Relief 
Corps  of  Massachu.setts  was  formed.  Mrs. 
Fuller  was  cho.sen  president,  and  was  the  first 
signer  to  its  constitution.  She  was  re-elected 
to  this  office  in  1880  and  in  1881.  That  she 
won  the  suj^port  of  many  who  were  at  first 
sce|)tical  in  regard  to  tli(>  success  of  the  move- 
ment is  now  a  matter  of  record.  There  were 
not  a  few  discouragements,  but  voice  and  pen 
united  to  surmount  them;  for,  eloquent  in 
speech     and    convincing     in     argument,     Mrs. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


357 


Fuller  wisely  directed  both  for  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  cause. 

The  platform  of  the  new  order,  welcoming 
to  membership  all  loyal  women  who  were  will- 
ing to  work  for  the  veterans,  was  a  broad  one. 
The  impressive  ritualistic  service  and  thorough 
methods  of  organizing  indicated  that  the  order 
had  been  formed  upon  u  permanent  basis.  To 
win  the  approval  of  the  Grand  Army  was  the 
next  step  taken  in  the  line  of  progress,  for  local 
corps  could  only  be  instituted  by  request  of 
posts.  General  Horace  Binney  Sargent,  De- 
partment Commander  when  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps  was  formed,  his  successor,  Captain 
John  G.  B.  Adams,  and  Captain  James  F. 
Meech,  Assistant  Adjutant-general,  gave  hearty 
support  to  Mrs.  Fuller  and  her  a.ssociates.  The 
use  of  Grand  Army  heatkiuarters  in  Boston  was 
tendered  them  for  weekly  meetings.  Here  they 
consulted  with  i)ost  ccjuimanders,  ex])lained  the 
objects  of  Relief  Corps  work  to  numerous  in- 
quirers, and  outlined  plans  that  i)roved  of  great 
value. 

In  18SI  acommittee  was  chosen  by  the  women 
of  the  Relief  (!orps  to  co-operate  with  the 
trustees  of  the.  Soldiers'  Home  in  their  plans 
for  the  bazaar.  Mrs.  Fuller  was  chairman,  and 
by  her  personal  appeals,  official  correspondence, 
and  public  addresses  created  great  interest  in 
the  project,  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  Re- 
lief Cori)s  tables  netted  four  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-nine  dollars  and  twenty-five 
cents.  Mrs.  Fuller  was  the  first  woman  to  give 
a  public  address  in  behalf  of  the  Home,  accept- 
ing an  invitation  exteniled  by  General  Sargent 
to  speak  in  Haverhill.  When  the  Home  was 
dedicated,  Mrs.  Fuller  in  an  eloquent  address 
presented,  on  behalf  of  friends,  a  Bible,  burgee, 
and  flag,  which  were  procured  at  her  suggestion. 
These  gifts  the  trustees  acknowledged  by  a  vote 
of  thanks,  beautifully  engrossed,  now  hanging  on 
the  walls  of  department  headfiuarters. 

Mrs.  Fuller  has  served  in  official  jxisitions  in 
the  Ladies'  Aid  Association  oi  the  Soldiers' 
Home  ever  since  its  formation,  in  1SS2.  At 
present  she  is  one  of  the  vice-presidents.  A 
room  in  the  Home  has  been  dedicated  in  her 
honor  by  the  Department  W.  R.  C,  and  her 
portrait,  the  gift  of  John  A.  Hawes  Relief  Corps, 
No.  3,  of  East  Boston,  has  been  placed  upon  its 


walls.  This  corps  also  presented  her  portrait 
to  Grand  Army  Hall.  William  Logan  Rodman 
Post,  No.  1,  of  New  Bedford,  likewise  has  thus 
honored  her.  Her  portrait  also  hangs  upon 
the  walls  of  department  headquarters  in  Bos- 
ton, a  gift  from  her  many  friends  throughout 
the  State. 

Upon  n^tiring  from  the  presidency  at  the 
annual  convention  in  1882,  Mrs.  Fuller  was 
chosen  secretary  of  the  Department  of  Massa- 
chusetts. In  her  capacity  as  President  and 
secretary  she  travelled  thousands  of  miles,  in- 
stituted nineteen  corps  in  Ma.ssachusetts,  five 
in  Maine,  and  assisted  Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker 
and  Mrs.  M.  S.  Goodale,  associate  officers,  at 
the  institution  of  eighteen  others.  The  De- 
partment Encampment,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Massachu- 
.setts  adopted  a  resolution  January  27,  1881, 
recognizing  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  as  "an 
invaluable  ally  in  its  mission  of  charity  and 
loyalty"  and  "as  a  noble  band  of  Christian 
women,  who,  while  not  of  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Repuf)lic,  are  auxiliary  to  it."  '  The  word 
"State"  was  dro])ped,  and  the  word  "Depart- 
ment" substituted,  thus  conforming  to  the 
title  of  the  Grand  Army. 

Mrs.  Fuller  conducted  a  large  correspond- 
ence, writing  hundreds  of  letters  and  arousing 
an  interest  in  the  order  outside  of  Massachu- 
setts. Sh(^  believed  in  a  national  organization, 
and  penned  the  first  letter  in  its  behalf.  She 
secured  the  interest  of  jirominent  comrades  in 
New  Hampshire,  and  it  was  announceil  in 
general  orders  of  Department  Connnander 
George  Bowers,  of  that  State,  that  a  conven- 
tion would  be  held  at  Laconia,  October  21, 
1880.  Mrs.  Fuller  and  Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker 
were  invited  to  organize  a  State  Department. 
The  success  of  the  work  having  been  assureil 
in  Massachu.setts  and  New  Hampshire,  a  cor- 
respondence was  conducted  with  the  G.  A.  R. 
officials  in  Connecticut.  As  the  result,  in  No- 
vember, 1882,  Mrs.  Fuller,  in  company  with 
Mrs.  Barker  (her  successor  as  Department 
President),  organized  several  corps  in  that 
State.  The  Union  Board,  comprising  the  De- 
partments of  Mas.sachu,setts,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Coimecticut,  was  formeil  with  heailquar- 
ters  in  Boston. 

Mrs.  Fuller,  who  realizetl  from  the  first  the 


35S 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


necessity  for  a  national  order,  was  one  of  the 
three  delegates  chosen  to  represent  the  Depart- 
ment of  Massachusetts  at  the  convention  in 
Denver,  Col.,  in  1883.  This  convention,  callcil 
by  Commander-in-chief  Paul  Van  Der  Voort, 
resulted  in  the  National  Woman's  Relief  Cor]is, 
the  early  history  of  which  is  given  in  the  sketch 
of  Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker.  Mrs.  Fuller  was 
a  prominent  participant  in  the  convention, 
and  was  unanimously  chosen  National  Sec- 
retary. A  busy  year  ensued.  Over  two 
thousand  communications  were  written  and 
many  hundred  pages  of  instruction  prepared 
by  her,  numerous  otlier  duties  also  receiving 
attention.  From  September  5,  1SS3,  to  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1884,  she  issued  sup])lies  for  eiglity- 
nine  cor))s. 

At  the  second  National  ('onvention,  held  at 
Minneapolis,  July,  1884,  she  was  elected  Senior 
Vice-President.  Dining  that  year  she  insti- 
tuted three  corps  in  Rhode  Island  and  visited 
Vermont  on  a  tour  of  inspection,  organizing  a 
department  in  that  State.  At  the  third  Na- 
tional Convention,  held  in  Portland,  Me.,  in 
June,  1885,  she  was  elected  National  President, 
and,  upon  returning  home  tendered  her  resig- 
nation as  Dei)artment  secretary  of  Massachu- 
setts. Meanwhile  she  had  organized  Corps  No. 
3  in  East  Boston,  auxiliary  to  John  A.  Hawes 
Post,  No.  159,  and  for  nearly  two  years  served 
as  its  president.  In  view  of  her  retirement 
from  the  presidency  of  Corps  No.  3,  in  order  to 
enter  upon  her  duties  as  the  official  heatl  of 
the  National  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  the  post 
on  July  24,  1885,  adopted  a  series  of  resolutions 
ex])ressing  their  warm  ajjpreciation  of  her 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  principles  of  the 
order  and  of  the  valuable  services  she  had 
rendered  them,  and  assiu'ing  her  that  the  sin- 
cere and  heartfelt  good  wishes  of  the  post 
would  follow  her  day  by  day,  as  she  continued 
to  labor  for  the  good  of  the  order  in  the  high 
position  to  which  she  had  been  called. 

louring  her  year  as  National  President,  Mrs. 
Fuller  visited  the  Departments  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, New  York,  Penn.sylvania,  Ohio,  and  Illi- 
nois. She  carried  on  a  large  correspondence 
and  addressed  many  {)ublic  gatherings.  She 
issued  a  series  of  eight  general  orders,  one  of 
which,   a   memorial   tribute   to  General  Grant, 


was  widely  read,  and  considered  a  document 
of  historic  interest. 

It  was  dated  "  He;i(l<(uarters  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps,  Auxiliary  to  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  Boston,  July  23,  1885,"  and  was  in 
part  as  follows: — 

"On  this  bright  suamier  morning  the  bells 
are  tolling  the  reciuiem  of  our  country's  noble 
dead. 

"  Ex-President  Ulyi^ses  S.  Cirant  has  closetl 
his  eyes  and  laid  him  ilown  to  rest.  The  long, 
weary  months  of  pairi  and  suffering  are  over, 
and  our  brave,  lion-liearted  Commander  and 
comrade  is  no  more.  .  .  . 

"As  an  auxiliary  to  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  who  to-day  mourn  the  loss  of  their 
conn-ade,  it  is  fitting  Jiat  we,  the  members  of 
the  Woman's  Relief  ('orps,  should  unite  with 
them  in  our  expre.ssio  is  of  sorrow  and  mourn- 
ing. 

"Therefore,  in  recognition  of  the  faithful  ser- 
vices of  this  patriot,  sildier,  and  friend,  and  as 
a  tribute  of  our  respectt  and  love  for  the  'Hero 
of  A]ipomattox'  and  (:ur  grateful  rememl)rance 
of  his  licroic  deeds,  the  charters  of  all  corps 
throughout  our  order  will  be  draped  in  emblems 
of  mourning  for  sixty  days,  and  at  the  first 
regular  meeting  after  the  receipt  of  this  order 
all  corjis  shall  set  apart  one  hour  for  special 
services  commemorati-^e  of  his  life  and  glorious 
deeds  as  a  soldier.  .  . 

"Dei)artment  and  corps  presidents  are 
charged  with  a  jjrompt  distribution  of  this 
order. 

"  By  command  of 

"  Sarah  E.  Fuller, 
"  Ndlionnl  President. 
"Eleanor  B.  ^^■heeler, 
"National  Secretary^ 

At  the  fourth  annual  convention  in  San 
Francisco  in  July,  188(),  Mrs.  Fuller  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  National  Executive  Board, 
and  at  St.  Louis  a  year  later  was  unanimously 
cliosen  a  life  member  of  the  board.  In  LS89 
she  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Conmiittee  of 
Arrangements  for  the  Eighth  National  Con- 
vention, to  be  held  in  Boston  in  1890.  As  sec- 
retary of  the  National  Pension  Connnittee  for 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


359 


Army  Nurses,  she  was  called  to  \Vashington  in 
June,  1889.  She  conferred  with  committees 
and  Congressmen,  rendering  valualjle  aid  in 
support  of  favorable  legislation  for  the  pending 
bill.  She  was  prostrated  by  the  intense  heat 
from  which  the  city  of  Washington  suffered 
during  that  summer.  A  severe  illness  followed, 
resulting  in  serious  deafness,  and  she  was  obliged 
to  defer  active  work  for  two  years. 

She  was  elected  Department  Treasurer  in 
February,  1892,  and  has  Ijeen  unanimously  re- 
elected at  every  subsequent  State  convention. 
She  can  rightfully  claim  the  honor  of  being  the 
pioneer  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps.  The 
organization,  which  now  numbers  one  hundred 
and  fift}'  thousand  members,  is  largely  intlebted 
to  her  for  the  written  work  which  was  the  foun- 
dation of  its  ritualistic  system.  Of  her  it  may 
be  said,  as  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  that  valu- 
able facts  are  stored  away  in  the  deep  recesses 
of  her  mind,  to  rest  untlisturbed  until  needed 
for  reference.  She  is  recognized  authority  on 
historical  matters.  She  has  delivered  Memo- 
rial Day  addresses  in  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Massachusetts,  and  has  addressed  hun- 
dreds of  camp-fires  and  other  patriotic  gather- 
ings. She  has  friends  in  every  State  in  the 
Union. 

She  is  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  Arrangements  for  the  National  Convention 
in  Boston  (August,  1904),  chairman  of  the  En- 
tertainment Conmiittee,  and  a  worker  on  sev- 
eral sub-committees. 

As  National  Counselor  she  has  performed 
active  duties  during  the,  past  year,  and  will 
have  a  prominent  part  in  all  the  receptions  and 
other  gatherings  connected  with  the  Order 
during  encampment  week. 

Her  activities  have  not  been  confined  to  one 
branch  of  work.  She  is  broad-mintled,  and 
her  executive  ability  is  quickly  recognized  in 
any  organization  in  which  she  becomes  inter- 
ested. In  the  Sunday-school  coimected  with 
the  Meridian  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
of  East  Boston,  of  which  she  is  a  member,  she 
was  for  many  years  the  teacher  of  a  large  class 
of  young  ladies.  In  temperance  work  she  has 
always  been  active,  filling  prominent  offices  in 
the  Independent  Order  of  Good  Templars,  and 
is   a   Past   Grand    Conunaniler   of    the   United 


Order  of  the  Golden  Cross.  Three  years  she 
has  served  as  chaplain  of  the  Sarah  Bradlee 
Fulton  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution,  of  Medford.  She  is  also  an  earnest 
worker  in  the  International  Order  of  King's 
Daughters  and  Sons,  holding  for  six  years  the 
ofhcc  of  leader  of  the  Inasnuich  Union  of  Med- 
fonl. 

Unselfish  and  tender-hearted  to  a  marked 
degree,  she  is  beloved  by  all  who  are  privileged 
to  know  her.  To  the  fact  that  she  is  sunny  and 
optimistic  by  nature,  with  the  helpful  faculty 
of  seeing  always  the  humorous  side  of  things, 
is  owing  largely  her  power  to  overcome  formi- 
dable obstacles  in  the  line  of  duty.  She  is 
always  just  and  impartial,  seeking  ever  for  both 
sides  of  the  question,  willing  to  concede,  but 
remaining  true  to  her  convictions. 

Cieorge  Samuel  Taylor  Fuller,  of  Medford, 
her  son,  with  whom  she  (a  mother  teiulerly 
cherished)  makes  her  home,  was  born  Novem- 
ber 27,  1856.  He  is  a  graduate  of  the  Lyman 
(iranunar  School  of  I'^ast  Boston,  also  of  the 
Boston  I'Jiglish  High  School.  Since  his  resi- 
dence in  Medford  he  has  been  identified  with 
plans  for  the  benefit  of  the  city,  and  has  served 
as  a  member  of  the  city  government.  At  the 
last  election  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
school  boaril.  He  is  corresi)onding  secretary 
of  the  Medford  Historical  Society,  serving  his 
third  year  in  that  position.  September  19, 
1887,  he  married  Ella  Jane  Prescott,  of  Exeter, 
N.H.,  who  also  conies  of  Revolutionary  ances- 
tors. They  have  one  son,  George  Prescott 
Fuller,  a  patriotic  lad,  interesteil  in  all  that 
jiertains  to  the  American  flag  anil  its  defenders. 


GRACE  ATWOOD  POPE  was  born  in 
the  historic  town  of  Plymouth,  Mass., 
being  the  daughter  of  Edward  B.  and 
Deborah  Cilley  (Pratt)  Atwood.  She 
married  in  1893  John  Parker  Pope,  the  son  of 
Colonel  Pope  of  the  Marine  Corjjs.  On  the 
maternal  side  she  traces  her  ancestry  back  to 
a  number  of  the  "Mayflower"  Pilgrims,  among 
them,  to  mention  but  a  few,  l)eing  Dr.  Sanuiel 
Fuller,  William  Brewster,  Francis  Eaton, 
Stephen  Hopkins,  and  Isaac  Allerton.  The 
following  is  a  recortl  of  the  Fuller  line: — 


360 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Dr.  Samuel  Fuller  ilied  in  1633.  The  Rev. 
Samuel  Fuller,  born  in  1625,  his  son  by  his 
third  wife,  Britlget  Lee,  was  minister  at  Middle- 
boro.  Samuel  Fuller,  third,  born  in  165S,  son 
of  the  Rev.  Samuel  and  his  wife  Elizabeth, 
married  Mercy  Eaton.  Deacon  John  Fuller, 
born  in  1698,  married  Deborah  Ring  in  1723. 
Their  daughter,  Deborah  Fuller,  liorn  in  1729, 
married  Kimball  Prince.  Deacon  .John  Prince, 
born  in  1768,  married  Elizabeth  Sherman. 
Mercy  I'rince,  born  hi  1793,  married  Hervey 
Cushman,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Robert  Cush- 
man  through  his  only  son,  Thomas,  whose 
wife  was  Mary,  daughter  of  Isaac  Allerton. 
Eveline  Cu.shman,  born  in  1818,  married  Lucius 
Pratt,  and  died  in  1901.  Deborah  Cilley  Pratt, 
born  of  this  marriage,  married  Edward  B. 
Atwood,  as  above  indicated,  and  became  the 
mother  of  (irace  Atwood,  now  Mrs.  Pope. 

Descent  from  Elder  Brewster  is  through  his 
son  Jonathan,^  whose  daughter  Mary'  married 
John^  Turner,  Sr.  (Hum])lirey*),  of  Scituate. 
Ruth^  Turner  married  in  168.5  Captain  Thomas" 
Prince,  son  of  Elder  John^  Prince,  of  Hull. 
Job'  Prince,  son  of  Ca])tain  Thomas^  and  Ruth, 
married>Abigail,  daughter  of  C'aptain  Christopher 
Kimball,  lived  in  Kingston,  Mass.,  and  was 
father  of  Kimball  Prince  above  named. 

Deborah  Ring,  wife  of  Deacon  John  Fuller 
and  mother  of  Deborah  Fuller,  wife  of  Kimliall 
Prince,  was  a  grand-daughter  of  Andrew  Ring 
and  his  wife  Deborah,  who  was  a  daughter  of 
Stephen  Hopkins. 

Grace  Atwood  Pope  was  educated  in  private 
schools  and  at  Bradford  Academy.  She  early 
showed  herself  a  lover  of  i)ooks  and  an  original 
thinker,  with  a  natural  gift  for  composition. 
Her  first  article  written  for  jiublication  appeared 
in  the  Saturday  Evening  (lazctte  when  she  was 
a  girl  of  sixteen.  After  her  marriage  she  re- 
sided by  turns  in  the  New  Fjigland,  Middle, 
and  Southern  States.  But  she  did  not  din-ing 
these  years  lo.se  her  interest  in  educational 
matters,  books,  and  book-makers. 

Arriving  in  Boston  from  New  Orleans  a  hnv 
years  since,  she  .saw  an  advertisement  calling 
for  literary  work,  and,  answ(>ring  it,  .soon  assumed 
regular  duties  upon  The  Writer.  It  was  while 
.she  was  filling  this  position  that  .she  was  invited 
to   become   editor  of   a   publication  just   then 


coming  into  existence,  The  Brown  Book. 
Declining  a  post  which  she  felt  involved  too 
much  responsibility,  she  consented  to  write 
for  its  pages,  which  she  did  for  two  years,  only 
to  become,  at  the  end  of  that  time,  its  assistant 
editor.  In  May,  1903,  she  was  appointed  editor 
of  Modern  Women,  a  monthly  magazine  devoted 
to  woman's  best  interests,  and  whose  special 
aims  arc  best  set  forth  in  Mrs.  Pope's  own 
words  in  the  initial  number,  here  cjuoted  but 
in  part: — 

"  Beginning  with  this  issue,  Modern  Wome7i 
presents  to  you  a  new  owner  and  a  new  editor, 
who  beg  for  your  gentle  leniency  toward  their 
efforts  to  publish  a  magazine  for  the  pleasure 
and  profit  of  its  subscribers.  It  opens  its 
pages  hospitably,  and  hopes  to  draw  around 
it,  both  within  and  without,  many  women  of 
many  minds.  It  will  be  edited  for  women 
generally  interested  in  affairs,  topics  of  the 
home,  handiwork,  physical  and  beauty  culture, 
literature,  fiction,  and  humanity.  .  .  . 

"  Modern  views  of  life  will  be  presented  in 
a  bright,  attractive  manner,  giving  what  is 
pleasant,  and,  mayhap,  some  little  which  is 
not.  The  g\iiding  principle  will  be  to  grant 
the  freedom  of  its  pages  to  the  best  thoughts 
of  the  wiiole  country." 

With  her  own  ability  as  writer,  her  unfail- 
ing good  judgment,  and,  best  of  all,  her  ideas, 
Mrs.  Pope  will  no  doubt  make  of  thi.s  publica- 
tion a  magazine  of  wide  circulation  and  digni- 
fied standing. 


RLLEN  VERNOR  DELANO,  historian 
of  Thomas  Kempton  Chapter,  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution,  was  born  in 
Warren,  R.I.,  May  31,  1848.  Her  par- 
ents were  William  Sweet  Bennett  and  his 
wife,  Nancy  Wilmarth.  On  her  father's  side 
she  is  descended  from  Edward  Bennett  and 
on  her  mother's  from  Thomas  Wilmarth. 
These  two  immigrant  progenitors,  be  it  noted, 
were  numbered  among  the  original  proprie- 
tors of  the  town  of  Rehoboth,  Ma.ss.,  which 
was  incorporated  in  1645. 

A  genealogical  work  of  about  fifty  pages, 
entitled  "The  Bennett,  Bently,  and  Beers 
Families,"  by  S.  ]^.  Bennett,  gives  a  brief  rec- 


ELLEN   V.  DELANO 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


361 


cnl  of  the  early  Bennett  generations  in  Amer- 
ica, and  states  that  the  family  seat  in  Wilt- 
shire, England,  is  at  Pitthouse,  also  that  the 
Bennett  family  had,  in  the  time  of  Charles 
I.,  considerable  importance.  Sir  Henry  Ben- 
nett, it  says,  was  private  secretary  to  Charles 
II.,  who  was  King  of  England  1660-85.  The 
Bennett  mentioned  in  the  following  paragraph, 
copied  from  the  same  book,  nmst  have  been 
living  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  any  of  the 
foregoing : — 

In  1619,  when  a  chapel  in  Youghal,  Ireland, 
was  being  repaired,  Richard,  Lord  Boyle, 
"  provided  recumbent  stone  effigies  of  a  man 
and  woman  upon  a  tomb  which  bears  this  in- 
scription— 'Here  lyeth  the  bodies  of  Richard 
Bennett  and  Ellis  Barry,  his  wife,  the  first 
founders  of  this  chapel.  ¥w  the  reviving  of 
their  memory  I  have  had  their  figures  cut  in 
stone.'" 

"The  General  Armory  of  England,  Scot- 
land, Ireland,  and  Wales,"  by  Sir  Bernard- 
Burke,  has  this  record: — 

"  Bennett,  Pyt  House,  County  Wilts,  a  very 
ancient  family,  of  which  a  pedigree  of  thirteen 
descents  is  recorded  in  the  College  of  Arms." 

Edward'  Bennett  emigrated  from  Wey- 
mouth, England,  with  his  wife  and  four  chil- 
dren, and  settled  at  Weymouth,  Mass.,  but  in 
a  few  years  removed  to  Rehoboth,  where  he 
died  1645~6.  SamueP  Bennett,  born  in  Eng- 
land in  1628,  son  of  Edward,  resided  in  Provi- 
dence and  at  East  Greenwich,  R.I.,  where  he 
was  a  large  landholder.  He  was  General 
Sergeant  in  1652;  Commissioner,  1657;  on  the 
Grand  Jury,  1661;  Deputy,  1668,  1674,  and 
1678.  SamueP  Bennett  died  in  1684.  His 
son,  William'  Bennett,  born  in  1673,  married 
Rachel  Weaver  in  1693,  and  died  in  1753. 
William^  Bennett,  born  June  3,  1694,  son  of 
A\'illiam'  and  Rachel,  married  Jane  Sweet,  of 
Warwick,  R.I.,  March  19,  1723.  Their  son 
Benjamin^  married  January  1,  1770,  Anna 
Miller,  of  Fall  River,  antl  had  a  son.  Sweet 
William"  Bennett  (born  August  9,  1779,  died 
April  27,  1858),  whose  wife  was  Mary  Boomer, 
of  Fall  River.  William'  Sweet  Bennett,  born 
March  30,  1811,  .son  of  the  last  named  couple, 
married  January  21,  1838,  Nancy  Wihiiarth, 
whose  birth  in  Uxbridge,  Mass.,  occurred  June 


6,  1813.  He  died  October  14,  1884,  his  wife 
surviving  him  until  May  10,  1900. 

Thomas'  Wilmarth  .settled  in  Braintree,  Mass., 
in  March,  1638.  Later  he  moved  to  Rehoboth, 
where  he  was  a  man  of  imjjortance.  His  wife 
Elizabeth  died  in  1676.  Thomas  Wilmarth, 
Jr.,^  of  Rehoboth,  married  Mary  Robinson, 
June  7,  1674.  Their  son  Sanmel,'  born  Au- 
gust 30,  1688,  married  June  22,  1719,  Eliza- 
beth Chubb,  and  had  a  son  John,*  whose  birth 
date  was  August  12,  1727.  He  was  married 
February  20,  1761,  to  Phcebe  Briggs.  Their 
son  Preston,*  who  was  born  September  24, 
1772,  and  tiled  in  1841,  married  Desire  Fuller, 
January  3,  1798.  Their  daughter  Nancy"  mar- 
ried William  Sweet  Beimett  in  Fall  River,  and 
was  the  mother  of  Ellen  Wrnor,  the  subject 
of  this  sketch,  who  married  Mo.ses  Abbott 
Delano  in  Acushnet,  October  9,  1872. 

Mns'.  J*]llen  V.  Delano  was  educated  in  the 
public  schools  of  Fall  River  and  New  Bedford, 
taking  a  three  years'  course  in  the  New  Betlfortl 
High  School.  She  has  practically  been  a  stu- 
tlent,  especially  of  metaphysics,  all  her  life. 
She  is  a  firm  believer  in  Christian  Science,  is 
a  member  of  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston, 
and  for  tlie  last  ten  years  has  practised  heal- 
ing, in  all  of  which  time  she  has  never  lost  a 
case  that  has  come  under  her  thought. 

Mrs.  Delano  is  the  historian  of  Thomas 
Kempton  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  a  director  of  the  Major  Israel  Fear- 
ing Chapter,  Junior  Au.xiliary,  Sons  and  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution.  Abiel  Fuller,  her 
mother's  maternal  grandfather,  and  his  father, 
Jeduthan  Fuller,  who  married  Elizabeth  Dag- 
gett, are  on  record  as  soldiers  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, Jeduthan  as  one  of  the  minute-men  who 
marched  from  Attleboro  on  the  alarm  of 
Bunker  Hill,  in  June,  1775,  and  his  son  serv- 
ing in  August,  1780,  in  Colonel  Isaac  Dean's 
regiment,  marching  to  Tiverton,  R.I.,  on  an 
alarm. 

Mrs.  Delano  is  a  member  of  the  W^oman's 
Suffrage  League  of  New  Bedford,  also  of  the 
Old  Dartmouth  Historical  Society  of  that 
city  and  a  life  mendjer  of  the  Cape  Cod 
Pilgrim  Memorial  Association.  By  virtue  of 
the  public  services  of  her  remote  ancestor, 
Samuel  Bennett,  above  mentioned,  she  is  eligi- 


362 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ble  to  membership  in  the  Society  of  Colonial 
Dames. 

Mrs.  Delano's  husband,  Moses  Ablwtt  Del- 
ano, is  a  mining  engineer  and  a  thirty-second 
degree  Mason.  He  was  born  in  Fairhaven,- 
Mass.,  October  30,  1848.  His  father,  Moses 
H.  Delano,  who  is  still  living  in  Fairhaven, 
was  born  in  that  town,  July  21,  1820.  He 
married  Amantla  F.  Eldridge,  October  12, 
1845.  The  parents  of  Moses  H.  were  Joshua 
Delano,  Jr.,  who  was  born  in  1783  and  died 
in  1855,  and  Eunice  Reed  Ellis,  whom  he  mar- 
ried November  24,  1807.  Joshua,  Jr.,  was  son 
of  Captain  Joshua  Delano,  Sr.,  a  soldier  in  the 
[{evolution,  who  was  born  in  1746,  and  died 
May  20,  1S19,  and  whose  wife  was  Patience 
Snow.  Captain  Joshua's  father  was  Jethro 
Delano,  born  July  31,  1701,  who  married  Eliza- 
beth Pofje,  of  Sandwich.  Jethro  was  son  of 
Lieutenant  Jonathan  (born  in  Duxbury  in 
1647,  died  in  Dartmouth  in  1720)  and  his 
wife,  Mercy  ^\'arren,  grand-daughter  of  Rich- 
ard Warren,  of  the  "Mayflower." 

Lieutenant  Jonathan  Delano  was  son  of 
Philip  De  La  Noye  by  his  first  wife,  Hester 
Dewsbury,  of  Duxbury,  whom  he  married  in 
Decemlier,  1634  (Plymouth  Colony  Records, 
vol.  i,).  Philip  De  La  Noye  (son  of  Jean  de 
Lannoy),  born  at  Leyden,  Holland,  in  1602, 
ba])tized  December  6,  1603,  came  to  Plymouth 
in  the  .ship  "Fortune"  in  1621,  and  died  in 
Bridgewater,  Mass.,  in  1681.  His  second  wife, 
whom  he  married  in  1657,  was  Mary,  widow 
of  James  Glass  and  daughter  of  William  Pontus. 

According  to  "The  Royal  Chart  of  Lannoy," 
in  the  Delano  Genealogy,  the  line  of  ancestry 
goes  back  to  "600  b.c,"  given  as  "the  earliest 
known  date,  authentic  or  otherwise." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Delano  have  one  child,  a  son, 
Preston  lirady  Delano,  who  was  born  in  Phienix, 
Mich.,  April  2,  1886,  Mr.  Delano  being  then 
superintendent  of  the  Pha>nix  and  St.  Clair 
mines  at  that  place.  This  son  fitted  for  Har- 
vard at  Mr.  Mosher's  Hoine  Preparatory  School, 
and  successfully  passed  the  examination.  He 
is  greatly  interested  in  athletic  sports,  win- 
ning the  silver  cup  in  the  tennis  tournament 
in  Fairhaven,  Old  Home  Week,  1903,  and  the 
cup  at  the  Country  Club,  New  Bedford,  Sep- 
tember, 1903. 


ELIZABETH  ELLEN  HAYWARD,  Past 
Presitlent  of  the  J.  G.  Foster  Corps, 
W.  R.  C.  No.  174,  of  South  P>aming- 
ham,  Mass.,  is  a  native  of  Keene,  N.H. 
She  was  born  September  8,  1841,  daugh- 
ter of  Ho.sea  and  Hannah  D.  (Britton)  Chase. 
Her  father,  Hosea  Chase,  was  a  descendant 
in  the  sixth  generation  of  A(|uila  Chase,  "a 
mariner  from  Cornwall,  Englantl,"  who  set- 
tled in  Hampton,  N.H.,  in  1640,  and  in  1646 
removed  to  Newbury,  Mass.  The  line  is: 
Aquila,'  Moses,'  Daniel,-'  Caleb,^  Stephen,^ 
Hosea."  Atjuila  Chase  married  Anna  Wheeler, 
daughter  of  Jolm  AVlieeler,  of  Hampton.  His 
son,  Moses  Chase,  married  in  1684  Ann  Fol- 
lansbee,  and  lived  in  Newbiu'v.  Daniel  Chase, 
son  of  Mo.ses  and  Ann,  married  Sarah  March, 
and  eventually  settled  in  Sutton,  Mass.  Their 
son  Caleb  married  Sarah  Prince.  Steplien 
Cha.se,  son  of  Caleb  and  father  of  Hosea,  was 
born  in  Sutton,  Mass.,  April  26,  1763.  He 
dieil  in  Keene,  N.PL,  April  6,  1830.  Bet'sey 
Cliase,  his  wife,  was  born  August  25,  1767, 
and  died  August  12,  1850. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  in  this  connection 
that  Caleb  Chase,  grandfather  of  Ho.sca,  was 
brother  to  Sanuiel  Chase,  the  great-grand- 
father of  Chief  Justice  Salmon  P.  Chase. 

Hosea  Chase  and  Hannah  Drusilla  Britton 
were  married  in  Keene  at  the  residence  of 
her  brother-in-law,  Cajitain  William  Brad- 
ford, November  4,  1833,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sul- 
livan, pastor  of  the  Unitarian  .church.  They 
at  once  began  their  home-making  in  the  new 
house  built  by  Mr.  Chase  on  his  farm  in  Keene, 
adjoining  that  of  his  brother  Charles,  the  house 
standing  on  high  land  overlooking  the  mead- 
ows through  which  flows  the  beautiful  Ashuelot 
River. 

Hosea  Chase  was  born  in  Keene,  N.H., 
April  23,  1805,  and  died  November  17,  1874. 
His  wife,  Hannah  D.,  was  born  in  Westmore- 
land, N.H.,  August  21,  1811,  and  died  in  South 
Framingham,  Mass.,  February  28,  1896.  Their 
children  were:  Martha  S.,  who  married  Ed- 
mund J.  Perham,  and  died  in  1860;  Frances 
A.,  who  died  in  1867;  Hosea  B.,  who  died  in 
infancy;  Elizabeth  E.  (Mrs.  Hayward);  Will- 
iam H.,  who  died  at  .seventeen;  and  Daniel 
W.,   who   died   in    1867   in   his   twenty-second 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


363 


year.  Edniuml  J.  Perhaiii  in  the  Civil  War 
enlisted  in  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  Infan- 
try, and  dietl  in  the  service  at  Knoxville,  Md. 
Frances  Ann  Chase  taught  school  in  Keene 
for  fourteen  years. 

Elizabeth  Ellen  Chase  in  her  girlhooil  at- 
tended the  public  schools  of  Keene  and,  for 
one  term,  Momit  Ca-sar  Seminary,  in  iSwanzey, 
N.H.  In  early  life  she  united  with  the  Uni- 
tarian church  in  Keene.  She  was  at  one  time 
secretary  of  the  Gospel  Temperance  Union 
of  Keene. 

On  the  7th  of  September,  1S59,  she  was 
married  by  the  Rev.  William  O.  White  to  tlic 
Rev.  William  Willis  Haywanl.  Mr.  Hayward 
was  born  in  Hancock,  N.H.,  October  17,  1<S;M, 
son  of  Charles  Hayward  and  Ann,  daughter 
of  Jacob  G.  and  Betsey  (Stanley)  Lakin,  the 
latter  a  scliool-teachi'r  in  her  district. 

Mr.  Hayward's  maternal  grandfather  was 
a  son  of  Leuuiel  Lakin,  a  soldier  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary army,  son  of  William,  the  second 
permanent  .settler  of  Hancock,  descended  from 
William'  Lakin,  an  early  settler  in  Reading, 
Mass. 

Charles  Hayward,  born  in  LS()6,  son  of  Charles 
Prescott"  Haywanl  and  his  wife,  Sarah  Mason, 
was  descended  from  George'  Haywanl,  one 
of  the  early  settlers  of  Concord,  Mass.,  through 
Josej)h,^  born  in  1643,  and  his  second  wife, 
Elizabeth  Treadwell ;  Simeon,^  who  married  Re- 
becca Hartwell;  Lieutenant  Joseph,*  who 
married  Abigail  Hosmer;  and  Joseph,^  born 
in  1746,  who  married  Rebecca,  tlaughter  of 
Colonel  Charles  Prescott,  of  Concord,  and  was 
the  father  of  Charles  Prescott  Hayward. 

The  Rev.  \Villiam  W.  Hayward  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools,  in  the  academies 
at  Hancock,  Peterboro,  and  Francestown, 
and  at  the  New  England  Normal  Institute 
in  Lancaster,  Mass.  For  nine  winters  he  taught 
in  the  country  schools  and  for  three  years 
in  private  schools.  At  twenty-one  years  of 
age  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  superin- 
tending school  committee  in  Hancock.  He 
afterward  served  for  one  year  as  superintendent 
of  schools  at  Newfane,  Vt.,  three  years  as  a 
member  of  the  school  board  in  Keene,  N.H., 
and  one  year  as  chairman  thereof.  Deciding 
to  enter  the  ministry,  he  studied  two  years 


with  the  Rev.  Lenmel  Willis  in  Warner,  N.H., 
autl  was  ordainetl  in  June,  1859,  as  a  Universal- 
ist,  at  Enfield,  N.H.  He  took  a  subsequent 
course  of  study  at  the  Tufts  Divinity  School, 
from  which  he  received  the  degree  of  B.D. 
in  1871,  being  the  first  graduate  from  this 
school.  He  was  settled  as  pastor  of  Universal- 
ist  churches  at  Newfane,  Vt.,  P'airfield,  Me., 
Keene,  N.H.,  and  in  Wakefield,  Acton,  Me- 
thuen,  Plymouth,  and  South  Framingham, 
Mass. 

A  resident  of  the  Pine  Ti-ec  State  during 
the  Civil  War,  he  enlisted  in  the  Thirteenth 
Regiment,  Maine  \^olunteers,  conunanded  by 
Colonel  Henry  Russ,  Jr.,  and  .served  as  chap- 
lain. 

While  he  was  in  the  ainiy,  Mrs.  Haywartl 
spent  several  weeks  with  him,  literally  on  the 
picket  line,  at  Martinsburg,  W.  \n.,  at  that 
time  the  base  of  (jeneral  Phil  Sheridan's  sup- 
plies and  the  object  of  repeated  and  untiring 
attacks  on  the  i)art  of  tlie  confederates  of 
Mosby,  the  noted  guerrilla.  When  Mrs.  Hay- 
ward went  to  Martinsburg,  firing  upon  the 
night  trains  on  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad 
was  a  frequent  occurrence.  On  reaching  the 
Martinsburg  station  at  about  five  o'clock  of 
a  November  morning,  she  was  informed  by 
the  officer  in  charge  that  the  Thirteenth  Maine 
had  left  the  town.  A  private,  however,  cor- 
rected the  mistake,  and  to  him  was  entrusted 
the  task  of  conducting  her  through  the  town, 
past  .several  barricades  in  the  streets,  to  the 
headquarters  of  the  regiment.  Mrs.  Hayward 
was  an  excellent  honsewoman,  and  soon  be- 
came deservedly  popular  with  the  soldiers. 
She  assisted  the  captains  in  making  out  the 
pay-rolls,  and  has  the  enviable  record  of  never 
having  maile  a  mistake.  She  rendered  good 
service  in  the  convalescent  camps  and  in  the 
hospital,  writing  letters  for  the  sick  and 
wounded  and  taking  care  of  their  money, 
which  in  times  of  danger  she  concealed  about 
her  person. 

In  the  various  parishes  over  which  her  hus- 
band presided,  Mrs.  Hayward  was  active  in 
church  and  Sunday-school  work,  for  several 
years  being  superintendent  of  a  Sunday-school. 
An  active  member  for  some  j'ears  of  the  Wom- 
an's Centenary  Association  of  the  Universalist 


364 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Church,  she  raised  one  hundred  doHars  for  the 
centenary  fund. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hayward  were  graduated  from 
the  Chautauqua  Lit(>rary  and  Scientific  Cir- 
cle of  South  Franiinffliani  in  ISSS.  She  was 
president  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  and  a  leader  in  the  campaign  against 
the  Tujuor  saloons  in  Framingliam,  meeting 
with  great  success.  Having  i)een  selected 
by  a  special  conuuittee  to  write  a  history  of 
the  town  of  Hancock,  N.H.,  Mr.  Hayward 
for  seven  years  devotetl  all  the  time  he  could 
spare  from  parish  and  other  public  duties  to 
this  work.  The  book  was  published  in  18S9, 
and  contains  over  a  thou.sand  printed  i)ages 
of  valuable  material.  It  is  recognized  by 
histoi'ical  and  genealogical  societies  and  by  the 
officials  of  public  libraries  as  one  of  the  best 
town  histories  ever  issued. 

In  its  jireparation  Mrs.  Hayward  rendered 
valuable  assistance.  Diligently  searching  four 
volumes  of  town  and  one  of  church  records, 
she  compiled  the  list  of  marriages,  nearly  a 
thousand  in  number. 

In  June,  1SS9,  Mr.  Hayward  accepted  a 
call  to  the  First  Congregational  (Unitarian) 
Church  in  Medfield,  Mass.  He  won  the  love 
and  respect  of  the  citizens  of  the  town,  as  in 
former  places  where  he  had  been  settletl  as 
pastor.  Popular  with  the  young  and  ever 
thoughtful  of  their  interests,  he  was  active 
in  the  guild  movement  (since  his  death  named 
the  Hayward  Guild)  and  in  temperance  and 
charitable  work.  The  Norfolk  Unitarian  Club 
was  organized  by  him ;  and  the  various  branches 
of  work,  in  all  of  which  he  was  assisted  by  his 
wife,  prospered  under  his  charge.  His  ad- 
dress on  the  occasion  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  church,  October  S,  ISSO, 
was  published  in  pamphlet  form.  Mr.  Hay- 
ward was  a  friend  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
and  in  1891  he  accompanied  Mrs.  Hayward, 
who  was  a  delegate,  to  the  National  Conven- 
tion held  in  Detroit,  Mich. 

As  an  officer  of  the  National  Army  Chaplains' 
Association,  which  he  helped  to  form  in  De- 
troit in  1891,  as  a  Memorial  Day  orator  and 
a  leading  spirit  in  many  philanthropic  move- 
ments, he  was  widely  known;  and  his  death, 
which    occurred    in    Medfield,    July   26,    1892, 


caused  soriow  in  many  sections  of  the  country. 
The  conmiittee  of  the  church  in  Medfield  paid 
the  following  tribute  to  his  memory:  "We 
look  back  upon  the  years  of  his  pastorate  as 
years  of  pros]jerity  in  the  history  of  this  church 
and  parish  and  as  years  marked  by  dee|)  in- 
tei'cst  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  building  up 
of  true,  noble  Christian  character  and  stinui- 
lating  its  people  to  useful  Christian  lives.  We 
respected  him  for  his  true  manliness,  dignity, 
and  unselfishness."  The  Young  People's  Re- 
ligious Guild  remembered  with  gratitude  the 
interest  manifested  liy  him  in  their  organiza- 
tion. 

Resolutions  of  respect,  recognizing  and  re- 
cording his  elevated  character,  his  fidelity  to 
duty,  the  exalted  princi|)les  which  governed 
his  life,  his  forbearing  sympathy  and  good 
will,  were  pas.sed  by  the  Medfield  Historical 
Society,  the  General  J.  G.  Foster  Post,  G.  A.  P., 
of  South  Framingham,  and  by  the  Relief  Corps 
auxiliary  to  the  Grand  Army  post  in  Milford, 
N.H.,  where  Mr.  Hayward  gave  his  last  Me- 
morial Day  address. 

The  Norfolk  I'nitarian  Conference,  in  a 
letter  to  Mrs.  Hayward,  testified  that  "they 
all  regarded  Mr.  Hayward  with  honor  and  re- 
spect for  his  sterling  faithfulness,  his  blame- 
less record,  and  his  earnest  devotedness  to 
his  profe.';sion.  His  uniform  courtesy,  dignity, 
and  friendliness  won  the  affection  of  all,  and 
made  him  always  a  welcome  companion." 

A  former  pastor  of  the  church  in  Keene 
wrote  to  her :  "  You  have  the  comfort  of  reflecting 
that  you  have  been  a  true  helpmeet  to  your 
husband  these  many  years.  By  your  energy, 
your  sympathy,  your  judgment,  your  ready 
])lanning  for  the  social  interests  of  a  ])arish, 
as  well  as  for  the  advancement  of  the  church 
and  Sunday-school,  you  have  shown  a  spirit 
of  co-operation  that  must  have  been  invaluable 
to  him." 

Mr.  Hayward,  who  had  been  identified  with 
the  Masons,  the  Temple  of  Honor,  and  United 
Order  of  the  Golden  Cross,  was  an  officer  of 
Beaver  Brook  Lodge  of  Odd  Fellows  at  Keene, 
N.H.  He  had  four  brothers,  two  of  whom 
are  living  in  New  Hampshire. 

Mrs.  Hayward  is  a  member  of  the  Daughters 
of  New  Hampshire  and  a  charter  member  of 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


365 


the  Historical  Society  of  Hancock,  N.H.     For 
four  years  she  was  chaphiin  of  the  Relief  Corps 
connected    with    General    J.    G.    Foster    Post. 
Before  this  corps  joined  the  National  Woman's 
Relief   Corps   (it   being   an   independent    local 
society   previous   to    1S97),   she   was   chaplain 
for  two  years  of  the  corps  auxiliary  to  the  post 
in   Walpole,    at    the   same    time   retaining   her 
membership   in   the   "Independent   Corj)s"   of 
South  Framingham.     Since  the  latter  has  be- 
come a  part  of  the  Department  of  Massachu- 
setts, W.  R.  C,  Mrs.  Hayward  has  been  active 
in  the  State  and  national  work.     She  is  one 
of    the    official    visitors    and    directors    of    the 
Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  the  Sokliers'  Home 
in  Chelsea,  Mass.     She  has  attended  the  Na- 
tional Conventions  in  Western  cities  as  a  dele- 
gate from   the   Department  of  Massachusetts. 
In  1902  sht'  was  [president  of  the  corps  in  South 
Framingham,  where  she  has  resided  since  the 
death  of  her  husband,  and  at  the  close  of  her 
official  year  was  presented  with  a  gold  liadge 
as    a    testimonial    of    regard.      A    woman    of 
dignity     and     culture,    she    is     an     excellent 
presiding  officer.     She   is  a   National   Aiile  in 
the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  and  is  now  serving 
the  W.  R.  C.  as  one  of  the  National  Execu- 
tive Committee,  being  also  on  the  Finance  and 
Floral  Conmiittees  of  the  National  Cunvention 
to  be  held  in  Boston  in  August,   1904,  in  con- 
nection   with    the    National    Encampment    of 
the  G.  A.  R. 


HANNAH  J.  BAILEY,  of  Winthrop 
Centre,  Me.,  National  Superintend- 
ent, W.  C.  T.  U.,  Department  of 
Peace  and  International  Arbitration, 
was  born  in  Cornwall-on-the-Hudson,  July  5, 
1839,  being  the  daughter  of  David  and  Letitia 
(Clark)  Johnston  and  the  first  of  a  family 
of  eight  children.  Her  father  was  a  minister 
in  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  her  mother  one 
of  the  most  devoted  and  loving  Christian 
women  who  ever  helped  to  make  a  home.  Her 
maternal  ancestry  has  been  traced  back  to 
Samuel  Clark,  of  whom  the  compiler  of  a  brief 
genealogy  issued  (second  edition)  in  1897  says: 
"I  find  that  the  probabilities  are  very  strong 
that  Samuel  Clark,   Sr.,   came  from  England 


in  1630,  the  year  in  which  Governor  Winthrop, 
the  Rev.  Richard  Denton,  Thomas  Wicks, 
and  over  a  thousand  others  first  sailed  to  Amer- 
ica. With  the  last  two  named  he  was  closely 
associated  at  Stamford,  Conn." 

During  her  childhood  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  attentled  the  district  schools  of  Corn- 
wall, until  her  parents  removed  to  Plattekill, 
in  Ulster  County,  New  York,  about  seventeen 
miles  from  her  birthplace.  There  she  became 
an  eager  student  in  another  district  school, 
to  which  she  had  to  walk  a  mile  each  day. 
Afterward  she  was  sent  to  a  Friends'  boarding- 
school  in  her  native  State.  Here,  as  well  as 
by  her  own  independent  efforts,  by  much  read- 
ing and  in  other  ways,  she  acquired  a  good 
practical  education,  but  never  ceased  to  regret 
her  parents'  limited  circumstances,  which  ren- 
dered it  impossible  for  her  to  pursue  a  college 
course.  For  nine  years  after  returning  home 
she  taught  school.  She  then  became  the  wife 
of  Moses  Bailey,  a  well-known  oil-cloth  manu- 
facturer, of  Winthrop  Centre,  Me. 

After  Mr.  Bailey's  ileath,  which  occurred 
in  1882,  when  their  only  child  was  a  boy  of 
twelve,  Mrs.  Bailey  showed  rare  executive 
ability  in  conducting  his  extensive  business 
affairs.     This  she  tlid  for  nine  years. 

Being  a  birthright  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  always  strong  in  its  [)eace  princi- 
ples, Mrs.  Bailey  is  admirably  adapted  to  inter- 
est others  in  the  work  of  her  Department  of 
Peace  and  International  Arbitration.  The 
work  accomplished  has  been  mainly  of  an  edu- 
cational character.  Peace  bands  have  been 
formed  among  children,  clergymen  invited 
to  preach  in  the  interest  of  the  cause,  and  peti- 
tions have  been  circulated.  To  this  work 
Mrs.  Bailey  was  appointed  in  1887  by  the 
National  Union  and  in  1888  by  the  Wodd's 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  As 
a  result  of  her  persistent  efforts  and  those  of 
her  co-workers,  the  Peace  and  International 
Arbitration  Department  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 
has  been  organized  in  twenty-eight  States 
and  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  is  now 
organized  in  fourteen  cf)untries,  and  there  are 
also  many  lands  in  which  effectual  work  is 
being  done  unofficially.  The  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Peace  Department  has  taken  part  in  all  the 


366 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


World's  Peace  Congresses  held  since  its  organi- 
zation. Among  its  publications  are  two  offi- 
cial papers,  one  for  adults  and  one  for  children, 
and  two  books  called  "Voices  of  Peace"  and 
"Gleanings  on  the  Subject  of  Peace  and  Arbi- 
tration." The  department,  in  connection  with 
other  peace  societies  of  the  world,  observes 
the  third  Sunday  of  December  each  year  as 
Peace  Sunday.  Able  lecturers  are  busy,  going 
about  a  great  deal  of  the  time  educating 
public  opinion  in  the  interests  of  this  important 
work. 

Mrs.  Bailey  has  travelled  extensively  in 
Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  United  States. 
In  helping  to  advance  other  reforms,  also, 
Mrs.  Bailey  has  been  active.  Together  with 
two  or  three  other  prominent  ladies  of  her 
State,  she  has  been  trying  for  years  to  olUain 
a  reformatory  prison  for  women  in  Maine. 
The  outlook  toward  good  results  of  their  untir- 
ing efforts  now  seems  encouraging. 

Mrs.  Bailey  became  president  of  the  Maine 
Equal  Suffrage  Association  in  1891,  and  held 
the  position  for  six  years.  She  was  one  of 
the  judges  in  the  Department  of  Liberal  Arts  at 
the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago  in  1893,  having 
been  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Lady  Managers. 
At  Washington  in. 1895  she  was  elected  treasurer 
of  the  National  Council  of  Women  for  three 
years.  Similar  positions  she  has  held  for 
many  years  at  a  time  in  the  work  of  her  church. 
Three  times  she  has  received  appointment 
from  the  governor  of  her  State  to  represent 
Maine  on  the  National  Board  of  Charities  and 
Correction. 

For  many  years  Mrs.  Bailey  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  aiding,  both  financially  and  by  letters 
of  encouragement  and  counsel,  young  people 
of  limited  means  who  have  shown  themselves 
desirous  of  obtaining  a  good  education  in  order 
to  take  part  in  the  work  and  reforms  of  the 
world.  As  her  proteges  pay  her  back  the 
money  loaned  them,  she  passes  it  on  to  other 
ambitious  young  persons  of  her  acquaintance, 
and  thus  the  beautiful  work  continues. 

At  her  home,  "Sunnyslope,"  Mrs.  Bailey 
practises  the  doctrine  which  she  advocates  so 
enthusiastically — the  "brotherhood  of  all  man- 
kind under  the  white  banner  of  peace" — and 
welcomes  guests  from  every  land.     Mrs.  Bailey 


puts  her  horses,  carriages,  and  boats  at  the 
command  of  her  visitors,  while  each  morning 
usually  finds  her  for  several  hours  at  her  tlesk, 
with  her  faithful  secretary  sitting  neiir,  receiv- 
ing and  sending  out  letters  and  other  manu- 
scripts to  promote  the  interests  of  the  cause 
she  loves. 

Mrs.  Bailey's  home  is  delightfully  situated 
in  a  town  containing  five  large  lakes  and  fine 
mountain  scenery.  The  church  of  her  choice 
stands  on  a  slight  eminence  on  the  south. 
On  her  beautiful  grounds  gravel  walks  are  laid 
out  among  choice  flowers  and  plants,  with  a 
fountain  throwing  up  sparkling  spray.  A 
greenhouse  joined  to  the  dwelling  supplies 
flowers  all  the  year  around  for  the  pulpit  of  the 
church  and  for  the  comfort  and  cheer  of 
"shut-in"  friends  and  neighbors. 

Mrs.  Bailey's  friends  often  remonstrate  with 
her  against  the  strenuous  life  she  lives,  fearing 
that  her  strength  may  not  be  (>qual  to  so  much 
effort,  but  she  smiles  as  she  replies,  "I  must 
be  among  those  who  wear  out,  not  those  who 
rust  out.'  There  are  few,  if  any,  of  the  philan- 
thropists of  the  world  who  more  enjoy  their 
work  than  does  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 
Truly  does  she  live  "  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister" 

"For  the  cause  that  needs  assistance. 
For  the  wrongs  that  need  resistance, 
For  the  future  in  the  distance, 
And  the  fiood  that  she  cm  dc." 

H.    H.   J. 


SUSIE  CHAMPNEY  CLARK.— Near  the 
summit  of  Nonantum  Hill,  which  marks 
a  boundary  between  Newton  ami 
Brighton,  Mass.,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  was  born.  Her  parents,  James  Clark 
and  Welthy  Jane  (Park)  Clark,  came  of  sterling 
stock  in  the  Green  Mountain  State.  The  mater- 
nal ancestors,  Daniel  Harrington  and  Welthy 
(Ladd)  Park,  were  of  Puritan  descent,  the 
progenitor  of  their  line,  Richard  Park,  being 
a  landed  proprietor  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in 
1636.  The  paternal  grandparents,  Nathaniel 
and  Betsey  Clark,  claimed  for  their  posterity 
a  faint  strain  of  North  American  Indian  blood. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


367 


As  the  story  has  oome  down,  passed,  lip  to  Up, 
from  one  generation  to  another,  a  Ch\rk  maiden 
was  carried  into  captivity  by  a  chisky  chief- 
tain in  the  French  and  Indian  War.  He  soon 
after,  most  amiably,  passed  to  the  happy 
hunting-grounds  of  his  race,  his  captive  re- 
turning to  her  people  in  \'erniont,  where  his 
son,  who  bore  the  family  name  of  his  mother, 
Clark,  became  the  progenitor  of  a  line  of  male 
descendants,  each  bearing  many  of  the  better 
traits  of  the  red  man,  tempered  and  modified 
by  civilization,  such  as  stalwart  physique,  keen 
love  of  nature,  unusual  strength  of  memory, 
with  a  marked  gift  of  healing.  Miss  (^lark  is  said 
to  be  the  seventh  in  descent  from  the  chieftain, 
the  towering  height  of  some  of  her  ancestors 
being  obliteratetl  in  her  very  diminutive  or- 
ganism. She  lived  in  Brighton  until  her 
eighth  year^  when,  after  the  loss  of  her  fathei-, 
she  removed  with  her  mother  to  Quincy,  111., 
where  in  the  broad,  free  life  of  the  A\'est  the 
forming  years  of  her  gii-lhood  were  spent. 
When  she  hail  reached  the  age  of  fifteen,  her 
mother  was  again  married  to  Francis  H.  John- 
son, of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  which  city  has  since 
been  her  home. 

Always  delicate  in  health  and  completely 
prostrated  a  year  or  two  after  her  removal 
to  Cambridge,  Miss  Clark  for  many  years  was 
a  confirmed  and  partially  paralyzed  invalid, 
her  opportunities  for  school  training  being 
thus  restrictetl  to  the  high  schools  of  Quincy 
and  Cambridge.  But  the  Infinite  Wisdom 
makes  no  mistakes  in  training  its  instruments 
for  appointed  service,  and  an  education  was 
gained  on  that  pillow  of  prolonged  suffering 
which  no  university  could  grant — an  educa- 
tion in  the  .sense  of  educing  those  latent  powers 
of  the  soul  which  can  only  gain  fruition  through 
the  growth  of  the  spiritual  or  psychic  nature, 
thus  encouraged  by  enforced  seclusion  from 
the  world  of  physical  and  mental  activity.  It 
was  a  hard  and  painful  curriculum,  one  sadly 
prolonged  by  ignorance  concerning  the  power 
of  the  spirit  to  dominate  physical  conditions 
and  by  unconsciousness  of  her  own  innate  gifts 
of  healing.  But  there  came  an  hour,  as  she 
approached  her  third  decade,  when  the  purpose 
to  be  thus  wrought  seemed  fully  accomplished, 
when  from  the  gates  of  death,  through  which 


she  had  nearly  passed,  she  was  raised  almost 
instantaneously,  miraculously,  as  it  seemed, 
by  the  agency  of  a  modern  exponent  of  the 
science  of  healing,  to  perfect  health  and  strength, 
an  emancipation  which,  in  the  many  useful 
years  that  have  since  elapsed,  has  known  no 
illness,  no  pain,  or  exhaustion,  although  she 
has  come  constantly  in  touch  with  disease  of 
every  kind. 

A  few  months  later  her  own  life  work  of  min- 
istration to  the  sick  and  suffering,  of  uplift- 
ing humanity  from  physical  bondage,  opened 
before  her,  a  service  she  might  never  have 
chosen,  but  she  could  not  be  disobedient  to 
the  divine  prompting  or  to  the  call  of  human 
need.  She  has  never  made  any  claim  to  public 
{)atronage  or  recognition,  but  has  performed 
lier  mission  unobtrusively,  courting  obscurity 
rather  than  popularity.  Her  name  has  never 
appeared  among  the  advertisements  in  the 
press  or  on  any  door,  at  home  or  abroad;  and 
no  cure  among  her  many  phenomenal  cases 
has  ever  been  publicly  reportetl.  Yet  many 
of  the  most  noted  authors,  editors,  and  pro- 
fessional literati  of  the  country  are  numbered 
among  her  grateful  patrons,  while  the  poor  and 
the  destitute  have  likewise  abundantly  shared 
in  her  ministrations.  That  her  success  has 
been  unvarying,  she  claims  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  element  of  personal  effort  is  so  largely 
eliminated  from  her  work.  She  feels  that  the 
healing  is  done  through  her  instrumentality, 
not  by  her,  through  a  baptism  from  the  one 
Power  in  the  universe,  with  whom  "  all  things 
are  possible."  Through  her  psychometric  gift, 
or  by  the  u.se  of  the  soul's  sense  of  touch,  she 
has  made  accurate  diagnoses  of  internal  con- 
ditions, reflecting  them  in  her  own  conscious- 
ness as  if  in  a  mirror  placed  in  front  of  the 
patient.  Psychic  or  soul  healing,  she  claims, 
reaches  the  realm  of  causation,  and  gains 
at-one-ment  with  the  hidden  springs  of  Being 
as  does  no  other  method. 

Miss  Clark  is  allied  with  none  of  the  modern 
healing  cults.  Christian,  mental,  or  divine 
science,  her  work  being  representative  of  a 
distinct  and  individual  type.  For  eighteen 
years  she  has  labored  constantly,  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  not  alone  in  Boston  and  its 
extended  suburbs,  but  in  New  York,   Brook- 


368 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


lyn,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  Chicago,  and 
throughout  California,  where  during  five  winters 
she  has  had  a  large  and  successful  practice. 
She  has  also  lectured  widely  in  the  cities  above 
mentioned  on  spiritual  and  ethical  topics, 
teaching  many  classes,  outlining  her  gospel 
of  health,  presenting  spiritual  truth  and  the 
true  science  of  Being  through  color  symbolism 
and  also  through  musical  vibrations,  inter- 
pretations which  have  proved  very  helpful 
to  the  many  lives  thus  blessed  and  uplifted. 
For  a  time  she  held  in  Boston  regular  Sunday 
services,  which  served  as  a  means  of  growth 
and  refreshment  to  interested  auditors.  Of 
late,  public  speaking  on  a  wide  range  of  sub- 
jects has  largely  taken  the  place  of  the  work  of 
healing,  though  this  duty  can  never  be  wholly 
laid  aside.  She  claims  that  the  true  doctor, 
as  the  name  (docere,  to  teach)  implies,  nmst 
ever  be  an  efficient  teacher. 

Miss  Clark  wields  also  a  prolific  pen,  and 
some  of  her  books  have  become  household 
benefactors.  Not  a  few  instances  have  been 
reported  where  marked  healing  has  occurred 
from  reading  her  early  volume,  "A  Look  LTp- 
ward,"  a  book  which  had  to  be  replaced  in  the 
Boston  Public  Library  because  the  first  copy 
was  worn  out  by  constant  use.  Other  similar 
works  of  hers  are  entitled  "To  Bear  Witness," 
"Pilate's  Query,"  "The  Melody  of  Life,"  and 
"Key-notes  for  Daily  Harmonies."  To  quote 
from  the  New  York  Press:  "  Miss  Clark  presents 
her  gospel  in  language  quite  free  from  the 
illogical  and  dogmatic  statements  of  some 
writings  in  this  line,  and  with  the  clear  touch 
of  psychic  illumination  which  many  others 
lack.  Her  message  is  one  of  life,  of  liberty, 
of  purity,  health,  and  the  most  exalted  s])irit- 
uality.  It  is  a  sincere,  earnest,  and  heljjful 
endeavor  to  raise  mortals  above  the  low  mate- 
rial plane  on  which  too  many  are  content  to 
exist  and  toil  and  suffer."  In  lighter  vein 
she  has  written  spicy  sketches  of  travel  in 
"The  Round  Trip  from  the  Hub  to  the  Golden 
Gate,"  "Lorita,  an  Alaskan  Maiden,"  and 
"  Souvenirs  of  Travel."  Among  her  metaphysi- 
cal pamphlets  are  included  "What  is  Thought?" 
"The  New  Renaissance,"  "Is  it  Hypnotism?" 
"Metaphysical  Queries,"  and  "Short  Lessons 
in  Theosophy."     Much  editorial  work  has  also 


been    done    by    her   on    various   journals   and 
magazines. 

Among  Miss  Clark's  possessions  are  artistic 
gifts,  whose  unfoldment  and  exercise  are  held 
in  abeyance  by  the  more  important  humanita- 
rian impulse  and  need.  She  has  crossed  the 
continent  ten  times,  and  visited  every  State 
and  Territory  in  the  Union,  even  Alaska  being 
to  her  familiar  ground.  It  is  perhaps  safe 
for  the  writer  to  ]jredict  that  the  major  por- 
tion of  Miss  Clark's  spiritual  and  literary 
work  still  awaits  her.  c.  s.  c. 


1IZZIK  ALLEN   PACKARD  was  born 
in  Falmouth,  Me.,  in  1853,  the  daugh- 
^  ter    of    Reulien    Allen    and    his    wife, 
Emily  J.  Allen,  who   was   a  woman  of 
sterling  character. 

Lizzie  Allen  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  her  native  town  and  at  Westbrook 
Seminary,  where  she  was  a  student  for  two 
years.  She  was  married  in  March,  1872, 
to  Samuel  Adams  Packard,  who  belongs  to 
a  well-known  Maine  family,  and  who  is  one 
of  the  oldest  active  practitioners  of  dentistry 
in  Portland.  Seven  chiklren  have  been  born 
of   their   union,   and   six   of   them   are   living. 

Socially  Mrs.  Packard  is  a  favorite,  and 
takes  an  interest  in  all  the  (juestions  of  the 
ilay.  She  is  a  woman  of  attractive  personality, 
and  makes  an  excellent  presitling  officer. 
She  is  now  president  of  the  A.  B.  C.  Klass, 
a  woman's  club  which  has  an  interesting 
history,  and  is  named  for  Mrs.  A.  B.  C.  Keene, 
a  cultivated  woman,  formerly  of  Bangor, 
under  whose  leadership  in  that  city  the  earlier 
classes  for  home  study  were  formed.  Mrs. 
Packard  is  also  treasurer  of  the  Mentone 
Club,  which,  since  its  inception  six  years 
ago,  has  had  for  its  course  of  study  the  history 
of  Maine.  P'or  some  years  Mrs.  Packard 
has  been  active  in  the  work  of  the  Samaritan 
Association,  one  of  the  oldest  charities  in 
Portland.  Conspicuous  among  her  good 
deeds  is  the  efficient  work  she  did  during . 
tlie  year  1899  in  the  line  of  school-room  deco- 
ration. Any  stranger  going  into  the  Deering 
High  School  or  the  Saunders  Street  Primary 
School     finds    evidence     of     nmch     thorough, 


/yL0-     j^^ic^a^fu,^  <^.^J^^>y^^*^-/^^t, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


369 


painstaking  labor,  the  walls  being  adorned 
with  valuable  pictures,  which  delight  and 
educate  the  pupils.  It  was  no  easy  matter 
to  obtain  these.  Mrs.  Packard  knows  how 
many  hours  of  persuasive  talking  were  needed 
at  first  to  arouse  any  enthusiasm,  how  per- 
sistently contributions  were  sought,  and  what 
numerous  entertainments  were  given  before 
funds  were  forthcoming  with  which  to 
purchase  them.  During  this  year  of  exacting 
toil  she  proved  herself  an  energetic  and  untiring 
worker.  The  results  are  certainly  gratifying. 
During  the  eleven  years  that  Dr.  Packard 
was  a  member  of  the  Deering  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, he  found  his  wife  always  interestetl 
in  the  plans  which  pointed  toward  better 
methods  and  higher  aims  in  the  local  .schools. 
Essentially  a  lover  of  children,  she  is  am- 
'bitious  for  them,  and  rejoices  in  their  ever- 
increasing  advantages. 

Mrs.  Packard  has  always  proved  herself 
a  devoted  home-maker  and  housekeeper. 
In  her  private  life  those  who  know  her  best 
esteem  her  most.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Packard 
attend   the   Congregational   church. 


SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  in  virtue  of  her 
birtli,  her  parentage,  her  six  years  of 
budding  childhood  |)assed  nt  the  foot  of 
"Old  Greylock"  in  the  Berkshire  range 
of  hills,  also  through  the  residence  of  her  an- 
cestors in  direct  line,  both  maternal  and  pater- 
nal, with  most  if  not  all  of  their  kith  and  kin, 
for  seven  generations,  in  Rhode  Island  or  South- 
eastern or  Western  Massachusetts,  may  be 
justly  claimed  as  a  New  England  woman. 

Daughter  of  Daniel  and  Lucy  (Read)  An- 
thony, she  was  born  at  Adams,  Mass.,  Febru- 
ary 15,  1820,  and  was  named  for  an  aunt, 
Susan  Anthony  Brownell.  Th(>  history  of  the 
family  in  America  l)egins  with  the  arrival  at 
Portsmouth,  R.I.,  in  1634,  of  John  Anthony, 
a  native  of  Hempstead,  England,  and  then 
twenty-seven  years  of  age.  He  served  the 
colony  as  a  Deputy,  1666-72.  He  had  three 
sons — John,  Jr.,  Joseph,  and  Aljraham — and 
two   daughters. 

John,  Jr.,  was  the  father  of  Albro'  Anthony, 
whose    daughter    ]<]lizabeth,''    born     in     1728, 


married  a  Scotsman,  Gilbert  Stuart,  Sr.,  and 
became  the  mother  of  Gilbert  Stuart,  born  in 
1755,  the  great  portrait  painter. 

From  John  Anthony,  the  immigrant,  to 
Daniel  Anthony,  of  Adams,  Mass.,  the  line 
appears  (from  the  printed  records  consulted) 
to  have  descended  through  Abraham,"  William,' 
William,  Jr.,'  Daviil,^  Humphrey."  William 
Anthony,  son  of  Abraham  and  his  wife,  Alice 
Woodell,  or  Wodell,  marrietl  in  1695  Mary 
Coggeshall,  who  belonged  to  a  family  well 
known  in  Portsmouth,  R.I.,  to  this  day. 

David  Anthony  married  Judith  Hicks. 
Shortly  before  the  Revolution  he  removed 
from  Dartmouth,  Mass.,  where  his  son  Hum- 
phrey was  born  in  1770,  to  Berkshire,  settling 
near  Adams.  Judith  Hicks  probably  belonged 
to  the  family  founded  by  Roljert  Hicks,  who 
came  over  in  the  "Fortune"  in  1621. 

Humphrey  Anthony  married  Hannah  Lap- 
ham.  Both  were  birthright  Quakers,  or 
Friends,  and  she  was  an  Elder,  and  in  "  meet- 
ing" sat  on  the  "high  seat."  Their  son  Daniel 
was  born  in  1794.  At  the  time  of  the  division 
in  1826  between  the  liberal  and  the  orthodox 
Friends,  he  sided  with  the  liberals,  or  Ilicksites. 
He  was  educated  at  Nine  Partners,  a  Friends' 
boarding-school,  and  began  active  life  as  a 
teacher,  shortly  becoming  a  cotton  manufact- 
urer, some  years  later  a  farm-owner,  and  then 
engaging  in  the  insurance  business,  the  family 
home  being  successively  in  Adams,  Mass.,  Bat- 
tenville.  Centre  Falls,  and  Rochester,  N.Y. 
Mr.  Anthony  was  a  man  of  excellent  business 
capacity,  true  moral  courage,  and  sterling  in- 
tegrity; his  wife,  Lucy  Read  Anthony,  a  woman 
of  sweet  dis))osition  and  gentle  manners,  yet  not 
lacking  native  energy  and  force  of  character. 
Her  father,  Daniel  Reatl,  was  a  native  of  Re- 
hoboth,  Ma.ss.,  a  Ilniversalist  in  religion,  a 
Whig  in  politics.  Her  mother,  Susanna  Rich- 
ardson Read,  was  from  Scituate. 

The  removal  of  Daniel  Anthony  and  his 
family  from  Adams  to  Battenville,  N.Y.,  forty- 
four  miles  distant,  took  place  in  1826.  Young 
as  she  was  at  this  time,  Susan  had  already, 
from  her  close  association  with  "Old  Graylock" 
— visible  embodiment  of  strength  and  uplift, 
its  top  seeming  to  touch  the  sky — received  an 
inspiration  destined  to  remain  with  her  through 


370 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


life.  At,  Battenville  the  Anthony  chiUh-en, 
two  boys  and  four  girls,  were  taught  in  a  private 
school  at  home.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  Susan 
was  a  teacher  in  that  school.  At  seventeen 
she  taught  in  a  family  at  Easton,  N.Y.,  receiv- 
ing her  hoard  and  one  dollar  per  week.  The 
next  summer  she  taught  a  district  school  and 
"boarded  round,"  her  wages  being  a  tlollar  and 
a  half  ])er  week.  Following  that,  she  attended 
successively  a  boarding-schoc)l.  Miss  Deborah 
Moul.son's,  at  Hamilton,  near  Philadelphia,  ami  a 
private  school  at  home  taught  by  Daniel  Wright. 
Here  ended,  1830,  her  school-da3's  proper. 
From  the  first  she  had  shown  herself  precociously 
intelligent,  ambitious  to  learn,  and  fond  of 
mastering  difficult  ))rolilenis. 

The  winter  had  brought  business  reverses 
to  Mr.  Anthony.  With  characteristic  honesty 
he  turned  over  his  property  to  his  creditors, 
reserving  only  the  bare  necessities  allowed 
by  law,  and  in  March  removed  to  Centre  Falls, 
two  Tuiles  away.  For  some  time  after,  Susan's 
energies  were  devoted  to  domestic  concerns, 
such  as  washing,  cooking,  spinning,  and  weav- 
ing, with  (piilting  bees,  apple  bees,  sleigh  rides, 
and  other  rural  diversions,  not  to  mention 
eligible  offers  of  marriage  at  this  period  and 
later  on  to  keep  life  from  being  dull  and  pleas- 
ureless.  Her  next  school  was  at  New  Rochelle, 
N.Y.  For  teaching  a  sunmier  term  of  fifteen 
weeks  she  was  jiaid  thirty  dollars. 

The  final  migration  of  Daniel  Anthony  and 
his  household,  now  depleted  by  the  marriage 
of  two  daughters,  was  in  1845,  the  journey 
being  made  by  railroad  and  canal  to  a  farm 
three  miles  west  of  Rochester,  N.Y.  For 
three  years  from  May,  1846,  Susan  was  an 
assistant  in  the  Canajoharie  Academy,  the 
principal  of  which,  Daniel  H.  Hagar,  failed  not 
in  after  life  to  cx))ress  high  aj)preciation  of  her 
ability  and  services  as  a  teacher.  In  1850  and 
1851  she  was  at  home,  managing  the  farm,  her 
father  attending  to  his  business  in  Syracuse. 
After  one  more  brief  term  of  school,  in  the 
spring  of  1852  she  gave  up  teaching,  to  devote 
herself  henceforth  with  singleness  of  purpose 
and  rare  continuity  of  effort  to  the  stremions 
activities  of  her  "  fifty  years  of  noble  endeavor 
for  the  freedom  of  women,"  activities  thus 
sununed  up  and  circumstantially  set  forth  in  her 


authorized  biography  (happily  not  finished), 
"The  Life  and  Work  of  Susan  R.  Anthony,"  by 
Ida  Husted  Harper,  published  in  1898.  In  these 
well-filled  volumes,  two  in  number,  the  leading 
facts  and  events,  together  with  numerous  stir- 
ring incidents  and  anuising  episodes  in  her 
])ul)lic  career,  are  recordcMl  in  chronological 
order,  ])assages  from  letters  and  from  her  diary 
revealing  more  intimate  experiences  of  joy  and 
of  sorrow,  bearing  witness  to  strong  family 
affections  and  a  large  capacity  for  friendship. 
The  work  is  carefully  indexed,  and  each  vol- 
ume prefaced  by  a  copious  table  of  contents, 
with  conspicuous  headings,  marking  various 
turning-points  and  stages  in  the  life  journey 
therein  set  forth.  For  example  may  be  cited: 
Chai)ter  V.  Entrance  into  Public  Life  (1850- 
52) ;  VI.  Temi)erance  and  Teachers'  Conven- 
tions (1852-.'53);  X.  Campaigning  with  the 
(iarrisonians  (1857-58);  XIV.  Women's  Na- 
tional Loyal  League  (1863-64);  XYU.  Cam- 
paigns in  New  York  and  Kansas  (1867) ;  XVIII. 
Establishing  the  Revolution  (1S68);  XIX. 
Fovmding  the  National  Suffrage  Society 
(1869);  XX.  Fiftieth  Birthday  (1870);  XXI. 
End  of  Revolution  (1870);  XXIII.  First  Trip 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  (1871);  XXV.  Trial  for 
Voting  under  Fourteenth  Amendment  (1873); 
XXX.  Writing  the  History;  XXXI.  The 
Legacy— Nebraska  Campaign  (1882)— Off  for 
Europe  (1883);  XXXV.  (hiion  of  Associa- 
tion.s — International  Council  (1888);  XL.  Made 
President  of  National  A.ssociation,  1892;  XLI. 
World's  Fair — Congress  of  Re])resentative 
Women  (1893);  XLV.  Second  \'i.sit  to  Cali- 
fornia (1895);  Anthonv  Reunion  at  Adams 
(1897). 

While  teaching  at  Canajoharie,  Miss  Anthony 
.served  as  secretary  of  the  local  society  of  the 
Daughters  of  Temperance;  and  at  a  supper  on 
March  1,  1849,  to  which  they  invited  the  people 
of  the  village,  she  made  the  ])rincipal  address, 
reading  it  from  her  manuscript.  It  was  her 
first  platform  utterance. 

It  may  here  be  mentioned  that  the  Woman's 
Rights  Convention  that  met  at  Seneca  Falls 
in  .Inly,  1848,  and  adjourned  to  meet  in  Roches- 
ter, August  2,  had  been  attended  by  her  father, 
mother,  and  sister  Mary,  and  that  they  had 
signed  its  declaration.     Reading  with  interest 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


371 


the  New  York  Tribune  reports  of  a  similar 
convention  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  October,  1850, 
Miss  Anthony  "  sympathized  fully  with  the 
demand  for  equal  rights  for  women,  but  was 
not  yet  (juite  convinced  that  these  included 
the   suffrage." 

In  1S51 ,  as  the  president  of  a  lotlge  of  Daugh- 
ters of  Temperance  in  Rochester,  she  was  very 
active  in  raising  funds  and  organizing  societies 
to  carry  on  temperance  work,  and  there  "first 
<lisplayed  that  executive  ability  which  was 
destined  to  make  her  famous."  Attending  in 
that  winter  an  anti-slavery  meeting  conducted 
by  Stephen  and  Abby  Kelley  Foster,  she  was 
so  much  interested  that  she  accompanied  them 
for  a  week  in  their  lecturing  toiu'.  In  the  fol- 
lowing May  she  first  met  I'^^lizabeth  Cady  .Stan- 
ton, who  afterward  said  of  her,  "I  liked  her 
thoroughly  from  the  beginning."  From  their 
second  meeting  in  the  next  sunmier  at  the  home 
of  Mrs.  Stanton  dated  their  lifelong  friendship, 
acquaintance  with  Lucy  Stone  beginning  at 
the  same  time  and  place. 

Miss  Anthony's  experience  as  a  delegate 
from  the  Daughters  of  Temperance  to  the 
mass  meeting  held  by  the  Sons  of  Temperance 
at  Albany  early  in  1852  would  have  disheart- 
ened a  less  heroic  woman.  "Her  credentials, 
with  those  of  other  wonien  delegates,  were 
accepted,  but,  when  she  rose  to  speak  to  a 
motion,  she  was  informed  by  the  presiding 
officer  that  '  the  sisters  were  not  invited  there 
to  speak,  but  to  listen  and  learn.'  She  and 
three  or  four  other  ladies  at  once  left  the  hall." 
The  women  then  held  a  little  meeting  of 
their  own,  which  the  Rev.  Sanuiel  .1.  May 
helped  to  organize.  The  result  was  the  first 
Woman's  State  Temperance  Convention.  This 
was  held  in  Rochester  in  April  of  the  same 
year.  At  Syracuse  in  September,  1852,  she 
attended  for  the  first  time  a  Woman's  Rights 
Convention.  From  that  convention  she  "  came 
away  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  right 
which  woman  needed  above  every  other,  the 
one,  indeed,  which  would  secure  to  her  all 
others,  was  the  right  of  suffrage." 

At  the  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Woman's 
State  Temperance  Society,  held  in  Rochester 
in  June,  ISS;^,  Miss  Anthony  was  re-elected 
secretary,   but   refused   to   serve,   stating   that 


"  the  vote  showed  they  would  not  accept  the 
principle  of  woman's  rights,  and,  as  she  be- 
lieved thoroughly  in  standing  for  the  equal- 
ity of  woman,  she  would  not  act  as  officer  of 
such  a  society.  .  .  .  Miss  Anthony,  although 
a  total  abstainer  all  her  life,  was  never  again 
connected  with  a  temperance  organization." 
In  1854  Judge  William  Hay,  of  Saratoga, 
brought  out  a  new  edition  of  his  romance, 
"Isabel  d'  Avalos,"  dedicated  as  follows: — 

TO 
SUSAN    n.    ANTHONY 

Whose  earnestness  of  purp<)se,  honesty  of  intention, 
unremittin;^  industry,  indefatigable  perseverance,  and 
extraordinary  business  talent  are  .surpassed  only  by 
the  virtues  of  her  life,  devoted,  like  that  of  Dorothea 
Dix,  to  the  cause  of  humanity. 

In  the  winter  of  1861  a  number  of  aboli- 
tionists under  the  leadership  of  Susan  B.  An- 
thony planned  a  series  of  meetings  to  be  held 
in  the  State  of  New  York.  In  the  small  towns 
the  meetings  passed  off  quietly;  but  in  every 
city,  from  Buffalo,  where  the  first  one  was  held 
on  January  3,  to  Albany,  they  were  broken  up 
by  mobs.  At  Albany  the  Democratic  mayor, 
George  H.  Thacher,  true  to  his  oath  to  support 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the 
State  of  New  York,  aimounced  to  their  op})o- 
nents  his  intention  of  protecting  them  in  the 
right  of  speech.  On  the  day  apjwinted  Asso- 
ciation Hall  was  filled  to  the  doors.  "The 
mayor  went  on  the  i)latform,  ami  announced 
that  he  had  placed  policemen  in  citizens' 
clothes  in  various  parts  of  the  hall,  and  that 
whoever  made  the  least  disturbance  would  be 
at  once  arrested.  Then  he  laid  a  revolver 
across  his  knees,  and  sat  during  the  morning, 
afternoon,  and  evening  sessions.  Several 
times  the  mob  broke  forth,  and  each  time 
arrests  were  promptly  made.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  evening  he  said  to  Mi.ss  Anthony, 
'If  you  insist  upon  holding  your  meetings  to- 
morrow, I  shall  still  protect  you;  but,  if  you 
will  adjourn  at  the  clo.se  of  this  session,  I  shall 
consiiler  it  a  personal  favor.'  Of  course,  she 
willingly  acceded  to  his  request."  This  closed 
the  series  of  conventions.  Inmiediately  after- 
ward the  State  Woman's    Rights   Convention 


372 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


was  held  in  Albany,  February  7  and  S,  and  this 
was  the  last  of  those  conventions  for  five  years. 

In  the  summer  of  1862  Miss  Anthony  attended 
her  last  State  Teachers'  Convention,  which 
was  held  in  Rochester.  For  ten  years  she  had 
kept  up  her  membership  dues,  and  had  not 
missed  an  annual  meeting;  ami  since  1.S.53,  when 
she  first  made  her  voice  heard  in  the  tlelibera- 
tions,  she  had  advocated  the  rights  of  women 
teachers  to  hold  office  in  the  organization,  to 
serve  on  committees,  to  exercise  free  speech, 
and  to  receive  ecjual  pay  with  men  for  ecjual 
work. 

In  the  fall  she  entered  the  lecture  field, 
speaking  extempore  on  "Emancipation  the  Duty 
of  the  Government."  A  prominent  citizen,  after 
hearing  her  at  Mecklenburg,  wrote  to  her, 
"There  is  not  a  man  among  all  the  political 
speakers  who  can  make  that  <luty  as  plain 
as  you  have  done." 

In  New  York  City,  at  an  enthusiastic  meet- 
ing held  in  Dr.  Cheever's  church  on  May  14, 
1863,  in  a  dark  period  of  the  Civil  War,  when 
speeches  were  made  by  Angelina  Grimke 
W^eld,  Lucy  Stone,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton, 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  and  others,  was  formed  the 
Woman's  National  Loyal  League,  to  give  suj)- 
port  to  the  government  in  its  war  for  freedom. 
Mrs.  Stanton  was  elected  president.  Miss  An- 
thony secretary  of  the  organization.  Its  ftbject 
was  to  secure  jjetitions  to  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives,  praying  for  an  act  emanci- 
pating all  persons  of  African  descent  held  in 
involuntary  servitude.  To  this  work  Miss  An- 
thony devoted  her  energies  for  a  year  and  a 
half,  sending  out  from  the  headciuarters  of  the 
league.  Room  '20,  Cooper  Institute,  where  she 
remained  all  through  the  hot  sununer,  thou- 
sands of  blank  petitions,  accomj)anied  by  a 
circular  letter  asking  for  .'signers  to  the  peti- 
tions. Charles  Sunmer  distriliuted  these  peti- 
tions under  his  frank;  and  on  February  9,  1S64, 
he  presented  to  the  Senate  the  first  instalment 
of  the  filled-out  petitions,  saying:  "These  peti- 
tions are  signed  by  one  hundred  thousand  men 
and  women.  They  are  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  and  from  every  condition  of  life.  They 
ask  nothing  less  than  universal  emancipation, 
and  this  they  a.sk  directly  from  the  hands  of 
Congress."     In   August,    1864,   the   nutnber   of 


signatures  had  reached  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand.  Charles  Sunmer  and  Henry  Wilson 
testified  that  "  these  petitions  formed  the  bul- 
wark of  their  demand  for  Congressional  action 
to  abolish  slavery." 

In  January,  ISfiS,  a  few  weeks  after  the  re- 
turn of  Miss  Anthony  from  Kansa.s,  where  in 
the  fall  of  1867  she  had  taken  part  in  the  suf- 
frage campaign  for  woman  and  the  negro  man, 
was  issued  in  New  York  City  the  first  number 
of  the  Revolution,  a  weekly  paper  conducted 
by  Mi.ss  Anthony  and  Mrs.  Stanton  in  the  inter- 
ests of  women,  George  Francis  Train  and  David 
M.  Melliss,  of  the  New  York  World,  agreeing  to 
sup])ly  the  needful  funds  until  the  paper  should 
be  on  a  paying  basis.  Its  motto  was:  "Men, 
their  rights  and  nothing  more.  Women,  their 
rights  and  nothing  less."  Parker  Pillsbury  was 
one  of  the  editors.  The  undertaking  was  con- 
sidered ill-advi.sed  by  the  majority  of  suffragists. 
Miss  Anthony  writes:  "All  the  old  friends,  with 
scarce  an  exce|ition,  are  sure  we  are  wrong. 
Only  time  can  tell,  but  I  believe  we  are  right, 
hence  bound  to  succeed."  The  New  York  Home 
Journal  comments:  "The  Revolution  is  plucky, 
keen,  and  wide-awake.  Some  of  its  ways  are  not 
at  all  to  our  taste,  yet  we  are  glad  to  recognize 
in  it  the  inspiration  of  the  noblest  aims,  and 
the  sagacity  and  talent  to  accom])lish  what  it 
desires.  It  is  on  the  right  track,  whether  it  has 
taken  the  right  train  or  not." 

The  Independent,  in  concluding  a  "breezy 
editorial,"  said,  "Its  business  management  is 
in  the  good  hands  of  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony, 
who  has  long  been  known  as  one  of  the  most 
indefatigable,  honest,  obstinate,  faithful,  cross- 
grained,  and  noble-minded  of  the  famous  women 
of  America." 

After  two  and  one-half  years  of  hard  work 
the  Revolution  was  given  up  for  financial  reasons, 
Miss  Anthony  assuming  ))ersonally  the  entire 
indcljtedness,  ten  tliousand  dollars.  She  wasted 
no  time  in  mourning  over  her  disappointment 
and  losses.  Alone  she  started  to  earn  the 
money  to  pay  this  debt  with  interest.  For  an 
evening  lectiu'e  at  Hornellsville  four  davs  later 
she  received  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
Says  her  biographer,  "Miss  Anthony  worked 
unceasingly  through  winter's  cold  and  sum- 
mer's heat,  lecturing  sometimes  under  private 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


373 


auspices,  sometimes  under  those  of  a  bureau, 
and  herself  arranging  for  unengaged  nights." 
In  six  years  the  work  was  done.  On  May  1, 
1876,  she  wrote:  "The  (iay  of  juhile(>  for  nie 
has  come.  I  have  paid  the  last  dollar  of  the 
Revolution  debt!" 

On  November  5,  1S72,  at  an  election  held  in 
the  city  of  Rochester  for  a  Rej^resentative  in 
Congress,  Susan  B.  Anthony  and  fourteen  otlier 
women  cast  their  ballots.  This  remarkable 
act  was  done  untler  the  conviction  that  it  was 
in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  as  explained  by  Francis  Minor, 
of  St.  Louis,  Henry  R.  Selilen,  of  Rochester, 
and  Albert  G.  Riddle,  of  A\'ashington,  all  lead- 
ing members  of  the  bar,  who  believed  women  had 
a  right  to  vote  under  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment. It  was  also  intended  as  a  test  case. 
Many  of  the  leading  ])apers  supported  her, 
but  the  fifteen  women  of  Rochester  who  voted 
were  all  arrested.  Miss  Anthony's  trial  took 
place  in  June,  1S73,  at  Canandaigua.  Judge 
Selden  testified  that  he  advised  her  to  vote, 
and  in  a  masterly  address  argued  her  case  from 
a  legal,  constitutional,  and  moral  standpoint. 
The  prosecuting  attorney  followed.  Associate 
Justice  Ward  Hunt  then  delivered  his  opinion, 
and  directed  the  jury  to  bring  in  a  verdict  of 
guilty.  The  next  day  he  sentenced  her  to  pay 
a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars  and  costs.  "May 
it  plea.se  your  honor,"  said  she,  "I  will  never 
pay  a  dollar  of  your  unjust  penalty,"  and  she 
never  did.  Even  by  opponents  of  woman  suf- 
frage the  action  of  Judge  Hunt  was  denounced 
as  arbitrary  and  illegal. 

On  May  15,  1869,  women  from  nineteen 
States,  who  had  come  to  New  York  as  tlelegates 
to  the  third  anniversary  of  the  Ecjual  Rights  As- 
sociation, met  and  formed  a  new  organization, 
to  be  called  the  "National  Woman  Suffrage 
Association,  whose  special  object  should  be 
a  sixteenth  amendment  to  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, securing  the  ballot  to  the  women 
of  the  nation  on  etiual  terms  with  men."  Mrs. 
Stanton  was  elected  president,  Anna  Dickinson 
one  of  the  vice-[)residents,  and  Miss  Anthony 
one  of  the  executive  committee.  To  the  supe- 
rior business  ability  of  Miss  Anthony  as  planner 
and  manager,  occupying  various  ofhcial  posi- 
tions, the  success  of  the  many  annual  conven- 


tions since  held  by  the  society  has  been  largely 
due. 

In  November,  1869,  was  formed  the  American 
Suffrage  Association,  numbering  among  its 
leading  members  Lucy  Stone,  Julia  Ward  Howe, 
and  Mary  A.  Livermore.  The  union  of  the 
two  societies.  National  and  American,  pro- 
posed by  the  American  in  Deceml)er,  1887, 
was  effected  in  February,  1890.  For  bringing 
about  this  result  more  credit  is  acknowledged 
to  be  due  to  Alice  Stone  Blackwell  than  to  any 
other  one  person. 

Of  the  new  National-American  Suffrage  Asso- 
ciation Mrs.  Stanton  was  the  president  in  1890 
and  1891,  when  she  asked  to  be  relieved  on 
account  of  age.  Miss  Anthony  was  made  presi- 
dent in  1892,  and  held  the  office  till  1900, 
when  she  declined  re-election,  and  was  made 
an  honorary  president  for  life.  On  resigning 
active  leadership  at  the  age  of  eighty,  she  said, 
"I  expect  to  do  more  for  woman  suffrage  in 
the  next  decade  than  ever  before." 

After  fifty  years  of  toilsome  activity  and  heroic 
devotion  to  a  principle,  her  cheerful  testimony 
is,  "I  do  not  look  back  upon  a  hard  life:  I  liave 
been  continually  at  work  because  I  enjoyed 
being  busy."  Conviction  that  her  "cause  was 
just  and  she  was  in  good  company"  helped  her 
over  many  hard  places. 

The  .secret  of  her  continuance  and  her  suc- 
cess may  be  gathered  from  the  remark  of 
Charles  Dudley  W'arner  after  a  suffrage  con- 
vention at  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  the  sixties: 
"  Susan  Anthony  is  my  favorite.  .  .  .  You 
could  .see  in  every  motion  and  in  her  very  silence 
that  the  cause  was  all  she  cared  for;  self  was 
utterly  forgotten." 

It  was  Mrs.  Stanton,  long-time  intimate 
friend  of  Mi.ss  Anthony,  who  wrote  of  her,  "  I 
can  truly  say  she  is  the  most  upright,  coura- 
geous, self-sacrificing,  magnanimous  human 
being  I  have  ever  known." 

Work  on  the  History  of  Woman  Suffrage, 
planned  by  Miss  Anthony,  Mrs.  Stanton,  and 
Mrs.  Oage,  and  which  they  expected  would 
be  a  pamphlet  of  a  few  hundretl  pages,  was 
begim  on  the  first  of  August,  1870,  at  the  home 
of  Mrs.  Stanton.  As  material  for  the  history, 
Miss  Anthony  had  collected  and  preserved, 
during    the   quarter   of   a   century    preceding. 


374 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


letters,  reports,  and  other  documents,  filling 
several  large  trunks  and  boxes.  To  examine 
and  assort  these  was  in  itself  no  slight  task.  In 
her  diary  Miss  Anthony  wrote,  "  I  am  innnersed 
to  my  ears,  and  feel  almost  discouraged.  .  .  . 
The  work  before  me  is  simply  api)alling." 
The  pamphlet  idea  was  soon  outgrown.  The 
undertaking  progressed  intermittently,  differ- 
ent writers  assisting,  Miss  Anthony  devoting 
months  antl  months  of  toil,  as  well  as  bearing 
the  burden  of  the  business  responsibility,  to 
the  conclusion.  The  first  volume  was  issued  in 
May,  1881.  The  second  volume  was  completed 
in  April,  1882.  The  third  appeared  in  Decem- 
ber, 1SS6.  These  three  were  edited  by  Mrs. 
Stanton  anil  Mrs.  Gage.  Their  preparation  and 
publication  were  made  possible  by  the  legacy  of 
Mrs.  Eliza  Jackson  Eddy.  The  fourth  volume, 
edited  by  Susan  B.  Anthony  and  Ida  Husted 
Harper,  completing  the  record  of  the  century, 
was  published  at  the  beginning  of  1003.  In 
the  account  of  the  thirty-second  annual  Suf- 
frage Convention,  in  Washington,  D.C.,  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1900,  mention  is  made  of  Miss  Anthony's 
report  as  a  delegate  to  the  International  Congress 
of  Women  in  London  in  1899  ami  her  descrip- 
tion of  the  reception  of  the  Congress  Ijy  the 
Queen  at  Windsor  Castle.  There  is  also  an  in- 
teresting account  of  the  notable  celebration  of 
Miss  Anthony's  eightieth  birthday. 

As  we  have  no  warrant  for  here  producing 
any  considerable  portion  of  the  contents  of 
Mrs.  Harper's  "  Life  and  Work  of  Susan  B. 
Anthony,"  readily  as  its  bright  paragraphs 
lend  themselves  to  quotation,  the  foregoing 
glances  and  glimpses  must  suffice  to  represent 
that  veteran  reformer  in  these  pages.  In 
conclusion  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  bi- 
ography above  named  leaves  Mi.ss  Anthonj" 
where  it  found  her — at  the  foot  of  Old  (jrey- 
lock:  here,  at  the  ancestral  homestead,  on  the 
29th  of  July,  1897,  she  attended,  as  guest  of 
honor,  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Bei'kshire 
Historical  Society,  and  on  the  following  day, 
with  a  numerous  band  of  kinsfolk  and  friemls, 
the  Anthony  Ileunion,  a  notable  gatiieriiig 
on  their  native  heath  of  many  loyal  American 
citizens,  not  a  few  of  them  true-born  sons  and 
daughters  of  New  England. 

M.  H.  G. 


HARRIET  AMANDA  CHAMBERLIN, 
a  Past  President  of  Willard  C.  Kins- 
ley Woman's  Relief  Corps,  No.  21, 
of  Somerville,  Mass.,  was  born  in 
Freeman,  Me.,  October  9,  1837,  daughter  of 
Bartholomew  and  Mary  (Tarr)  Clayton.  Her 
])arents  were  from  Farmingtun,  Me.  Her  pa- 
ternal grandfather,  John  Clayton,  a  native  of 
Manchester,  England,  came  to  America  as 
a  soldier  in  the  British  army,  and  .served  under 
General  Burgoyne  in  1777.  He  received  his 
discharge  in  September,  1783,  and  not  long 
after  settled  in  Augusta,  then  a  part  of  Hallowell, 
Me.  About  the  year  1787  he  married  Sally 
Austin.  Bartholomew,  above  named,  was 
their  seventh  child.  Two  sons  of  John 
Clayton  served  on  the  American  side  in  the 
War  of  1812,  and  twenty-three  of  his  de- 
scendants fought  for  the  I'nion  in  the  Civil 
War,  1861-65. 

Harriet  A.,  daughter  of  liartholomew  Clay- 
ton and  his  wife  Mary,  was  educated  in  the 
l^ublic  schools  of  Freeman  and  the  academy 
in  Farmington.  After  completing  her  course 
of  study  she  taught  school  for  two  years  in 
Maine,  and  then  came  to  Massachusetts. 

On  January  31,  1862,  she  was  married  to 
Russell  Topliffe  Chamberlin,  a  soldier,  of  the 
('ivil  War,  who  enlisted  from  Somerville  in 
1862  in  Com|)any  B,  Fifth  Ma.ssacluisetts  Regi- 
ment. He  is  a  member  of  Willard  (-.  Kinsley 
Post,  No.  139,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Somerville,  also  of 
the  IndependcMit  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  and 
other  organizations. 

Edmund  Russell  Chamberlin,  born  in  1863, 
the  only  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chamberlin,  died 
in  1880.  They  have  one  daughter,  Mary  Emily, 
who  was  born  July  28,  I8(i9.  She  was  married 
I'^ebruary  27,  18S9,  to  William  Nelson  Moore, 
and  has  since  resided  in  Washington,  D.C. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Moore  have  two  daughters:  Ruth, 
born  April  28,  IS9():  and  Doris,  born  Se])tember 
15,  1893. 

Mrs.  Chamberlin  has  been  a  constant  worker 
in  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union 
since  its  organization,  and  has  attended  its 
State  conventions  as  a  delegate.  Nearly  forty 
years  ago  she  imited  with  the  Sons  of  Temper- 
ance, and  is  a  Past  Worthy  Patriarch  of  Claren- 
don   Division,    of    West    Soiuerville.     She    has 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


375 


been  a  member  of  the  Helping  Hand  Society 
in  aid  of  the  Working  Girls'  Home  in  Boston. 
She  is  a  member  of  Park  Avenue  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  She  assisted  in  organizing 
the  Woman's  Auxiliary  to  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  of  Somervillc,  and  was 
for  many  years  one  of  its  most  active  members, 
having  served  as  a  member  of  committees 
and  in  other  helpful  capacities. 

The  Daughters  of  Maine,  a  large  and  pros- 
perous club  in  Somerville,  selected  her  for  its 
president  the  second  year  of  its  organization. 
Being  thoroughly  patriotic  and  the  wife  of  a 
soldier  of  the  Civil  War,  she  is  active  in  the 
WomaTi's  Relief  Corps  and  other  organizations 
formed  to  assist  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Re- 
public. In  1(S<S7  Mrs.  Chamberlin  joined  Will- 
ard  C.  Kinsley  Relief  Corps,  No.  21,  of  Somer- 
ville, and  inunediately  entered  with  earnest- 
ness into  its  work.  After  serving  in  .several 
ofhcial  positions  she  was  elected  president 
in  1S91,  and  re-elected  in  1(S92  for  a  .second  year. 
A  gain  in  membership  anil  interest  was  the 
result  to  the  corps,  which,  from  the  date  of  hei- 
administration,  was  recognized  as  one  of  the 
best  in  the  State.  She  attended  .several  de- 
partment conventions  as  a  delegate,  serving 
on  connnittees  antl  as  department  aide.  Mrs. 
Chamberlin  has  also  participated  as  a  delegate 
in  national  conventions,  and  has  travelled 
extensively  in  an  official  capacity.  For  th(> 
last  eighteen  years  she  lias  been  a  meml)er  of 
the  Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  the  Soldiers' 
Home  in  Massachusetts. 

Her  name  is  on  the  charter  list  of  Ramona 
Lodge,  Daughters  of  Rebekah,  of  Somerville, 
and  she  was  its  first  Noble  Grand,  taking  ;ui 
interest  in  the  charitable  and  .social  work  oi 
the  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows.  For 
two  years  she  was  president  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Association  that  was  formed  to  as.sist  the  Som- 
erville Hospital.  Mrs.  t'hamberlin  is  also  a 
member  of  the  Somerville  Historical  Society. 
Her  brother.  Major  William  Z.  Clayton,  of 
Bangor,  is  a  Past  Department  Connnander  of 
th"  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  of  Maine. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chamberlin  are  respected,  not 
only  for  the  efficiency  of  their  work  in  organiza- 
tions, but  for  tlio.se  social  cjualities  that  gain 
friends  in  public  and  private  life. 


ESTELLE  M.  H.  MERRILL,  journalist, 
was  born  at  Jefferson,  Lincoln  County, 
Me.,  in  1858,  daughter  of  Oilman  E. 
and  Celenda  S.  Hatch.  As  a  child 
Estelle  M.  Hatch  attended  the  public  schools 
of  her  native  town.  At  fourteen  years  of  age 
she  entered  Wheaton  Seminary,  Norton,  Mass., 
and  upon  her  graduation  returnetl  to  Jeffer- 
son to  teach.  At  the  end  of  two  years'  suc- 
cessful work  in  that  place  she  again  came  to 
Massachusetts,  and  taught  school  for  three 
years  in  Hyde  Park.  She  will  always  be 
gratefully  remembered  as  a  strong  factor  in 
establishing  in  the  public  schools  of  Hyde 
Park  an  additional  course,  giving  practical 
business  training,  opportunities  for  which  pre- 
viously could  be  obtained  only  at  private 
schools. 

A  lover  of  nature  from  her  girlhood,  when 
she  u.seil  to  wander  through  the  Maine  woods, 
iluring  h'cr  periotl  of  teaching  in  the  grannnar 
and  high  school  gratles  at  Hyde  Park  .she  was 
fitting  herself  at  the  Harvard  Aimex  and 
with  private  teachers  to  take  a  professorship 
in  botany,  her  favorite  study.  She  also  fur- 
nished at  intervals  articles  for  the  Boston 
Transcript,  written  under  the  signature  of 
"Jean  Kincaid." 

A  break  in  health,  the  result  of  overwork, 
necessitated  rest  and  change.  During  her  long 
convalescence  she  used  her  pen  more  and 
more,  her  first  regular  work  as  a  journalist 
being  on  the  Boston  Globe.  From  furnishing 
si«'cial  articles  she  progressed  to  a  salaried 
position.  Journalism  became  such  a  fasci- 
nating occupation  that,  though  she  was  offered 
a  lucrative  professorship  in  botany  in  a  South- 
ern college  at  this  juncture,  she  chose  to  re- 
main in  the  newspaper  field. 

On  October  1,  1887,  she  was  married  to  Mr. 
Sanuiel  Men-ill,  a  native  of  Charlestown,  N.H., 
a  member  of  the  Suffolk  County  bar  anil  of 
the  editorial  staff  of  the  Boston  Globe. 

Mrs.  Merrill  is  well-known  as  a  leatler  and 
speaker  in  the  club  world.  She  is  the  foumler 
of  the  Cantabrigia  Club,  of  which  she  is  now 
honorary  vice-president;  was  one  of  the  char- 
ter members  of  the  New  England  Woman's 
Press  Association  and  its  first  secretary:  is 
president  of  the  Wheaton  Seminary  Club  and 


376 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


an  active  member  of  the  Fathers'  and  Moth- 
ers' Club.  Interested  in  many  philanthropical 
movements,  she  is  vice-president  of  the  Wom- 
an's Charity  Club  and  an  officer  in  the  Asso- 
ciated Charities  of  Cambridge.  She  is  a  pleas- 
ing and  instructive  lecturer  on  a  vari(>ty  of 
subjects,  especially  on  educational  and  sociolog- 
ical questions. 

She  has  recently  become  co-editor,  with 
Dr.  Mary  Wood  Allen,  of  American  Mothcr- 
hood,  a  Boston  magazine  devoted  to  the  in- 
terests of  mothers  and  home-makers. 


LAVINA  J.  SPAULDING  (Mrs.  William 
C.  Spaulding),  president  of  the  Aroos- 
^  took  County  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  was  born  in  Pugwash, 
N.S.,  but  from  early  childhood  has  been  a  resi- 
dent of  Maine.  Her  ])arents,  John  and  Sarah 
(King)  Sterling,  were  natives  of  Halifax,  N.S., 
and  both  came  of  good  olil  Kngli.sh  stock.  Her 
grandparents  on  the  motiier's  side  were  Charles 
and  Sarah  King,  and  on  her  father's  side  were 
Captain  John  and  Margaret  Sterling,  of  Hali- 
fax, N.S. 

When  Lavina  Sterling  was  too  young  to 
remember  very  distinctly  the  place  of  her  na- 
tivity or  to  have  any  strong  affiliations  there- 
with, her  parents  removcnl  to  Fort  Fairfield, 
Me.  She  was  thus  reared  and  educated  under 
the  American  flag,  and  is  intensely  American 
in  all  her  instincts  and  proclivities. 

It  was  in  the  pioneer  days  of  Northern  Maine, 
when  the  location  of  the  north-eastern  boundary 
was  a  mooted  (piestion  between  the  govern- 
ments of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
that  the  Sterling  home  was  established  in  the 
frontier  town  of  J'^ort  Fairfield.  .John  Sterling, 
the  father,  at  once  became  one  of  the  feading 
men  of  the  little  settlement,  which  at  that  time 
was  merely  an  opening  in  the  grand  old  "forest 
primeval,"  where  a  few  hardy  and  adventurous 
spirits,  like  himself,  had  penetrated  the  wilder- 
ness and  made  homes  for  themselves  and  fam- 
ilies. 

His  house  was  the  central  point  of  the  new 
settlement  and  the  hospitable  abiding-place 
of  all  strangers  who  cnme  ff)r  a  temjiorary  stay 
in   the  little  forest   village.     The  locality  had 


been  one  of  the  most  imjjortant  points 
in  the  famous  Aroostook  War,  when  the 
State  of  Maine  made  its  brave  and  manly 
protest  against  the  encroachments  of  British 
greed;  and  a  log  fort  and  blockhouse  had  been 
there  erected  under  Governoi-  Fairfield's  admin- 
istration, thus  giving  the  name  to  the  frontier 
town. 

liefore  the  glowing  fire  of  hard-wood  logs, 
piled  high  upon  the  ample  hearth,  the  younger 
members  of  the  Sterling  family  listened  to  the 
stories  of  the  stirring  times  when  the  homes  of 
the  villagers  were  upon  "disputed  territory," 
and  when  Great  Britain  was  striving  to  gain 
permanent  possession  of  this  fair  land.  Amid 
these  healthful  natural  surroundings  was  the 
youth  of  Lavina  Sterling  passed,  and  within 
the  influence  of  these  stui'dy  conditions  was 
her  character"  formed.  Here  she  early  imbibed 
those  sterling  ((ualities  of  mind  and  heart  which 
.she  has  continued  to  retain,  even  after  the 
union  with  the  man  of  her  choice  brought  with 
it  a.  change  of  name. 

These  frontier  villages  in  Northern  Aroostook 
developed  with  wonderful  rapidity  after  the 
treaty  of  1S42  had  terininateil  the  long  contro- 
versy and  established  the  boundary  beyond 
dispute.  Soon  good  schools  were  established, 
and,  as  the  ])opulation  rapidly  increased  liy 
the  innnigration  of  sturdy  settlers,  a  degree  of 
culture  obtained,  rugged  at  first,  of  necessity, 
but  based  upon  the  honest  {principle  that  in 
their  isolated  condition  all  ilmst  work  heartily 
tf)gether  for  the  common  weal. 

In  the  public  schools  of  the  town  Miss  Ster- 
ling acquired  the  rudiments  of  a  good  English 
education,  which  was  su{)plemente(l  by  a  course 
of  study  in  Houlton  Academy,  now  Kicker 
Classical  Institute.  In  July,  1865,  she  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Mr.  \\'illiam  Cole  Spauld- 
ing, of  Buckfield,  Me.,  now  one  of  the  most 
prosperous  merchants  of  Aroostook  County. 
Mrs.  SpauUling  had  two  children,  both  worthy 
sons  of  a  devoted  mother.  John  Sterling 
vSpaulding,  who,  after  coming  to  man's  estate, 
entered  into  business  witfi  his  father,  passed 
to  the  higher  life  on  December  15,  1896.  The 
remaining  son,  Atwood  William  Spaulding, 
was  military  secretary,  with  the  rank  of  Major, 
on  the  staff  of  Governor  Powers.     He  is  at  the 


ANNA   FLORENCE  GRANT 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


377 


present  time  in  business  with  his  father  in 
Caribou. 

In  comparatively  early  life,  when  she  w^as 
the  centre  of  a  beautiful  and  attractive  home, 
with  a  devoted  husband  ever  striving  to  pro- 
mote her  wishes,  and  when  two  affectionate 
sons  were  in  the  most  receptive  years  of  child- 
hood and  youth,  Mrs.  Spaulding  became  deeply 
interested  in  the  aims  ami  purposes  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  be- 
coming a  member  in  the  early  years  of  its  his- 
tory. To  the  upbuilding  of  this  organization 
and  to  the  working  out  of  its  principles  she  has 
spared  no  reasonable  effort.  At  home,  abroad, 
in  legislative  halls,  in  church  councils,  and 
in  social  circles  she  has  given  voice  to  her  sin- 
cerest  convictions.  Her  abilities  and  thorough, 
conscientious  integrity  were  early  recognized 
in  the  v*^tate  organization,  where  she  has  occu- 
pied responsil)le  otlicial  positions.  Some  of 
these  she  resigned  upon  the  earnest  solicitation 
of  friends  (who  saw  the  need  of  her  esi)ecia] 
services  in  the  county),  to  accept  in  1SS9  the 
county  presidency,  which  honorable  position 
she  still  holds. 

Mrs.  S]xuilding  has  taken  an  active  part  in 
all  good  works  and  never  missed  an  op])ortunity 
to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  any  unfortunate 
who  comes  within  her  notice.  At  home  and 
within  the  thriving  village  of  Caribou  her  most 
active  work  has  been  done,  and  here  she  is  best 
loved  and  most  appreciated.  It  was  largely 
due  to  her  efforts,  aidetl  by  a  few  other  public- 
spirited  ladies  of  the  town,  that  the  town  library 
was  first  established.  This  library,  '  which 
was  first  maintained  as  a  reading-room,  soon 
outgrew  its  original  resources,  and  was  turned 
over  to  the  town. 

Mrs.  Spaulding  is  also  president  of  the  Social 
Club  of  Caribou,  organized  in  1898,  is  an  active 
member  of  the  Literary  Club,  and  is  in  close 
touch  with  all  the  agencies,  charital)le  and  other- 
wise, for  the  im])rovement  of  the  town  and  the 
best  interests  of  its  citizens.  In  religious  mat- 
ters her  affiliation  is  with  the  Episcopal  church. 

Mrs.  S|)aulding  is  a  w'oman  of  pleasing  pres- 
ence, bright,  attractive,  and  a  most  interesting 
conversationalist.  In  giving  attention  to  public 
work  she  has  never,  in  the  least,  neglected  her 
household  duties.     Her  charming  residence  in 


Caribou  is  an  ideal  home,  where  all  the  domestic 
virtues  are  fully  exemplified. 

This  brief  notice  was  written  by  one  who  has 
long  known  and  loved  her,  and  who.se  most 
difficult  task,  in  writing  these  lines,  has  been  to 
refrain  from  too  much  of  compliment  and  praise, 
he  being  aware  that  anything  like  fulsome 
flattery  would  be  to  her  extremely  distasteful. 

E.  w. 


ANNA  FLORENCE  GRANT,  printer, 
/\  is  a  native  of  Portland,  Maine.  Her 
-Z  _\.  parents.  Captain  Frank  M.  and  Joan 
Morse  (Grant)  Grant,  removing  to  Bos- 
ton in  her  girlhood,  her  education  was  received 
in  the  public  schools  of  both  cities.  After 
her  graduation  she  took  a  full  cour.se  at  Bur- 
ilett's  Business  College,  which  she  completed 
with  honors.  Her  aptitutle  for  a  business  ca- 
reer early  began  to  manifest  itself,  and,  when  she 
was  only  twenty  years  old,  she  availed  herself 
of  an  opportunity  to  buy  out  the  printing  e.s- 
tablishment  on  Court  Street,  Boston,  of  two 
young  men  who  were  selling  out.  Becom- 
ing proprietor  of  the  entire  business  plant, 
she  proceeded  to  luiild  up  a  trade.  In  these 
times  of  sharp  competition  it  is  no  simple  mat- 
ter to  achieve  success  along  any  line,  and  the 
art  preservative  of  all  arts  is  far  from  being 
an  exception.  This  Mi.ss  Grant,  with  her  su- 
perior ([ualifications  and  recognizing  no  such 
word  as  fail,  has  done.  Entering  the  business 
without  previous  experience  other  than  that 
gained  by  frequenting  a  printing-office  and 
learning  to  set  type  as  a  pastime,  she  cjuickly 
mastered  the  details,  and  became  very  proficient 
in  type-setting,  proof-reading,  making-up,  and 
printing. 

At  this  time  Miss  Grant  was  the  only  woman 
in  Boston  who  owned  and  operated  a  printing 
establishment — an  establishment,  too,  of  which 
any  man  might  well  be  proud,  containing  large 
presses  run  by  electricity  and  having  men  as 
type-setters  and  in  the  shipping-room.  Dur- 
ing the  first  year  (1891)  she  advertised  largely, 
and  received  orders  from  every  State  and  Ter- 
ritory in  the  Union,  as  well  as  some  from  abroad. 
One  important  factor  in  her  business  is  the  en- 
graving  and   printing   of   fine   invitations  and 


378 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OE   NEW   ENGLAND 


cards  for  weddings  and  society  events  gener- 
ally. Another  department  in  which  she  takes 
especial  pride  is  that  of  making  blank  bonks, 
in  connection  with  which  she  takes  orders  for 
binding,  ruling,  perforating,  and  electrotyping. 
She  has  printed  everything,  from  a  newspaper 
to  a  label  the  size  of  a  postage  stanij);  from 
cards  to  law  blanks,  pamphlets,  and  books. 

She  is  stationer  for  several  leading  women's 
clubs,  and  does  stamping  and  embossing  of 
the  best  (luality.  She  is  a  very  careful  manager, 
making  all  her  own  estimates  and  figuring  on 
contract  work.  She  has  many  original  ideas 
about  her  work,  one  of  her  specialties  being 
advertising  novelties.  She  has  also  manu- 
factured some  labor-saving  devices  for  the 
counting-room,  one  of  which,  the  "acme  petty 
ledger,"  has  met  with  a  large  sale.  Her  present 
place  of  business  is  at  42  Summer  Street. 

Miss  Grant  is  a  womanly  woman,  controlling 
her  office  with  a  dignity  and  kindly  authority 
which  have  won  for  her  the  high  respect  of 
all  her  employees.  Possessed  of  great  tact 
and  the  courage  which  makes  stepping-stones 
of  obstacles,  her  progress  has  been  steadily 
onward;  and,  with  '^Semper  fideiis"  for  her 
motto,  she  has  truly  deserved  her  success. 


CLARA  L.  BROWN  DYER,  artist, 
was  born  in  Cajie  Elizabeth,  Me., 
March  L3,  1S49,  daughter  of  Captain 
Peter  Weare  and  Lucy  A.  (Jones) 
Brown.  Her  father,  who  was  born  February 
11,  1818,  son  of  Jacob  and  Lucy  (Pierce) 
Brown,  was  a  master  mariner,  and  spent  a 
great  part  of  his  life  at  sea,  often  accompanietl 
by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Dyer.  He  was  trusted 
and  beloved  for  his  many  sterling  ((ualities. 
Jacob  Brown,  Mrs.  Dyer's  paternal  grand- 
father, was  .son  of  Licmtenaiit  Peter  Weare 
Brown  and  his  wife,  Eunice  Braun,  grandson 
of  Major  Jacob,  Jr.,  and  Lydia  (Weare)  Brown, 
and  great-grandson  of  Jacob  Brown,  Sr.,  and 
his  wife  Mary. 

Major  Jacob  Brown,  Jr.,  of  North  Yarmouth, 
Me.,  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War  in  Colo- 
nel Edmund  Phinney's  regiment  (Thirty-first) 
in  1775  and  1776,  entering  service  April  24, 
1775.     His  name  appears  in  a  list  of  officers 


reconnnended  l)y  the  Council,  October  6,  1757, 
to  be  commissioned  by  General  Washington. 
Later  he  was  First  Major,  Colonel  Jonathan 
Mitchell's  (Cumberland  County)  regiment,  July 
6,  1777,  to  September  25,  1779,  exj)edition 
against  Penobscot.  He  married  July  13,  1743, 
Lydia,  daughter  of  Captain  Peter  and  Sarah 
( Felt)  Weare. 

Peter  Weare  Brown,  Sr.,  was  a  private  in 
Captain  John  W^)rthley's  company.  Colonel 
K.   Phinney's  regiment,  May  S,   1775,   to  July 

0,  1775;  early  in  1770  was  Ensign  in  Captain 
Nathan  ^^'alker's  company;  promoted  to  Sec- 
ond Lieutenant,  April  15,  1776,  and  served 
until    December   31,    1776.     He   enlistetl   July 

1,  1778,  in  Captain  Benjamin  Lemont's  com- 
pany, Colonel  Nathaniel  Wade's  regiment, 
and  served  six  months  and  twelve  days  in 
Rhode  Islantl.  He  died  February  2S,  1830. 
In  his  old  age  he  received  a  [xuision. 

Mrs.  Dyer's  mother,  Mrs.  Lucy  Jones  Brown, 
who  is  now  in  her  eighty-second  year,  was 
born  November  25,  1S22,  daughter  of  Cyrus 
and  Rebecca  (Tyler)  Jones.  During  the  War 
of  1812  Cyrus  Jones,  Mrs.  Dyer's  maternal 
grandfather,  helped  to  defend  Portland.  He 
also  carried  a  load  of  specie  in  a  four-ox 
team  in  the  winter  time  from  Portland  to  Can- 
ada for  the  government.  On  September  2, 
1817,  he  was  commissioned  by  Governor  John 
Brooks  Captain  of  a  company  in  the  Third 
Regiment  of  Infantry,  First  Brigade,  Twelfth 
Division,  of  the  militia  of  Ma.ssachusetts.  His 
grandson,  Cyrus  .Jones  Brown,  brother  of  Mrs. 
Dyer,  served  twenty  months  in  the  United 
States  Navy  in  the  Civil  W^ar.  He  now  receives 
a  pension. 

Rebecca  Tyler,  wife  of  C'yrus  .Jones  and 
grandmother  of  Mrs.  Dyer,  was  born  June  25, 
1795.  She  was  daughter  of  John  Tyler,  of 
Pownal,  Me.,  and  his  wife,  Lucy  Trickey,  who 
belonged  to  one  of  the  old  families  of  York 
County.  John  Tyler,  father  of  Rebecca,  was 
son  of  Captain  Abraham  Tyler,  of  Scarboro, 
Me.,  a  Revolutionary  soldier  and  pensioner. 

.\braham  Tyler  raised  his  own  com|)any 
and  marched  in  response  to  the  Lexington 
alarm,  serving  as  Captain  in  the  Eighteenth 
Continental  Regiment  during  the  siege  of 
Boston  and  the  Ticonderoga  campaign  of  1776, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


379 


also  in  Culoiiel  Thomas  Poor's  regiment,  May 
15,  1778,  to  February  17,  1779.  His  son, 
Abraham  Tyler,  Jr.,  enlisted  in  1781  for  tliree 
years  in  Captain  John  Brooks's  company. 
Seventh  Regiment. 

James  Tyler,  father  of  Captain  Abraham 
Tyler,  is  saiil  to  have  come  to  Scarboro,  Me., 
from  Cape  Porpoise  (Arundel)  in  1718.  James 
Tyler  died  in  Scarboro  in  1749,  his  will  being 
probated  in  July  of  that  year.  He  was  survived 
by  his  wife  Phebe,  sons  Abraham  and  Royal, 
and  two  daughters.  He  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  James  Tyler  who  was  born  May  7,  1685, 
son  of  Moses  and  Prudence  Tyler  (town  rec- 
ords, Andover,  Mass.). 

Moses  Tyler,  of  Andover  and  Boxford  (son 
of  Jot)'),  and  Prudence  Blake  were  married 
in  July,  1666. 

Job  Tyler,  father  of  Moses,  is  reputed  to 
have  been  the  first  settler  of  Andover,  Mass. 
A  monument  erectetl  to  his  memory  in  North 
Andover  was  dedicated  Ijy  the  Tyler  Family 
Association  hi  September,  1901. 

Captain  Abraham  Tyler,  of  Scarboro,  is  said 
to  have  residetl  in  Andover  before  the  death 
of  his  father.  He  lived  to  the  age  of  one  hun- 
dred years.  He  was  much  respected,  and  tilled 
many  public  offices  in  Scarboro. 

In  1870  Clara  L.  Brown  married  a  promi- 
nent merchant  of  Portland,  Charles  A.  Dyer, 
son  of  James  antl  Lucy  W.  (Cushing)  Dyer. 
Mr.  Dyer's  paternal  grandfather,  Paul  Dyer, 
of  Ca])e  Elizabeth,  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revo- 
luti(jn.  His  name  is  in  a  descriptive  list  of 
men  rai,sed  in  Cumberland  County  in  1778  for 
nine  months.  Captain  Jordan's  (also  given 
Captain  Strout's)  company.  Colonel  Noyes's 
regiment;  arrived  at  Fishkill  June  22,  1778; 
age,  eighteen  years;  also  private,  Cai^tain 
Peter  W^arren's  company,  Colonel  Mitchell's 
regiment,  on  Penobscot  expedition,  July  7  to 
September  25,  1779;  in  October  in  Captain 
Joseph  Pride's  company;  and  in  1780,  May  4 
to  December  30,  in  Captain  Isaac  Parsons's 
company.  Colonel  Prime's  regiment,  under 
Brigadier  General  AVadsworth  at  the  eastward. 

Mr.  Dyer's  mother  died  in  1899,  aged  ninety- 
five  years.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Ezekiel 
and  Thankful  (Woodbury)  Cushing  and  grand- 
daughter   of    Colonel    Ezekiel    Cushing,    who 


removed  from  Massachusetts  to  Falmouth, 
Me.,  where  he  was  a  merchant  and  ship-owner 
and  one  of  the  leading  citizens,  holding  the 
highest  military  office  in  Maine.  Colonel  Gush- 
ing died  in  1765.  He  was  son  of  the  Rev. 
Jeremiah  Cu.shing,  of  Scituate,  and  great- 
grandson  of  Matthew  Cushing,  who  came  from 
Hingham,  Englantl,  to  Hinghain,  New  England, 
in  1638. 

The  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Dyer 
since  their  marriage  has  always  been  in  Port- 
land. As  Mrs.  Dyer  had  been  well  drilled 
in  elocution  and  in  parliamentary  usage,  she 
became  a  power  in  the  club  work  of  the  city. 
She  has  served  as  president  of  the  Faneuil 
Clul)  and  also  of  the  Mutual  Improvement 
Club,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Civic,  Cresco, 
and  Conklin  Class.  For  two  years  she  was 
cliairman  of  the  School-room  Decoration  CV)m- 
mittee,  and  while  working  in  this  line  gave  a 
lecture  (jn  "  Across  the  Sierras  to  the  Yo- 
semite,"  which  was  most  favorably  commented 
on  liy  the  press,  and  added  seventy-five  tlol- 
lars  to  the  fund.  As  a  member  of  the  Liter- 
ary Union,  she  took  part  in  the  e.xerci.ses  of 
two  of  the  educational  afternoons,  one  devotetl 
to  art,  the  other  to  travel,  speaking,  as  she 
•always  does,  entirely  without  notes.  At  the 
time  of  the  Spanish-American  War  she  served 
on  the  executive  connnittee  of  the  Volunteer 
Aitl  Association,  which  did  effectual  work. 
In  the  year  1900  she  was  Vice-President  at 
large  of  the  Woman's  Council. 

Mrs.  Dyer  was  organizer  of  the  National 
Society  of  United  States  Daughters  of  1812, 
State  of  Maine,  of  which  she  is  now  President. 
She  has  also  been  Thinl  Vice-President  of  the 
.Natioiud  Society. 

In  1880  Mrs.  Dyer  took  up  the  study  of  ilraw- 
ing  antl  painting,  in  which  arts  she  has  risen 
to  much  prominence.  A  brief  sketch  of  the 
results  of  the  first  years  of  her  work  appeared 
in  "A  W^oman  of  the  Century."  She  has  been 
a  most  enthusiastic  and  persevering  student, 
having  taken  a  thorough  course  in  an  art 
school  under  able  instructors  from  abroad, 
drawing  from  the  antique  anil  from  life. 
She  has  paid  considerable  attention  to  por- 
trait painting,  but  is  seen  at  her  best  in  land- 
scapes.    Some  of  these  appeared  on  the  walls 


380 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  the  Boston  Art  C-lub  in  four  successive  years. 
Her  work  was  represented  at  all  the  exhibi- 
tions of  the  Portland  Society  of  Art.  One  of 
her  landscapes  was  thus  mentioned :  "  The 
live,  graceful  treatment  of  the  long  ranks  of 
willows,  the  shadowy  foreground,  contrasting 
with  the  airy,  sunlighted  middle  distance,  all 
suggest  the  great  French  master,  Corot"; 
again,  "The  work  is  strong,  showing  almost 
a  masculine  touch."  Of  the  three  pictures 
that  she  exhibited  at  the  Midwinter  Fair  in 
San  Francisco  a  critic  said,  "Tiie  man  who 
painted  these  pictures  knew  his  Inisiness." 
She  made  many  sketches  while  in  the  Sierras  and 
Yosemite  Valley.  She  has  devoted  much  time 
to  teaching,  being  instructor  of  drawing  and 
painting  at  Westbrook  Seminary,  Portland,  Me. 

Mrs.  Dyer  passed  the  summer  of  1902  in 
Europe,  visiting  the  art  galleries  and  the  Brit- 
ish Museum  in  London,  the  Louvre  and  IjUx- 
embourg  in  Paris,  the  Vatican  in  Rome,  also 
galleries  in  Florence,  ^'enice,  Naples,  Milan, 
Amsterdam,  and  the  Hague.  Since  her  return 
she  has  produced  from  her  sketches  many  in- 
teresting pictures  of  Venice  and  Holland. 

Mrs.  U)'er  was  among  the  first  memliers  of 
the  Society  of  Art  and  the  Portland  Art  League. 
In  1890  she  was  elected  a  memlier  of  the  execu- 
tive and  special  conmiittees.  Much  of  her 
work  has  been  copied  to  illustrate  art  cata- 
logues. She  has  proved  henself  generous  by 
giving  paintings  to  increase  by  their  sale  the 
funds  of  needy  societies. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dyer  have  one  son,  James 
Franklin  Dyer.  He  was  graduated  from  Brown 
University  with  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1899, 
and  then  studied  law  at  the  New  York  Law 
School.  He  married  Octol)er  20,  1902,  Amy 
Hoppin  Aldrich,  of  Providence,  R.I.,  where 
they  now  reside. 


ROSELTH  ADAMS  KNAPP  was  born 
August  27,  1854,  in  South  Boston, 
^  Mass.  She  is  a  daughter  of  the  late 
.loseph  Moulton  and  Abigail  (Weed) 
Adams.  Her  father,  a  native  of  New  London, 
N.H.,  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Theophilus 
Bradbury  Adams,  a  Baptist  clergyman,  and 
a  lineal  ilescendant  of  Robert  Adams,  an  early 


.settler  of  Newbury,  Mass.  Her  maternal 
grandfather  was  Elijah  Weed,  of  Unity,  N.H. 

Roselth  Adams  attended  a  private  school 
in  South  Boston  until  she  was  eight  years  of 
age,  when  her  parents  moved  to  Cambridge- 
l)ort,  where  she  completed  her  education  in 
the  public  schools.  She  also  studied  voice 
culture,  and  for  several  years  was  connected 
with  the  choir  of  the  Broadway  Baptist 
Ohurch,  Cambridgeport.  She  was  a  popular 
singer  at  musicales  and  f)ther  entertainments, 
and  often  sang  at  social  and  public  gatherings 
with  Allen  Brown,  donor  of  the  musical  library 
tluit  is  kept  in  the  departmcMit  room  known 
as  the  Bi'own  Room  of  tlie  Boston  Public 
Library.  She  was  married  in  November, 
1878,  by  the  Rev.  A.  E.  Winsliip,  to  Samuel 
Knapp,  of  Somerville. 

Since  her  marriage  Mrs.  Knapp  has  lived 
in  Somerville.  As  a  member  of  the  Prospect 
Hill  Congregational  Church,  she  is  interested  in 
its  religious  and  charitable  work.  In  IS79  she 
joined  the  Independent  Relief  Corps,  of  Som- 
erville, which  was  connected  with  Willard  C. 
Kinsley  Post,  G.  A.  R.  This  was  one  of  the 
first  women's  societies  in  Massachusetts  recog- 
nized as  an  auxiliary  to  a  post  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic.  Although  the  corps 
was  very  prosperous  as  a  local  organization, 
it  decided  in  18S2  to  broaden  its  work  and  re- 
organize as  a  subordinate  corps  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  W.  R.  C,  imder  the 
title  of  Willard  C.  Kinsley  Relief  Corps,  No. 
21.  Mrs.  Knapj)  was  a  charter  member,  and 
after  serving  in  several  offices  was  installed 
as  President  in  January,  1886.  With  faith- 
fulness and  ability  she  performed  the  duties 
of  her  fiffice  throughout  the  year,  and  t)y  her 
cortlial  manner  gained  many  friends  in  other 
corps.  The  appointments  of  Department 
Aide,  Assistant  Insjwctor,  and  Installing 
Officer  having  been  conferred  upon  her  by 
Department  Presidents,  she  has  performed  the 
duties  of  these  several  positions  with  credit. 
At  the  annual  conventions  of  the  Department 
of  Massachusetts,  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  Mrs. 
Knapp  has  been  entrusted  with  important 
committee  work,  and  in  1886  was  elected  a  dele- 
gate at  large  to  the  national  convention  at 
Columbus,  Ohio. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


381 


Mrs.  Knapp  is  a  proiiiineiit  iiieinber  of  J. 
Howartl  Payne  Council  of  the  Home  Circle 
of  North  Cambridge,  and  served  one  term  as 
its  leader.  She  is  also  a  member  of  the  In- 
dependent Social  Club,  of  the  Patriotic  Order 
of  America,  and  the  Somerville  Lodge,  Inde- 
pendent Order  of  Oikl  Ladies,  in  which  she 
has  filled  most  of  the  chairs,  including  that 
of  presiding  officer.  Mrs.  Knapp  has  two 
brothers  and  three  sisters,  idz.:  Joseph  M. 
Adams  of  Worcester,  Adelbert  A.  Adams  of 
Cambridge,  Mrs.  Abbic  A.  Tower  of  California, 
Mrs.  Clara  L.  Wiswell  of  Somerville,  and  Mrs. 
Laura  E.  Mirick  of  Winthrop. 

Her  sister,  Mrs.  Abbie  Adams  Tower,  is  a 
teacher  of  elocution  and  physical  training,  also 
a  lecturer  and  reader.  She  is  a  graduate  of 
the  Emerson  School  of  Oratory,  of  the  Teach- 
ers' Science  Course  of  Lowell  Institute,  ami 
is  interested  in  art,  science,  and  philosophy. 
Among  her  professional  duties  is  that  of  teacher 
of  parliamentary  law.  Mrs.  Tower  is  presi- 
dent of  the  Ruskin  Club  of  Boston. 

Mr.  Knapp  was  born  in  1846  in  Newbury- 
)iort,  Ma.ss.,  and  is  a  son  of  the  late  Captain 
Samuel  Knajip,  of  that  city.  When  seven- 
teen years  of  age  he  enlistetl  in  the  Fifth  Massa- 
chusetts Regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel 
George  H.  Pierson,  and  was  mustered  into 
the  service  as  a  member  of  Company  B,  July 
28,  1864,  at  which  time  the  regiment  left 
Camp  Meigs,  Readville,  for  the  South.  Mr. 
Knapp  is  a  comrade  of  Willard  C.  Kinsley 
Post,  No.  139,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Somerville,  is  a 
past  leader  of  J.  Howard  Payne  Council  of  the 
Home  Circle  of  North  Cambridge  and  chair- 
man of  its  Board  of  Trustees,  a  member  of 
Franklin  Lodge,  Knights  of  Pythias,  of  Somer- 
ville, and  of  the  West  Somwville  Social  C'lub. 
He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Winthrop  Yacht 
Club. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Knapp  have  many  friends  in 
various  sections  of  the  State.  Their  only  child, 
Roselth  Adams,  was  born  in  Somerville,  Sep- 
tember 1,  1879.  She  was  married  September 
17,  1902,  to  Granville  Domett  Breed,  of 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  a  direct  descendant  of  the 
family  once  the  owners  of  Breed's  Hill, 
Charlestown.  Mrs.  Breed  is  a  professional 
elocutionist.     She  is  a  member  of  the  Ruskin 


Club,  an  officer  in  the  J.  Howanl  Payne  Council 
of  the  Home  Circle,  anil  a  member  of  the  \\'ill- 
ard  C.  Kinsley  Relief  Corps. 


ANNA    DOW    HINDS    CHAPMAN,   vice- 

/\  jiresident  since  November,  1890,  of  the 
X  \.  Portland  McAll  Auxiliary,  has  a  na- 
tional reputation  as  a  worker  for  the 
McAll  Mission.  A  resilient  of  Portland,  her 
native  city,  she  is  active  in  church  and  philan- 
thropic work,  and  is  also  a  recognized  social 
leatler. 

Her  parents,  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Adri- 
anna  Veazie  (Cha.se)  Hinds,  were  both  born  in 
Maine  in  the  thirties  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
her  father  being  the  .son  of  Elisha  and  Ann  P. 
(Dow)  Hinds.  Jienjamin  F.  Hinds  was  for 
over  thirty  years  assistant  cashier  at  the  Port- 
land Custom  House.  He  ilied  in  1897.  Mrs. 
Hinds,  Mrs.  Chapman's  mother,  was  a  woman 
of  great  religious  faith.  This  she  inherited 
from  her  mother,  Mrs.  Sarah  Frances  Chase, 
who  was  known  for  her  love  of  the  church  and 
her  great  benevolence. 

Anna  Dow  Hinds  was  educated  in  the 
public  schools  of  Portland  and  at  Bratlford 
Academy,  Bradford,  Mass.,  where  she  was 
graduated  in  1872.  She  sub.seciuently  taught 
in  one  of  the  grammar  schools  of  Portland. 
In  the  fall  of  1875  she  resigned  her  position 
as  teacher,  and  married  the  Hon.  Charles  J. 
Chapman,  one  of  the  leailing  citizens  of  Port- 
land. Mr.  Chapman  was  graduated  from 
Bowdoin  College  with  high  honors  in  1868. 
For  many  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  Port- 
land School  Board,  a  part  of  the  time  as  super- 
intendent of  schools.  He  was  prominent  in 
Republican  politics,  and  was  Mayor  of  Port- 
lanil  in  1886,  1887,  and  1888.  The  latter 
year  he  was  elected  by  a  largely  increased 
majority,  and  his  administration  received  the 
support  of  both  parties.  He  was  a  success- 
ful merchant  and  banker.  For  several  years 
he  was  president  of  the  Chapman  Bank,  and 
he  held  this  position  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  occurretl  sudiienly  in  the  fall  of  1898. 
Clear-headed,  upright,  and  progressive,  as 
a  business  man  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century,    engageil     in    large    mercantile    and 


382 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


financial  transactions,  and  as  a  public  official, 
he  commanded  the  confidence  and  respect  of 
the  entire  community.  His  loss  was  widely 
and  deeply  felt. 

Mrs.  Chapman  was  a  helpmeet  and  com- 
panion to  her  husband,  rendering  by  her 
social  ([ualities  valuable  assistance  during  his 
political  career.  She  has  had  a  memorial 
window  placed  in  Williston  Cliurch  (Congre- 
gational). It  was  unveiled  the  Easter  follow- 
ing his  death. 

Five  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Chapman,  and  all  of  them  are  living,  namely: 
Marion  Carter;  Robert  Franklin,  who  was 
graduated  at  Bowdoin  College  in  19(J0;  Charles 
Jarvis,  Jr.  (Yale,  1905);  Philip  Freeland  (Bow- 
doin, 1906);  and  Harrison  Carter. 

While  deeply  interestetl  in  her  church  and 
mi.ssionary  work,  Mrs.  Chapman  always  finds 
time  to  jilan  for  her  children's  pleasure.  Her 
house  in  Portland  and  her  sunnner  home, 
"The  Towers,"  at  Great  Diamond  Island  in 
Casco  Bay,  are  usually  filled  with  young 
people. 

For  the  past  twelve  years  Mrs.  Chapman 
has  been  a  leading  spirit  in  Maine  in  the  work 
of  the  McAll  Mission,  to  which  she  is  earnestly 
devoted.  This  mission  was  founded  by  the 
Rev.  Robert  W.  McAll  (Congregationalist), 
a  native  of  Macclesfield,  England,  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  religious  instruction,  "highly 
evangelical  and  undenominational,"  to  the 
common  people  of  France.  The  wf)rk  was 
begun  in  Paris  by  Mr.  McAll  and  his  wife 
in  July,  1872,  and  continued  by  him  until 
his  death  in  1893.  Dispensaries,  industrial 
schools,  and  reading-rooms  are  sustained  by 
the  mi.ssion,  which  does  not  establish  churches. 
The  American  McAll  A.ssociation,  for  the 
collection  of  funds,  was  founded  in  1883. 

The  Portland  McAll  Auxiliary,  for  the 
same  object,  was  organized  in  February,  1887, 
in  State  Street  Chapel,  under  the  direction 
of  Professor  J.  C.  Bracq,  general  secretary 
of  the  American  McAll  Association.  Mrs. 
Ellen  Carpenter  was  elected  president,  and 
served  until  her  removal  from  that  city.  For 
many  months  Mrs.  W^illiam  H.  Fenn,  vice- 
president  of  the  American  A.ssociation,  pre- 
sided over  the  meetings.     In  November,  1890, 


Mrs.  Carpenter  resigned,  and  ^Mrs.  Chapman, 
who  had  been  one  of  the  vice-presidents 
since  its  organization,  was  elected  to  fill  the 
vacancy.  The  work  progressed  under  her 
direction,  and  the  next  year  a  new  station 
was  opened  through  the  efforts  of  the  mission. 
For  the  support  of  this,  in  addition  to  money 
given  for  the  general  work,  one  hundred  dol- 
lars is  annually  expended.  Mrs.  Chapman  in- 
troduced ])arlor  meetings,  which  have  been 
regularly  held.  These  gatherings  are  of  social 
interest  and  helpful  in  advancing  the  cau.se. 
In  May  last  the  treasurer  announced  a  gift 
of  one  thousand  dollars  from  an  unknown 
friend.  The  a.ssociation  has  al)out  one  hun- 
dred members,  and  has  contributed  over 
f(jur  thousand  dollars  to  the  work  of  missions 
in  France.  Mrs.  H.  W.  Noyes  has  held  for 
twelve  years  the  office  of  secretary  of  the 
Porthincl  Mission.  At  the  annual  meetings 
of  the  American  Association  Mrs.  Chapman 
has  represented  in  an  able  maimer  the  local 
.society. 

Mrs.  Chapman  is  a  director  of  the  S.  P.  C.  A. 
Society  and  a  member  of  the  Literary  and 
Benevolent  Associates.  She  is  planning  an 
extensive  trip  abroad,  and  during  her  travels 
will  visit  different  branches  of  the  McAll 
Mission. 


ANNIE  FIELDS,  author,  known  al-so 
/\  as  Mrs.  James  T.  Fields,  judicious 
X  jL  helper  of  the  poor,  is  a  native  of  Bos- 
ton and  a  resident  of  that  city,  hav- 
ing a  sunnner  home  at  Manchester-by-the-Sea. 
Her  birth  occurred  in  the  fourth  decatle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  her  marriage  in  1854. 

Daughter  of  Dr.  Zalxliel  Boylston  and  Sarah 
May  (Holland)  Adams,  she  is  of  the  eighth 
generation  of  tlie  family  founded  by  the  im- 
migrant, Henry  Adams,  of  Braintree,  who  died 
in  1646.  Her  Adams  line  of  ancestry  is: 
Henry,'  Joseph,^  Jo.seph,'  Captain  Ebenezer,^ 
Deacon  Ebenezer,'*  Zabdiel,"  Dr.  Zabdiel  Boyls- 
ton.' Deacon  Ebenezer  Adams,  her  great- 
grandfather, was  cousin  to  President  John 
Adams,  the  latter  being  son  of  Deacon  John^ 
and  his  wife,  Susanne  Boylston,  and  the  former 
son  of  Deacon  John's  brother,  Captain  Eben- 


GEORGIA    A.  RUSSELI 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


383 


ezor  Atlaius,  whoye  wife  was  Aiiiie  Boylston, 
sister  to  Susanna. 

The  wife  of  Josepli^  Adams  and  mother  of 
Captain  Ebenezer^  and  Deacon  John''  afore- 
said was  Hannah  Bass,  daughter  of  John  and 
Ruth  (Alden)  Bass  and  grand-chiughter  of 
John  Alden  and  his  wife  Priscilla.  Sure  enough, 
then,  is  Annie  J'ields,  poet  and  friend  of  poets, 
a  "Mayflower"  descendant. 

Mrs.  Fields's  maternal  grandparents  were 
Captain  John  and  Saraii  (May)  Holland,  the 
grandfather  a  Boston  merchant  and  ship- 
owner. The  grandmother  was  a  daughter  of 
SamueP  and  Abigail  (Williams)  May.  She  was 
sister  of  Joseph''  May,  wlio.se  daughter  Ai.iigaiP 
married  Amos  Bronson  Alcott  and  was  the 
mother  of  Louise  May  Alcott;  and  sister  to 
Joseph"  May's  brother  Sanuiel,  who  married 
Mary  Goddard  and  was  the  father  of  Abby  W. 
May  of  honored  memory. 

For  years  Mrs.  James  T.  Fields  has  been  one 
of  the  leading  workers  in  the  A.s.sociated  Char- 
ities of  Boston,  in  which  organization  she  has 
served  as  vice-president  and  director,  and  as 
corresponding  secretaiy  of  District  No.  7, 
giving  much  time  and  energy  to  the  study  of 
social  and  economic  (|uestions  and  the  practical 
work  of  befriending  the  poor. 

The  writings  of  Mrs.  Fields  i)etray  a  cul- 
tivated mind,  a  wide  ac<iuaintanc4'  and  loving 
intimacy  with  books  ami  their  producers,  and 
possess  a  literary  and  person;d  flavoi-  of  un- 
failing charm.  It  may  be  noted  in  passing 
that  one  of  the  teachers  by  whose  instructions 
she  profited  in  her  youth  was  George  B.  I']merson, 
who  for  a  number  of  years  kept  an  excellent 
private  school  in  Boston.  Mrs.  Fields  has  been 
a  contributor  to  the  Atlaiilic,  Ilar/ier's,  the 
CcnluTjj,  and  other  magazines.  Her  first  book 
of  poems,  "llnder  the  Olive,"  was  followed  l)y 
a  memoir  of  her  husband,  entitled  "James  T. 
Fields:  Biograjjliical  Notes  and  Per.s(jnal 
Sketches,  with  Unpublished  Fragments  and 
Tributes  of  Men  and  W'omen  of  Letters,"  1881; 
"How  to  help  the  Poor,"  1883;  "Whittier: 
Notes  of  his  Life  and  Frien.l.ships,"  1893: 
"A  Shelf  of  Old  Books,"  1894:  "The  Singhig 
Shepherd,  and  Other  Poems,"  1895;  "Authors 
and  Friends,"  1896;  "Life  and  Letters  of 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,"  1897;    "Hawthorne," 


in  the  Beacon  Biographies,  1899 ;  "  Orpheus, 
a  Mas(iue,"  1899. 

Early  in  the  present  year,  1904,  after  an 
interim  of  impaired  health  and  cessation  of 
literary  activity,  appeared  from  the  pen  of 
Mrs.  P'ields  a  little  volume  on  Charles  Dudley 
Warner,  in  the  Contemporary  Men  of  Letters 
Series.  What  was  said  by  a  competent  critic 
of  her  "Authors  antl  Friends"  may  here  be 
cited  as  applicable  to  this  attractive  monograpli 
of  later  date: — 

"It  is  because  Mrs.  Fields  herself  was  born 
just  early  and  just  late  enough,  and  through 
circumstance  and  native  endowment  came 
into  the  closest  intimacy  and  sympathy  with 
the  men  and  women  whose  names  shine  forth 
most  clearly  in  our  century's  record  of  letters, 
that  her  book  has  an  unconunon  charm  and 
value."  M.  H.  G. 


GEORGIA  ABBIE  RUSSELL,  Agent 
for  the  Massachusetts  State  Board 
of  Prison  Conmiissioners,  has  for 
the  past  six  years  had  charge  of 
the  work  of  aiding  discharged  female  prisoners. 
She  is  a  daughter  of  George  Woodliury  and 
Abigail  (Bunker)  Russell.  When  she  was  two 
weeks  old,  her  mother  died,  and  her  father, 
a  few  months  later,  went  to  California,  leav- 
ing her  in  charge  of  Benjamin  Bunker,  an 
uncle,  whose  wife,  Elizabeth  Ober  Burnham, 
was  her  mother's  cousin. 

George  Woodbury  Rus.sell,  her  father,  who 
was  born  in  vSalem,  Mass.,  and  was  for  many 
years  a  sea  captain,  died  in  California  when 
she  was  seven  years  old.  His  ancestors  were 
men  of  prominence  in  the  army  and  navy, 
and  the  family  was  noted  for  its  charitable 
deeds.  Miss  Russell  remembers  accompany- 
ing her  aunt  and  grandmother  to  homes  of 
the  sick  and  afflicted,  and  she  was  often  sent 
on  errands  of  mercy.  Mrs.  Abigail  Bunker 
Russell,  the  mother  above  named,  was  born 
in  Beverly,  Mass.  She  also  was  descended 
from  a  family  interested  in  charitable  works. 
Miss  Russell's  grandfather  Bunker  was  a 
gunner  in  the  navy  during  the  Revolution, 
and  her  great-grandfather  was'  the  owner 
of  the  farm  in  Cliarlestown  on  which  Bunker 


384 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Hill  is  situated.  His  wife  was  one  of  the 
Breed  family  whose  farm  joined  that  of  the 
elder  Bunker.  Their  fiekls,  inclutling  the 
memorable  Breeil's  Hill,  were  the  scenes  of 
sanguinary  strife  in  those  dark  days. 

Miss  Russell,  in  referring  to  her  aunt  under 
whose  care  she  was  placed  when  an  infant, 
says:  "She  eventually  proved  her  worth  as 
mother  and  friend.  Blessed  remembiance  of 
that  dear  soul,  whose  noble  Christian  life 
was  one  long  sacrifice  for  others,  was  an  in- 
centive to  me  to  imitate  her  exam[)le.  The 
tenacity  with  which  she  clung  to  her  friends 
was  a  marked  trait  in  her  character,  she  being 
always  a  sunbeam  in  their  presence.  Her 
cheerful,  warm-hearted  greeting,  her  unselfish 
deeds  of  kindness,  her  tender  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  her  friends,  her  hopeful  si)irit, 
and  unassuming  and  sustaining  religious 
faith  and  Christian  life  will  ever  be  remem- 
bered by  all  who  were  brought  in  contact  with 
her." 

With  the  exception  of  three  years  of  public 
school  life,  Miss  Russell  received  her  education 
in  private  schools,  completing  it  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1871.  The  following  year  she 
entered  the  pension  ofhce  in  Boston,  and 
served  under  the  administrations  of  Dr.  Phelps, 
the  Hon.  D.  W.  Gooch,  and  General  B.  F. 
Peach.  Plfteen  years  of  that  time  she  was 
chief  clerk  of  the  Pension  Bureau.  In  1898 
she  entered  the  service  of  the  Prison  Com- 
missioners at  the  State  House  as  Miss  Frye's 
successor.  In  continuing  the  work  as  Agent 
for  Discharged  Female  Prisoners  she  has  aimed 
to  instil  into  the  minds  of  unfortunate  women 
the  necessity  of  being  self-respecting  and  self- 
supjjorting. 

In  her  first  report  to  the  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners  she   said: — 

"On  January  20,  1898,  Miss  Sarah  Kllen 
Frye  closed  her  labors  for  discharged  prisoners. 
For  weeks  prior  to  that  time  her  failing  strength 
had  demanded  rest,  which  her  energy  and 
devotion  to  her  work  forbade.  On  that  day, 
however,  she  became  seriously  ill,  and  on 
the  fourth  day  of  March  the  end  came.  As 
her  successor,  I  fully  appreciate  her  labor 
of  love,  and  realize  through  personal  experi- 
ence the  responsibility  and  immensity  of  her 


work.  Four  hundred  and  thirty-nine  women 
have  been  furnished  with  work  since  February 
9,  1898.  Contrary  to  the  usual  custom  of 
giving  office  fees,  which  is  often  a  source 
of  temptation,  I  go  with  them  to  the  employ- 
ment bureau,  or  previously  arrange  for  them, 
so  that  no  money  shall  pass  through  their 
hands.  Many  letters  have  been  written  to 
hotels  and  private  homes  for  positions  for 
these  women,  thus  saving  many  office  fees. 
After  a  home  or  work  has  been  provided, 
the  interest  does  not  cease  here,  as  visits 
are  made  at  their  homes  as  far  as  practicable, 
a  corres]>ontlence  is  kept  up  with  a  large 
number,  and  it  is  found  that  the  attention 
is  not  wholly  lost,  for  many  appreciative 
letters   are   returned   to   the   office. 

"Seven  hundred  and  two  letters  have  been 
sent  to  these  women.  Seventy-eight  girls 
have  been  sent  to  home  and  friends,  five 
sent  to  hospitals,  and  two  to  the  Home  of 
the    Good    Samaritan. 

"  ^^'hen  it  is  considered  what  a  large  amount 
of  investigation  is  required  to  enable  the 
agent  to  deal  intelligently  and  fairly  with 
the  gi'eat  number  of  cases  constantly  demanding 
attention,  besides  the  clerical  work  of  the 
office,  I  find  that  the  days  are  not  long  enough 
to  accomplish  all  I  would  wish. 

"To  lift  fallen  womanhood  out  of  the  slough 
of  despair,  and  lead  her  to  a  realizing  sense 
that  she  possesses  within  herself  the  elements 
of  a  nobler  life,  is  to  accomplish  much  in  this 
field  of  labor.  This  point  once  reached,  to 
perfect  the  rest  is  only  needed  the  helping 
hand  which  will  aid  her  to  become  self-support- 
ing. It  is  impossible  to  sum  up  the  results 
of  the  work.  However,  this  comforting 
thought  comes  to  me:  'Daughter,  be  not 
dismayed  by  the  painful  labors  which  thou 
hast  undertaken  for  me,  but  let  my  promise 
strengthen  and  comfort   thee   in   all  events.'  " 

Extracts  from  the  last  report  given  by 
Miss  Rii.ssell,  under  date  October  1,  1902, 
also  show  the  spirit,  untiring  zeal,  and  success 
with    which    she    labors: — 

"Time  has  brought  us  to  the  close  of  another 
year,  and  we  gratefully  acknowledge  that 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  has  been  with  us,  and 
that    much    good    has    been    accomplished. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


385 


"  I  assume  at  the  start  that  every  woman 
who  obeys  the  moral  law  and  earns  an  honest 
living  is  a  benefit  to  the  world;  that,  disregard- 
ing higher  motives,  to  make  of  a  dischargetl 
prisoner  such  an  individual,  rather  tiian  an 
outcast,  a  pauper,  or  a  confirmed  criminal, 
is,  as  a  matter  of  business,  profitable;  that 
the  average  prisoner  at  the  time  of  tlischarge, 
staniling  at  a  point  where  the  downward 
patli  opens  smooth  and  broail  and  the  uinvard 
ruggetl  and  narrow,  recjuires  assistance — 
assistance  of  such  a  kind  and  given  in  such 
a  manner  as  experience  has  shown  that  each 
particular  case  requires.  This  assistance  the 
State  has  generously  given  to  the  cause  of 
humanity,  antl  for  liumanity's  sake  the  Re- 
deemer suffered. 

"As  to  the  desired  end,  there  is,  among 
civilized  ])eople  in  a  Christian  lantl,  no  chance 
for  controversy:  the  only  possible  contention 
is,   how  that  end  may  best  be  attained. 

"There  are  women  to  whom  imprisonment 
has  meant  something,  who  if  they  have  sinned 
have  also  suffered,  who.se  repentance  is  sincere, 
and  who  desire  to  live  l)lamelessly  in  the 
future.  Of  this  class  1  recall  sixty-seven 
cases.  This  number  may  appear  small,  but 
the  future  of  every  one  of  these  was  in  peril; 
and  who  shall  jjlace  a  value  upon  a  human 
soul?  It  was  the  one  lost  sheep,  and  not 
the  ninety  and  nine  safely  within  the  fold, 
for  which  the  Shepherd  concerned  himself. 
I  recall  three  instances  of  the  power  of  divine 
Love.  One  case  was  that  of  a  girl  who  came 
to  me  a  year  ago,  somewhat  under  the  influence 
of  liquor,  and  asked  me  to  save  her  from 
her  friends.  I  took  her  to  a  place  of  safety, 
where  I  could  watch  over  her,  and  in  due 
course  of  time  sent  her  to  a  Christian  home 
in  Kansas,  where  she  is  making  for  herself 
a  name  above  reproach. 

"  Another  case  was  of  a  girl  now  being 
educated  for  a  missionary.  Still  another 
started  last  week  for  the  South,  to  become 
a  teacher  in  a  .school  for  girls.  These  living 
testimonies  and  the  thought  of  my  Master's 
example  give  me  courage  to  press  on  with 
renewed  effort  and  watchfulness  over  these 
hopeful  ca.ses,  to  make  for  them  a  living  reality 
of    the    words    of    the    Master    when    he    said, 


'  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.' 

"  Do  this,  antl  to  many  a  storm-beaten 
spirit  the  midnight  darkness  of  despair  will 
be  illumined  by  the  bright  sun.shine  of  hope 
fulfilled.  Of  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
seven  women  who  have  been  helped  this  year, 
eight  hundred  and  ninety-three  have  been 
furnished  employment,  four  hundred  and 
twenty-six  sent  to  home  and  frientls,  one 
lumdred  and  two  sent  to  hospitals,  seven 
sent  to  insane  asylums,  fifty-eight  have  died, 
and  twenty-one  have  been  married." 

Miss  Russell  is  a  Roman  Catholic  in  her 
religious  faith.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Mon- 
day Evening  Club  of  Boston.  She  is  greatly 
interestetl  in  the  Twentieth  Century  Club 
and  in  all  well-advised  efforts  for  the  advance- 
ment  of  woman. 


MARGARET  J.  MAGENNIS  is  one  of 
the  best  known  and  most  highly 
respected  and  beloved  among  the 
newspaper  women  in  Boston.  In 
her  honor  a  room  was  detiicated  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts Flower  Mission  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 
at  the  New  England  Home  for  Deaf  Mutes, 
Allston,  on  July  11  of  the  present  year,  1904. 
This  tribute  is  significant  of  one  among  the 
many  worthy  benevolent  enterprises  for  which 
Mrs.  Magennis  has  worked  with  pen  and  voice. 
Her  literary  aptitude  was  inherited,  and  she 
drifted  into  the  work  almost  as  her  birthright. 
Her  father  was  Archibald  McMechan,  of  Norman 
and  Scotch-Irish  anc(\stry.  He  was  widely 
known  over  the  country  for  liberalism  and 
defence  of  the  tenant  farmer.  Her  mother 
was  Mary  Nelson,  of  Norfolk  (England)  stock, 
of  which  Lord  Nelson  was  a  famed  member. 
From  her  grandmother,  Mollie  Morehead,  she 
inherited  her  Scottish  blood.  Mrs.  Magennis 
was  born  in  Greater  Belfast,  Ireland.  She 
married  young,  and  was  left  a  widcnv  at  an  early 
age. 

Mrs.  Magennis  was  one  of  the  first  repre- 
sentatives of  her  sex  to  engage  in  the  profession 
of  journalism  in  Boston.  Her  first  contribu- 
tions to  the  ])ress  ajipeared  in  the  Watchvwii 
and  Reflector  in  1868.     She  was  afterward  en- 


386 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


gaged  on  a  suburban  weekly,  and  in  1874  ac- 
cepted a  position  on  the  Boston  Traveller,  which 
she  still  holds. 

In  the  line  of  special  reporting  she  has  done 
work  such  as  women  seldom  enter.  For  ten 
or  twelve  years  she  chronicled  the  proceedings 
of  one  of  the  municipal  courts,  and,  becoming 
interested  in  the  criminal  class,  es])ecially  the 
victims  of  intemperance,  for  several  years  she 
voluntarily  assisted  one  of  the  judges  in  taking 
men  and  women  on  probation.  Criminal  re- 
porting was  at  first  repulsive  to  her  sensitive 
nature,  but  her  loyalty  to  duty  called  forth  her 
unhesitating  allegiance.  Her  reluctant  task 
became  to  her  an  opportunity  for  service  to 
the  unfortunates  of  the  Tombs.  Among  the 
important  reportorial  work  early  undertaken 
by  her  was  that  of  the  intiuest  on  the  death  of 
Katie  Curran,  whf)  was  murdered  by  Jesse  Pome- 
roy.  She  described  the  big  guns  built  in  South 
Boston,  attended  yacht  races,  and  has  handled 
other  strong  matt(>r. 

In  addition  to  her  newspaper  work  Mrs. 
Magennis  has  given  time  and  energy  to  re- 
ligious enter]3rises.  She  has  filled  the  position 
of  Suffolk  County  Superintendent  of  IVison  and 
Almshouse  Work  for  the*  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  l^nion,  and  has  made  a  jilace  for 
temj)erance  in  all  the  penal  institutions.  For 
many  years  she  has  conducted  gospel  services 
at  Rainsford  and  Deer  Islands,  which  necessi- 
tatefl  her  leaving  her  home  when  living  in  Dor- 
chester at  ?ix  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  in 
all  sorts  of  weather.  She  has  .systematically 
visited  the  Chai'lestown  State  I'risoTi,  the  House 
of  Correction,  and  the  various  homes  and  mis- 
sions in  the  city. 

Mrs.  Magennis  has  been  identified  with  nearly 
ev(>ry  charitable  institution  in  Boston  diu'ing 
the  past  thirty-six  years.  She  took  the  in- 
itiative in  the  first  free  kindergarten,  and  worked 
zealously  for  the  school  established  in  the  pen- 
insula. She  made  the  first  appeal  through  the 
Traveller  for  industrial  training  at  the  Boston 
Farm  School,  which  has  been  for  several  years 
in  successful  operation.'  When  the  Massachu- 
setts Indian  Association  was  formed,  Mrs. 
Magennis  was  appointed  on  the  pre.ss  committee, 
and  was  unwearied  in  her  efforts  with  her  ]ien. 
She   was    a    member   of   the    National    Prison 


Association  until  the  Ma,ssachusetts  branch  was 
formed,  to  which  she  transferred  her  member- 
ship. As  a  Sunday-school  teacher  in  the  North 
End  Mi.ssion  from  its  inception,  she  became 
acquainted  with  Miss  Caroline  Burnap,  the 
founder  of  the  Home  for  the  Aged  and  Friend- 
l<>ss  Women,  and  the  first  fair  to  aid  the  work 
was  held  through  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Magennis. 
She  was  also  instrumental  in  founding  a  Home 
for  Aged  Couples  and  subsequently  the  Working 
(iirls'  Home,  on  Pembroke  Street,  known  as 
the  New  lingland  Helping  Hand  Society.  The 
Woman's  Charity  Club  and  the  New  England 
W'oman's  Press  Association  both  claim  her  as 
a  valued  membei'.  She  is  also  identified  with 
the  State  Flower  Mission  work,  the  New  England 
Home  for  Deaf  Mutes,  and  is  on  the  auxiliary 
board  of  the  Cullis  Consumptive  Home. 

At  the  dedication  of  the  room  named  in  her 
honor  at  Allstoi,!,  July  11,  as  above  mentioned, 
there  were  many  complimentary  references  to 
her  good  work  by  leaders  of  philantlirojiic 
movements  in  Boston.  Mrs.  Marion  A. 
McBride,  in  a  report  of  the  dedication  cere- 
monies which  was  printed  in  the  Woman  '.x 
Journal,  July  16,  said:  "  If  every  good  work  of 
hers  were  marked,  there  would  be  lines  of 
triumphal  arches  along  the  years  wherein  she 
has  worked  in  Boston.  Strong  touches  of  true 
sympathy  have  given  support  to  hundreds 
whose  lives  have  been  lirighter  for  this  woman's 
thought. ' ' 

In  the  early  part  of  her  work  she  wrote  a 
series  of  stories  over-  the  signature  "  Drift," 
which  attracted  much  attention,  as  did  also 
her  articles  on  the  "Old  Houses  of  Boston  and 
Vicinity."  She  is  the  author  of  the  popular 
little  book  entitled  "The  Foe  of  the  Household; 
or.  Scenes  in  Temj^erance  Work."  A  short 
time  ago  she  wrote  sketches  (illustrated)  of  the 
old  masters  and  teachers  of  Boston. 

Her  leisure  hours  have  been  given  without 
money  and  without  jirice  to  aid  others,  and  she 
has  always  been  ready  to  share  with  the  needy 
from  her  limited  income.  She  is  frequently 
seen  about  Boston  streets  on  her  errands  of 
mercy,  carrying  parcels  of  clothing  for  some 
])oor  woman  or  child   in  need. 

Mrs.  Magennis  is  a  member  of  the  Woman's 
Relief  Cor])s,  auxiliary  to  the  Grand  Armj^  of 


388 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


roll.  She  conducted  all  the  work  of  the  corps 
in  an  able  manner,  and  endeared  herself  to  the 
members  by  her  courtesy,  her  unselfish  spirit, 
and  devotion  to  the  cause.  Although  higher 
honors  have  been  conferred  upon  her  by  the 
State  Department,  she  still  continues  her  work 
for  the  Ideal  corps,  serving  on  committees,  aid- 
ing in  Grand  Army  fairs  and  in  all  ways  ]ios- 
sibie  for  the  welfare  of  the  cause. 

Fletcher  Webster  Post  sincerely  ai)preciates 
her  efforts  in  its  belialf.  As  a  Department 
Aide  on  the  staff  of  the  Department  President 
of  Massachusetts  for  several  years,  she  officially 
visited  others  corps  in  the  State,  serving  as  in- 
spector, installing  officer,  and  in  various  capac- 
ities. As  a  delegate  to  national  conventions 
she  has  travelled  extensively  in  the  South  and 
West,  and  was  a  participant  in  the  late  conven- 
tion at  San  Francisco,  as  delegate  at  large  from 
Massachusetts.  At  two  successive  State  con- 
ventions she  was  elected  a  m  'mber  of  the  De- 
))artment  Executive  Board,  and  in  1S92  was 
appointed  De]iartment  Inspector.  The  exact- 
ing duties  of  this  position,  wliich  required  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  work,  she  ]ierformed 
in  a  jileasing  manner. 

In  the  conclusion  of  her  report  to  the  conven- 
tion held  in  Boston  she  .sunmiarized  her  official 
work  of  the  year  as  follows:  "  I  have  attenfled 
ail  council  meetings;  was  present  at  sixteen 
social  or  county  tlays;  attended  sixteen  exem- 
plifications; instructed  four  corps;  inspected 
nineteen  corps;  was  also  present  as  a  guest  at 
the  inspection  of  eight  corjis;  have  attended 
twenty-seven  receptions  and  other  social  gath- 
erings; installed  ten  corps;  have  written  six 
hundred  and  nineteen  letters  and  postals;  have 
visited  in  all  sixty-six  different  corps  at  their 
regular  meeting;  have  repr(>sented  the  Depart- 
ment at  three  county  days,  also  served  as  dele- 
gate at  national  convention  held  in  Washington, 
and  performed  such  otiier  (hities  as  pertained 
to  my  work.  For  the  invitations  that  I  was 
unable  to  accept  owing  to  official  work  I  tender 
my  sincere  thanks.  To  the  assistant  inspectors 
who  have  served  the  Department  so  faithfully 
I  also  express  warmest  thanks.  To  the  many 
who  not  only  gave  their  time  and  strength  to 
the  work  but  contributed  their  expenses  I  am 
deeply   grateful.     The    many    kind    letters   re- 


ceived front  them  will  always  be  treasured  as 
pleasant  memories  of  our  year's  work  together, 
and  the  friendships  formed  during  the  year  will, 
I  trust,  never  be  broken." 

In  1908  Mrs.  Goddard  was  appointed  a  Na- 
tional Aide  by  Mrs.  Lodusky  J.  Taylor,  of  Min- 
nesota, National  Presid(>nt.  In  this  position, 
as  in  all  others,  she  has  rendered  adniirable  ser- 
vice, and  has  been  an  earnest  officer  and  a 
liberal  contributor,  never  failing  to  assist  the 
cause  so  near  her  heart.  At  the  convention 
held  in  Boston  last  February  she  was  elected 
Department  Junior  Vice-President. 

George  B.  Goddard  serve<l  five  years  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  He  is  a  member  of 
Fletcher  Webster  Post,  No.  13,  and  is  deeply 
interested  in  the  work  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  assisting  his  wife  in  advancing  its  ob- 
jects. He  is  now  a  manufacturer  of  shoe  sup- 
plies and  rawhide  goods  in  Brockton.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Goddarfl  have  one  daughter,  Ida  May, 
who  was  born  in  Brockton,  October  21,  1875. 


A  NNA    BARIGHT    CURRY,    Dean    of 

/  \  the  School  of  Exjire.ssion,  Boston, 
X.  A.  was  born  June  19,  1854,  in  Pough- 
keepsie,  N.Y.  She- comes  of  ai  long 
line  of  (Quaker  ancestors,  broken  only  once 
in  two  centuries.  Her  parents,  Samuel  Car- 
penter and  Frances  (Dean)  Baright,  have 
recently  moved  to  North  Adams,  Mass. 

The  Barights  .settled  in  Pleasant  ^^^l]ey, 
Dutchess  County,  N.Y.,  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, on  a  grant  of  government  land  deeded 
to  them  by  King  George.  This  homestead 
remained  in  the  family  until  about  1870.  Two 
Carpenter  brothers  came  to  America  witli 
William  Penn.  One  of  them  settled  in  I'enn- 
sylvania,  the  other  in  New  York.  Through 
the  Deans  and  Mal)betts,  on  h(>r  mother's  side, 
Mrs.  Curry  is  descended  from  Josejih  Castine, 
one  of  the  original  nine  patentees  who  owned 
and  settled  the  township  of  Nine  Partners  in 
Dutchess  County,  New  York.  Her  maternal 
grandmother  was  Helen,  yoimgest  daughter 
of  General  Samuel  Augustus  S.  Barker  by  his 
second  wife.  Miss  Meribah  Collins,  of  Dutchess 
Countj',  New  York. 

General  Barker,  originally  of  Branford,  Conn., 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


389 


served  in  the  Revolutionary  War  and  in  tlie 
War  of  1812.  After  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion he  settled  in  Beeknian,  N.Y.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  New  York  Assembly.  He  died 
November  19,  1819,  and  was  buried  on  his 
own  estate  in  Beekman.  His  Revolutionary 
record,  as  given  in  the  Historical  Register  of 
Officers  of  the  Continental  Army,  is,  in  l)rief, 
as  follows: — 

"Barker,  Samuel  Augustus  S.,  (Ct.)  Adju- 
tant of  Douglass'  6th  Connecticut  State  Regi- 
ment '2l)th  June  to— Dec,  1776  ;  1st  Lieut,  antl 
Adjt.  of  6th  Ct.,  26th  Dec,  1776;  Capt.,  10th 
of  May,  1780:  transferred  to  4th  Ct.,  1st  of  Jan., 
1781;  Brigade  Major  in  1781;  transferred  to 
2dCt.  1st  Jan.,  1782:  resigned  April  13th,  1782." 

Perhajxs  a  further  record  of  the  activities 
in  which  General  Barker  participated  may 
not  be  uninteresting: — 

Served  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  August 
27,  1776.  Took  part  in  the  following  retreat  to 
New  York  and  in  the  hurried  retreat  from  that 
city,  Septeml)er  15,  upon  the  enemy's  attack. 
Was  at  the  battle  of  White  Plains,  October  28. 
In  the  summer  of  1777  was  in  camp  at  Peeks- 
kill,  and  was  frequently  detached  our-expe- 
dition  or  outpost  duty.  Served  in  August — 
October  on  Hudson  in  Parsons's  brigade  under 
Putnam.  AVintered  1777-78  at  West  Point, 
assisting  in  the  construction  of  fortifications. 
In  the  summer  of  1778  encamped  with  the 
main  army  under  Wa.shington  at  White  Plains. 
Wintered  1778-79  at  Redding.  In  the  opera- 
tions of  1779  served  with  Connecticut  division 
on  east  side  of  Hudson  in  Heath's  wing.  Its 
light  company  under  Captain  Champion  de- 
tached to  Meigs's  light  regiment,  and  engaged  at 
storming  of  Stony  Point,  July  15,  1779.  Win- 
tered 1779-80  at  Morristown  Heights,  N.J.,  and 
in  movements  of  1780  served  with  division  on 
both  sides  of  the  Hudson.  On  discovery  of 
Arnold's  treason,  Meigs's  regiment  was  or- 
dered with  the  troojjs  to  repair  forthwith  to 
West  Point  in  anticii)ation  of  ailvance  of  enemy. 
Wintered  1780-81  at  camp  "Connecticut 
Village,"  near  the  Robinson  House,  opposite 
West  Point,  and  then  consolidated  for  forma- 
tion of  1781-83. 

Mrs.  Curry's  mother  has  in  her  possession 
a  wooden   trencher  made   by  General   Barker 


while  a  prisoner,  during  the  War  of  1812, 
on  a  British  war-ship  in  New  York  Harbor. 

Mrs.  Curry  was  graduated  at  Cook's  Collegi- 
ate Institute,  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y.,  in  1873. 
Before  she  was  sixteen  years  old,  she  attracted 
unusual  attention  in  the  work  done  at  the 
closing  exercises  of  Gary  Institute.  Friends 
at  that  time  predicted  a  successful  future  in 
public  work. 

Soon  after  graduating  she  was  tendered  a 
position  as  teacher  of  elocution  in  the  Mil- 
waukee Female  College.  At  the  end  of  one  year 
she  was  offered  the  position  for  ten  years, 
with  an  annual  increase  in  salary;  but  the 
desire  to  study  was  stronger  than  financial 
inducements,  and  in  1875  Miss  Baright  came 
to  Boston. 

Professor  Lewis  B.  Monroe,  Dean  of  the 
Boston  University  School  of  Oratory,  recog- 
nized her  powers,  and  under  his  influence  she 
continued  her  studies.  In  1877  she  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  School  of  Oratory  with  the 
highest  class  honors,  and  appointed  by  the 
faculty  to  represent  the  class  of  1877  at  the 
first  Boston  University  commencement,  held 
in  Tremont  Temple.  Her  theme  on  this  oc- 
casion was  "Elocution  as  a  Fine  Art,"  in  which 
she  matle  an  appeal,  not  for  one  art,  but  for 
Art.  Miss  Baright's  enthusiasm  on  this  oc- 
casion was  contagious,  ami  an  audience  of 
three  thousand  responded  to  her  ideals  with 
a  fervor  almost  unheard  of  at  a  college  com- 
mencement. 

Thus  Miss  Baright  became  associated  with 
the  beginnings  of  the  progressive  movement 
in  the  arts  of  the  spoken  word,  which  has 
culminated  in  the  School  of  Expression,  Bos- 
ton, of  which  S.  S.  Curry,  Ph.D.,  is  president. 

At  the  opening  exercises  of  the  School  of 
Oratory  in  the  fall  of  1877  Miss  Baright,  then 
a  teacher  in  the  school,  gave  a  reading  of  Mrs. 
Browning's  "  Rhyme  of  the  Duche.'^s  May." 
The  lyric  possibilities  of  the  ])oem  were  com- 
bined with  the  most  discriminating  imperso- 
nation, and  all  the  subtler  variety  of  treatment 
brought  into  unity  about  the  slender  thread 
of  a  story.  Professor  Monroe  called  her 
aside  after  this  reading  and  .said,  "  I  do  not 
wish  to  lo.se  you  as  a  teacher,  but  it  is  only 
right  for  you  to  know  that  your  power  point's 


390 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


you  to  the  platform."  She  did  not  take  up 
platform  work,  however,  professionally,  but 
has  directed  her  powers  to  train  and  develop 
the  art  instinct  in  others. 

In  July,  1879,  she  opened  at  Martha's  Vine- 
yard the  first  summer  school  of  oratory  held 
in  the  United  States.  Professor  Monroe  was 
to  have  conducted  this  school,  with  Miss 
Baright  as  an  assistant.  He  was  taken  ill  about 
the  date  set  for  the  opening.  He  telegraphed  to 
Miss  Baright  to  go  on  and  attend  to  the  work. 
His  death  occurred  on  the  first  day  of  the 
school,  and,  although  several  other  teachers 
were  in  attendance,  indecision  and  lack  of  leader- 
ship seemed  to  threaten  the  disbanding  of  the 
students.  Miss  Baright  saw  the  situation,  anfl, 
with  her  characteristic  readiness  to  meet  emer- 
gencies, organized  the  school,  divided  it  into 
classes,  placed  them  under  teachers,  and  start(>d 
the  work,  inspiring  the  confidence  that  held  all 
the  students  assembled  at  Martha's  Y'lnf}- 
yard  for  the  five  weeks'   term. 

Boston  University  disorganized  the  School 
of  Oratory,  August  22,  1879.  President  War- 
ren advised  Miss  Baright  to  take  the  name  of 
the  old  school  and  conduct  a  school  herself. 
As  she  demurred  on  account  of  her  age  anil 
lack  of  experience,  Dr.  Warren  said :  "  If  you 
do  not,  some  one  else  will  who  is  not  as  well 
entitled  to  do  it  as  you."  Miss  Baright,  how- 
ever, did  not  take  the  name  of  the  school  of 
oratory,  but  opened  classes  in  elocution  and 
expression.  The  name  was  taken  by  other 
parties,  and  Miss  Baright's  career  as  a  teacher 
in  Boston  reached  its  second  stage.  • 

In  1880,  through  Mr.  W.  E.  Sheldon,  editor 
of  the  Journal  of  Education,  Miss  Baright 
received  an  offer  of  a  position  in  Philadelphia 
as  superintendent  of  teachers  of  the  public 
schools,  at  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  which  she  did  not  accept. 

On  May  31,  1882,  she  was  married  to  S.  S. 
Curry,  Ph.D.,  afterward  Snow  Professor  of 
Oratory  in  Boston  University  anil  founder  of 
the  School  of  Expression,  Boston,  and  on  Juno 
1  sailed  with  her  husband  for  Europe,  where 
they  spent  several  months  in  travel,  retui'n- 
ing  to  Boston  the  following  autumn.  Six 
children  have  been  born  of  their  union,  and 
four  of  them  are  now  living — I'^thcl  (iertrudo 


Curry,  Mabel  Campbell  Curry,  Gladys  Ban- 
ning Curry,  and  Haskel  Brooks  Curry. 

In  these  later  years  ^Irs.  Curry  has  been 
associated  with  her  husband  in  the  develop- 
ment and  organization  of  the  School  of  Ex- 
pression, Boston,  of  which  he  is  the  founder 
and  jiresident.  The  aim  of  the  School  of 
Expression  is  to  emphasize  the  educational 
value  of  artistic  methods  as  applied  to  train- 
ing in  the  use  of  the  spoken  word.  A  delicate 
tribute  by  the  late  Professor  J.  W.  Churchill 
to  the  associated  work  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Curry 
as  princi{)als  of  the  School  of  Expression  is 
particularly  interesting:  "Fortunate  indeed 
are  those  who  come  under  the  benign  influ- 
ence of  ideals  so  pure  and  noble,  who  work 
upon  ])riiicii)les  so  clear,  so  sound,  so  truly 
])hilos()]jhical,  and  therefore  so  wisely  practical, 
and  who  share  in  achievements  so  rich,  varied, 
and  enduring.  Happy  indeed  are  those  who 
are  guitled  in  their  art  studies  by  the  philo- 
sophic insight  and  scientific  method  of  one  of 
the  principals  of  the  school  and  the  beautiful 
technique,  inspirational  interpretations,  and 
stimulating  example  of  the  other.  Long  may 
this  brilliant  binary  star,  with  its  blended  radi- 
ance of  philosophy  and  art,  guide  earnest 
seekers  after  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the 
good  in  expressive  speech,  as  they  tread  the 
pathway  of  human  perfection." 

Belief  in  inspiration  was  Mrs.  Curry's  birth- 
right, and  the  inalienable  right  of  self-activity 
was  her  heritage.  Through  her  maternal 
grandfather,  Jonathan  Dean,  who  was  some- 
thing of  a  poet,  she  came  naturally  by  her  love 
of  poetry  and  the  drama.  He  died  in  early 
manhoo(l,  but,  even  in  the  days  before  public 
reading  had  gained  popular  recognition,  was 
the  favorite  in  social  circles,  where  he  recited 
Shakespeare  and  poetry  for  the  entertainment 
of  his  friends.  Jonathan  Dean's  brothers, 
Edwin  and  Seneca,  were  also  patrons  and  lovers 
of  art.  One  day  they  brought  home  a  violin, 
after  having  learned  to  play  upon  it  in  secret; 
and  their  father,  in  the  spirit  of  a  martyr, 
rak(^d  open  the  coals  in  the  oven,  and  laid  this 
instrument  of  sin  upon  the  blazing  embers. 
But  the  art  instinct  is  not  thus  to  be 
aniiihilat(>(l.  ]'>dwin  Dean  later  became  owner 
and    patron    of    a    theatre,   and   his  (laughter, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


391 


Julia  Dean,  one  of  our  greatest  American 
actresses. 

Mrs.  Curry's  strongest  characteristic  is  the 
harmonious  co-ordination  of  intellectual  and 
emotional  power.  Her  dramatic  instinct  has 
developed  into  a  deep  insight  into  truth.  She 
has  done  some  strong  creative  work  in  the  vocal 
interpretation  of  the  dramatic  and  lyric  spirits 
in  literature,  notably  in  her  readings  from  Mrs. 
Browning's  "The  Rhyme  of  the  Duchess 
May,"  old  ballads,  Shelley's  "Prometheus 
Unbound,"  and  Rossetti's  "Sister  Helen"; 
of  the  epic  spirit  in  Tennyson's  "Idylls  of  the 
King";  in  the  blending  of  the  epic  and  dra- 
matic spirit  in  an  adaptation  from  Homer's 
Iliad   and   modern   epic  poems. 

Of  Mrs.  Curry  as  a  reader  of  the  Bible,  Dr. 
William  F.  Warren,  President  of  Boston  Uni- 
versity, has  spoken  unqualified  appreciation. 
Of  her  reading  of  "The  Story  of  the  Passion 
of  Christ,  as  tokl  in  the  Gospels,"  a  critic  .says, 
"It  is  the  apotheosis  of  all  art,  and  reveals  in 
art  the  reality  of  His  life."  As  a  teacher.  Pro- 
fessor Lewis  B.  Monroe  said  of  her,  "She  is 
the  only  one  who  has  ever  been  able  to  take 
classes  from  my  hantls  without  losing  their 
attention."  And  Profe.ssor  J.  W.  Churchill 
said,  "She  is  the  greatest  woman  teacher  of 
elocution  in  the  country." 

Mrs.  Curry,  while  not  a  club  woman,  has 
held  membership  in  the  New  England  Woman's 
Club,  Cantabrigia  Club  (Cambridge),  Boston 
Browning  Society. 

Mrs.  Curry  is  now  editor  of  Expression,  and 
has  in  its  columns  made  an  application  of  dra- 
matic principles  to  platform  work.  She  feels 
that  hei"  best  years  of  work  a,re  to  come. 


SUSAN  BREESE  SNOW  DEN  FESSEN- 
DEN  was  born  December  10, 1S40,  at  Cin- 
cinnati. Her  father,  Siilney  Snowden,  was 
related  through  liis  mother  to  President 
WooLsey  of  Yale,  President  Cutler  of  Western 
Reserve,  S.  F.  B.  Mor.se,  of  telegraph  fame,  to 
Commodore  Bree.se  of  the  United  States  Navy, 
and  to  many  other  literary  and  scientific  men. 
Mr.  Snowden  was  a  man  of  letters,  remarkablefor 
his  fine  rendering  of  Shakespeare,  for  his  use  of 
English,  antl  for  his  eloquence.     He  died  at  the 


early  age  of  forty-two.  His  wife,  Eliza  Mitchell, 
lived  to  the  age  of  eighty.  She  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Jethro  and  Mercy  (Greene)  Mitchell,  both 
of  well-known  Quaker  families.  Jethro  Mitchell 
was  a  native  of  Nantucket  and  a  cousin  of 
Maria  Mitchell.  He  went  to  Cincinnati  about 
1830,  and  many  of  his  descendants  still  live  in 
that  city.  Through  her  grandmother,  Mercy 
Greene  Mitchell,  Mrs.  Fessenden  claims  descent 
from  John  Greene,  of  Warwick,  from  Roger 
Williams,  from  Governor  Caleb  Carr,  antl  from 
other  fountlers  of  Rhode  Island. 

At  seventeen  Mrs.  Fessenden  (then  Susan 
Snowden)  was  graduated  from  the  Cincinnati 
Female  Seminary,  being  the  youngest  member 
of  her  cla.ss.  Fond  of  study  from  her  earliest 
years,  she  had  also  shown  great  power  for  giving 
out  what  she  had  learned.  She  began  to  teach 
in  the  seminary  immediately  after  graduating, 
and  continued  to  teach  there  until  her  marriage. 

She  was  married  March  10,  1864,  to  John  H. 
Fessenden,  of  Concord,  N.H.  Her  three  children 
— Cornelia  Snowden,  Elizabeth  Mitchell,  and 
William  Chaftin — were  born  in  Cincinnati,  and 
until  they  had  completed  their  education  the 
mother's  chief  interest  was  in  them  and  in  her 
home  life.  "A  genius  for  motherhood"  is 
her  chiklren's  description  of  her.  In  1871 
Mrs.  Fessenilen  removed  from  Cinchmati  to 
Sioux  City,  la.  There  she  remained  for  eleven 
years,  always  taking  an  active  interest  in  every- 
thing pertaining  to  that  young  and  growing 
town.  Its  educational  affairs  were  dear  to 
her,  its  schools  became  clubs  for  study.  Its 
philanthropic  affairs,  work  for  young  girls,  and 
plans  for  helping  the  poor  and  tempted  were 
always  in  her  mind.  Just  as  in  her  earlier 
years  she  had  not  hesitated  to  express  herself 
strongly  on  the  abolition  of  slavery,  she  now 
hail  strong  convictions  regarding  woman's  en- 
franchisement, help  for  the  laboring  classes, 
and  prohilMtion  of  the  liquor  traffic.  She  wrote 
and  s|)oke  on  all  these  subjects. 

While  living  in  Sioux  City,  it  became  neces- 
sary for  her  to  assume  the  support  of  her  three 
young  children.  Their  education  was  the 
determined  puri)ose  of  her  life.  Accordingly 
with  fear  and  trembling,  but  without  shrinking, 
she  borrowed  money  and  bought  out  a  china 
antl  silverware  estal)lishment,   antl  carrietl  on 


.■^92 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


a  wholesale  and  retail  business.  Although  she 
had  no  business  education,  had  not  even  studied 
book-keeping,  an<l  liitherto  had  been  wholly 
unacquainted  with  business,  she  made  a  marked 
success  of  this  enterprise,  and  continued  in  it 
until  the  necessity  was  passed. 

Convinced  of  the  need  of  organized  effort, 
Mrs.  Fessenden  started  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association  of  Sioux  City,  whose  work 
soon  had  a  much  wider  scope  than  that  of  such 
organizations  in  larger  cities.  The  Association 
rented  an  old  building,  where  rooms  were  fitted 
up  for  the  worthy  {)oor.  One  room  was  con- 
verted into  a  chapel,  and  religious  services 
were  held  there  regularly  the  year  round.  A 
parlor  organ,  chandelier,  and  stove  were  given 
by  this  lover  of  humanity,  and  she  held  herself 
personally  responsible  for  every  service.  During 
a  season  of  great  floods  on  the  Mis.sissippi  mid- 
night often  found  her  still  superintending  the 
lighting  and  heating  of  the  building  and  the 
feeding  and  putting  to  bed  of  tiie  hundreds 
of  homeless  sufferei-s  who  sought  temporaiy 
shelter.  Her  own  house  was  stripped  of  chairs 
for  women  with  young  children,  and  she  did 
her  utmost,  both  as  an  individual  and  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Y.  W^.  C.  A.,  the  organization  having 
assumed  the  care  of  these  needy  people. 

Just  before  leaving  Sioux  City,  Mrs.  Fessenden 
selected  the  site  and  measured  the  lot  on  which 
was  to  be  built  a  home  for  the  organization 
which  she  had  for  eight  years  served  so  faith- 
fully as  President.  Here  stands  to-day  the 
Samaritan  Hospital,  carried  on  by  the  Y.  W\  C.  A. 
for  over  twenty  years.  Although  other  hospitals 
have  since  been  built  in  Sioux  City,  this,  the 
first,  still  has  the  confidence  and  the  support 
of  the  community.  In  1903,  when  Mrs.  Fes- 
senden revisited  her  old  home,  the  trustees  of 
the  hospital  gave  her  a  fine  reception  in  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  to  her  efforts  they  were 
indebted  for  the  conception  of  the  hosjjital. 

In  1882  Mrs.  Fessenden  removed  to  Boston 
for  the  college  education  of  her  children.  Her 
two  daughters  entered  Boston  University  wilh 
the  classes  of  1886  and  1889,  respectively,  and 
later  her  son  with  the  class  of  1894. 

After  the  graduation  of  her  elder  daughter 
Mrs.  Fessenden  took  her  family  to  I'An-ope,  that 
Cornelia  might  prepare  herself  to  take  the  d(>gree 


Ph.D.  After  six  months  of  study  and  an  illness 
of  only  three  days  this  beautiful  daughter  was 
calletl  to  a  higher  sphere.  This  was  a  blow  from 
which  at  first  it  seemed  as  if  Mrs.  Fessenden 
could  not  possil:)ly  recover.  Upon  her  return 
to  America  her  friends  |)revaile(l  upon  her  to 
enter  on  work  with  the  \\ Oman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union.  First  she  was  made  National 
Superintendent  of  Franchise.  In  1890  she  was 
unanimously  elected  to  the  office  of  State  Presi- 
dent of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  of  Massachusetts,  ami 
continued  in  that  oihce  for  eight  years.  In 
1898  she  resigned  the  presidency  to'  become 
National  Lecturer. 

At  the  time  of  massacre  of  the  Armenians 
by  the  Turks,  in  1896,  Frances  E.  Willard  and 
Lady  Henry  Somerset  sent  about  two  hundred 
refugees  to  New  York.  By  cable  they  recjuested 
Mrs.  Fessenden  among  others  to  receive  them 
at  Ellis  Islanil,  and  to  overcome  if  possible  the 
construction  of  law  that  might  bar  them  from 
admission. 

In  carrying  out  her  part  of  this  work  it  be- 
came necessary  for  Mrs.  Fessenden  to  visit  New 
York  three  times,  consulting  with  the  commis- 
sioner of  immigration  and  addressing  ministers' 
meetings  to  secure  their  signatures  to  a  petition 
to  the  United  States  government  to  call  the.se 
jjeople  "refugees"  and  not  "immigrants." 
By  this  wording  it  was  possible  to  avoid  violat- 
ing a  most  beneficent  law.  It  was  necessary 
also  for  her  to  secure  the  signing  of  the  bond  for 
forty  thousand  dollars.  The  W.  C.  T.  U.  had 
to  pledge  that  none  of  the  refugees  should 
ever  claim  government  support.  W'hen  these 
details  had  been  arranged,  one  hundred  refugees 
went  to  the  Massachusetts  W.  C.  T.  U.  and  one 
hundred  to  the  Salvation  Army.  "With  her  one 
hundred  Mrs.  Fessenden  took  the  ferry  from 
Ellis  Island,  while  from  the  grateful  hearts  of 
those  who  had  gathere<l  to  help  rose  the  beauti- 
tiful  "  Prai.se  God,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow." 

To  find  work  for  these  refugees  ignorant 
of  the  language  and  customs  of  our  country  was 
a  gigantic  task.  It  fell  chiefly  on  Mrs.  Ruth 
Baker,  the  Corres])onding  Secretary,  Mrs.  Fessen- 
den's  clo.se  friend.  At  one  time  Mrs.  I'essenden 
herself  had  a  thrilling  experience  in  rescuing 
some  of  these  men  from  a  place  whitlier  they 
had    been    led    by    false    representations.     It 


CARRO   MORRELL  CLARK 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


393 


was  a  stronghold  of  outlaws  in  the  Virginia 
mountains  that  she  had  to  visit  in  order  to 
accomplish  her  purpose;  and  it  was  through 
the  exercise  of  the  greatest  tact  and  promj)tness 
that  she  succeeded  in  bringing  the  men  away. 

As  President  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  Mrs.  Fessen- 
den  had  many  interesting  experiences.  One 
of  these  was  when,  through  the  invitation  from 
the  captain  and  chaplain,  she  conducted  on 
the  United  States  warship  "Massachusetts"  a 
Sunday  service  which  was  attended  by  sailors 
from  three  vessels.  Another  was  the  occasion 
when  she  presided  at  the  banquet  and  reception 
to  Lady  Henry  Somerset  at  Music  Hall ;  and 
a  third  at  Hotel  \'endome,  the  breakfast  to 
Frances  E.  Willard,  at  which  there  were  six 
hundred  guests. 

An  experience  of  a  different  kind,  which  she 
felt  her  office  required  of  her,  was  a  visit  she 
made  to  the  slums,  that  she  might  see  for  her- 
self life  in  its  various  phases.  Accomjianied 
by  two  policemen,  she  spent  the  entire  night 
irt  the  worst  part  of  Boston,  visiting  Cliinose 
and  Italian  quarters,  police  stations,  and  so- 
called  hotels. 

In  1899  Mrs.  Fessenden  had  a  second  great 
loss  in  the  death  of  her  only  son,  AVilliam  Chaffin 
Fessenden,  who  had  been  graduated  from  An- 
dover  in  1898,  and  had  entered  upon  his  first 
pastorate  at  New  Boston,  Mass.  He  was  a 
young  man  of  high  promise,  both  as  preacher 
and  thinker. 

Mrs.  Fe.ssenden  herself  has  frequently  re- 
sponded to  invitations  to  preach  in  Congre- 
gational, Baptist,  and  Methodist  pulpits. 
When  only  twelve  years  old,  she  united  with 
the  Presbyterian  church,  at  a  time  when  young 
people  were  rarely  admitted  to  church  member- 
ship. 

At  present  Mrs.  Fes.senden  is  Vice-President 
of  the  Massachusetts  Woman's  Suffrage  Asso- 
ciation, National  Lectiwer  for  the  W.  C.  T.  U., 
and  a  leailer  and  teacher  of  classes  in  parlia- 
mentary law.  She  early  found  that  she  could 
most  effectively  help  the  causes  in  which  she 
was  interested  by  the  spoken  rather  than  the 
written  word,  and  her  literary  work  has  been 
confined  to  articles  on  vital  subjects  and  stories 
for  children's  magazines.  As  a  speaker,  her 
power  to  hold  audiences  is  very  marked,  and 


people  like  Dr.  Lorimer,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  the 
late  Joseph  Cook,  and  Frances  E.  Willard  have 
spoken  enthusiastically  of  her  aV)ility.  She 
has  a  fine  presence,  a  melodious  voice,  a  logical 
mind,  and  great  skill  in  presenting  her  argu- 
ments forcibly. 

Joseph  Cook  praised  her  "good  judgment, 
good  taste,  courage,  and  alertness."  Miss 
Willard  said:  "It  is  her  good  fortune  to  have 
something  to  say  and  to  say  it  with  clearness 
and  conviction,  wit  and  wisdom."  Neal  Dow 
said,  "There  is  not  within  my  knowledge  a 
more  devoted  friend  of  temperance,  nor  one 
whose  work  on  the  platform  is  more  acceptable 
and  effective  than  hers." 

Helen  Leah  Reed. 


CARRO  MORRELL  CLARK,  the  only 
woman  publi.sher  of  note  in  the  coun- 
try to-day,  is  a  native  of  Maine.  Ten 
years  ago  she  left  the  pleasant  farm 
home  in  the  town  of  Unity,  where  she  was  born, 
aad  came  to  Boston,  having  no  definite  purpose 
beyond  a  desire  to  ascertain  what  chance 
there  was  for  a  girl  whose  ambitions  reached 
beyond  farm  life.  Her  bright,  busine.ss-like 
manner  carried  her  rapidly  forward,  and  she 
was  so  successful  in  her  efforts  for  others  that 
she  soon  decided  to  rea])  the  full  benefit  of  her 
energies  for  herself.  Accordingly  in  1892  she 
opened  in  her  own  name  a  book  and  stationery 
store  in  the  Back  Bay,  where  her  patronage 
included  from  the  start  .some  of  the  most  ex- 
clusive families  of  Boston.  Of  this  very  .success- 
ful enterpri.se  -she  was  sole  owner  and  man- 
ager for  about  nine  years. 

In  September,  1900,  Miss  Clark  organized 
the  C.  M.  Clark  Publishing  Company  of  Boston, 
of  which  she  is  the  head.  This  enterprising 
house  in  its  first  year  of  existence  achievetl  the 
remarkable  distinction  of  producing  two  works 
of  fiction  both  of  which  within  one  month 
from  their  publication  were  clas.sed  among  the 
six  best  selling  books  throughout  the  country. 
The  first  was  "  Quincy  Adams  Sawyer,"  a  New 
England  story,  which  came  out  on  November 
3,  1900,  antl  rapidly  jumped  into  the  very  small 
class  of  books  selling  nearly  two  hundred  thou- 
sand  in  less  than  one  year  from   publication 


3!)4 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


date;  and  the  second  was  the  famous  Aaron 
Burr  romance  entitled  "  Blennerhassett,"  which 
was  puhhshed  on  September  6,  1901,  with  a 
remarkable  record — an  advance  sale  of  sixty 
thousand  copies  before  the  publication  date. 
In  less  than  one  week  from  the  time  it  ap-^ 
peared  in  the  bookstores  this  l)(if)k  had  Ijecome 
the  best  selling  one  in  New  York  and  Boston, 
and  within  a  month  it  was  in  the  list  of  six  l)est 
selling  books  in  the  whole  country.  As  Christ- 
mas apj)roached,  "Blennerhassett"  was  l;eing 
produced  in  editions  of  twenty  thousand  copies, 
and  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 
mark  was  nearly  reached  in  the  almost  incredible 
time  of  two  months. 

A  few  weeks  before  starting  ui)on  this  new 
enterprise  Miss  Clark  had  no  more  idea  of  found- 
ing a  publishing  house  than  she  had  of  build- 
ing a  railroad.  The  story  of  the  undertaking 
is  an  interesting  one,  it  seemed  such  a  venture- 
some task  on  the  part  of  a  woman,  in  a  field 
already  so  well  filled  by  well-established  con- 
cerns of  wide  reputation.  Men  of  long  expe- 
rience in  the  business  shook  their  heads  gravely 
when  they  heard  of  tiiis  invasion  of  their  hitherto 
exclusive  circle  by  a  woman  and  with  the  work 
of  an  entirely  unknown  author.  Miss  Clark 
happened  to  be  acquainted  with  Mr.  Charles 
Felton  Pidgin,  and  partly  from  friendly  motives, 
partly  out  of  curiosity,  went  to  hear  the  reading 
of  his  manuscript  entitleil  "  Quincy  Adams 
Sawyer."  Its  fresh  country  atmosphere,  as 
sweetly  natural  as  the  breath  of  the  fields,  and 
its  familiar,  lovable  country  characters  carried 
her  mind  back  to  the  old  farm  in  Unity. 
Strongly  impressed  with  the  uniqueness  of  the 
pretty  love  story  and  the  natural  Yankee 
humor  in  its  characters  and  scenes,  she  came 
away  from  the  reading  convinced  that  it  would 
be  well  worth  while  to  publish  this  book. 

The  great  success  and  wide  re|)utation  of 
the  two  books  above  named  have  brought  to 
Miss  Clark  the  manuscripts  of  authors,  known 
and  unknown,  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  her  publishing  business  assumed  such 
proportions  that  in  the  fall  of  1901  she  took 
an  extensive  suite  of  offices  in  Brown  Building, 
Dewey  Square,  Boston,  whither  she  transferred 
her  business  after  disposing  of  her  Back  Bay 
store  in  the  spring  of  that  year. 


Greatly  increasing  business  and  plans  for 
several  new  publications  necessitated  another 
change  in  March,  1902,  since  which  time  the 
company  has  occupied  the  entire  floor  at  211 
Tremont  Street. 

In  privat(>  life  Carro  Morrell  Clark  is  Mrs. 
Charles  F.  Atkinson,  of  Beacon  Street,  Boston, 
her  marriage  to  Mr.  Atkinson,  a  well-known 
theatre  manager,  having  taken  jilace  August 
24,  1897. 

This  sketch  of  Mrs.  Atkinson's  business  life 
may  well  be  supplemented  by  a  brief  record  of 
her  ancestry. 

Her  parents,  Dudley  Perley  Clark  and  Lucy- 
Ellen  Warren,  were  married  July  11,  1852. 
They  had  twelve  children.  The  father  (now 
deceased)  was  born  in  Unity,  Me.,  October 
26,  1824,  the  eldest  son  of  Cudworth  and  Nancy 
(Perley)  Clark.  His  paternal  grandfather,  John 
Clark,  was  an  early  settler  in  that  part  of 
the  town  of  Nobleboro,  Me.,  which  is  now 
Damariscotta. 

In  a  brief  genealogical  paper  prepared  by 
a  student  of  the  family  history  John  Clark 
is  designated  as  a  descendant  in  the  fourth  gen- 
eration of  Elisha  Clark,  who  settletl  in  Kittery, 
Me.,  as  early  as  1690,  and  from  whom  the  line 
continued  to  John^  through  Josiah,^  born  in 
1704,  and  his  son  Elisha.^ 

John  Clark,  of  Nobleboro,  married  Abigail 
Bryant.  They  had  a  large  family  of  children, 
one  being  Cudworth,  named  above.  Nancy 
Perley,  wife  of  Cudworth  Clark,  was  daughter 
of  John  and  Mary  (Spalding)  Perley.  Her 
father,  John  Perley,  was  son  of  Dudley'*  Perley 
(Asa,*  Thomas,'  ^  Allen')  and  his  wife,  Hannah 
Hale.  Mary  Spalding  was  daughter  of  Benja- 
min^ S]3alding  and  a  descendant  in  the  sixth 
generation  of  Edward'  Spalding,  an  early  set- 
tler of  Chelmsford,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Atkin.son's  mother  is  now  living  at  the 
homestead  in  Unity,  Me.  Her  parents  were 
Phineas  Warren,  Jr.  (born  in  1793),  and  his  wife, 
Lucy  Ellen  Tibbetts  (born  in  1797) — the 
former,  son  of  Phineas,  Sr.,  and  Betsy  (Collier) 
Warren ;  the  latter,  daughter  of  Henry  and 
Abigail  (Young)  Tibbetts.  Henry  Young, 
a  sea  captain,  was  son  of  Lieutenant  Solomon 
Young,  of  Rochester,  Mass.,  and  his  wife, 
Sarah  Adams. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


395 


Phineas  Warren,  Jr.,  was  a  kinsman  of  the 
late  Hon.  Lot  M.  Morrell,  their  common  ances- 
tors being  the  early  Morrells  of  Kittery,  Me. 
Printed  antl  family  records  and  remembrances 
show  that  Phineas  Warren,  St.,  father  of  Phin- 
eas, Jr.,  was  Phineas,^  born  in  Berwick,  Me.,  in 
1763,  son  of  Gideon*  antl  Hannah  (Morrell) 
Warren  and  a  descendant  in  the  fifth  generation 
of  James  Warren;  who  came  to  Kittery,  Me., 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  in 
1656  had  land  laid  out  to  him  in  the  parish  of 
Unity,  now  South  Berwick.  From  James'  and 
his  wife  Margaret  the  line  continued  through 
James^  and  Gilbert'  to  Gideon,*  who  married 
in  174S  Hannah,  daughter  of  John'  and  Ruth 
(Dow)  Morrell,  and  was  the  father  of  Phineas,^ 
above  nameil,  born  April  22,  1763.  Phinea.'^" 
Warren,  or  Phineas  Warren,  Sr.,  was  a  birthright 
Quaker,  or  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
but,  marrying  out  of  meeting,  he  was  disowned. 
He  settled  in  Freedom.  His  wife  Betsy  was 
daughter  of  Samuel  and  Betsy  (Stein)  Collier. 

John'  Morrell,  maternal  grandfather  of  Phin- 
eas Warren,  Sr.,  was  brother  to  Peter'  Morrell, 
a  lineal  ancestor  of  Lot  M.  Morrell,  both  John' 
and  Peter'  being  sons  of  John-  and  grandsons 
of  John'  Morrell,  who  had  a  grant  of  land  in 
Kittery  in  1668.  (See  "Old  Kittery  and  her 
Families,"  by  Rev.  E.  S.  Stackpole,  and  "Gene- 
alogy of  Descendants  of  James  Warren,  of 
Kittery,"  by  Orin  Warren,  M.D.) 

Four  of  Mrs.  Atkinson's  ancestors  above 
mentioned — namely.  Lieutenant  John  Clark, 
of  Nobleboro,  Me.;  Benjamin  Spalding,  of 
Chelmsford,  Mass.;'  Lieutenant  Solomon  Young, 
of  Rochester,  Mass.;  and  his  son  Henry— served 
in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Mrs.  Atkinson  is 
a  member  of    '  Dorothy  Q."  Chapter,  D.  R. 


ELLA  MAUDE  MOORE,  author  of  "Songs 
of  Sunshine  and  Shadow,"  is  the  wife 
of  Joseph  E.  Moore,  of  Thomaston, 
Me.,  and  the  chief  representative  of 
that  flourishing  seaboard  town  in  literature 
to-day.  Daughter  of  Samuel  Emerson  Smith 
(Bowdoin  College,  1839),  she  was  born  in  1849 
in  the  town  of  Warren,  Me.  Her  paternal 
grandfather,  the  Hon.  Edwin  Smith,  of  War- 
ren (Harvard  College,  1811),  was  son  of  Manas- 


seh  Smith  (Harvard  College,  1773)  and  his 
wife  Hannah,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Daniel 
and  Hannah  (Emerson)  P]merson,  of  Hollis, 
N.H.  Hannah  Emerson,  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Daniel  and  grandmother  of  Edwin  Smith,  was 
a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Joseph*  and  Mary 
(Moody)  Emerson  and  sister  to  the  Rev.  Will- 
iam' Emerson,  the  grandfather  of  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson. 

Samuel  E.  Smith,  father  of  Mrs.  Moore,  re- 
moved with  his  family  to  Thomaston  when  his 
daughter  was  three  years  oUl.  Here  she  grew 
up  and  was  educated  in  the  public  schools. 
In  early  life  her  literary  tastes  began  to  ag^ert 
themselves  in  poetic  effusions,  humorous,  sa- 
tirical, or  pathetic,  according  to  her  mood  or 
the  nature  of  the  subject  that  had  awakened 
her  interest.  When  but  a  school-girl,  she 
composed  the  verses  now  so  widely  known, 
and  at  the  time  so  much  discussed,  known  as 
"Rock  of  Ages,"  a  poem  spoken  of  by  the 
Lewiston  Journal  as  "  the  most  celebrated 
written  by  a  Maine  woman."  It  was  the  re- 
sult of  no  prolonged  or  studied  effort:  it  was 
spontaneous — in  the  phraseology  of  the  poem, 
"sung  as  smg  the  bird.s  in  June."  It  was 
written,  without  a  thought  of  its  survival, 
on  the  inside  of  an  old  envelope,  which  she 
had  torn  open  at  the  entls  and  spread  apart, 
crossing  and  recrossing  the  lines  to  find  room. 
After  she  had  thrown  it  away,  one  of  the  fam- 
ily picked  it  up,  tleciphered  the  verses,  and 
was  astonished  at  their  merit.  Urged  to  do 
so,  she  reproduced  the  verses,  and  they  ap- 
peared in  the  Maine  Standard. 

The  poem  has  subjected  the  author  to  con- 
siilerable  amusing  annoyance,  for,  some  years 
after  it  was  written,  it  appeared  in  The  Chris- 
tian at  Work  as  the  production  of  a  man  in 
Ohio,  who  sought  to  establish  his  claim  by 
setting  forth  some  personal  details  connected 
with  its  origin.  It  also  apjjearetl  in  a  published 
collection  of  poems  in  the  West  and  credited  to 
a  Western  woman.  Later  on  a  London  lit- 
erary journal  published  a  strongly  satirical 
article  in  regard  to  its  pretended  American 
authorship,  strangely  confounding  the  poem 
with  the  familiar  hynm  of  "Toplady."  The 
poem  by  Mrs.  Moore  describes  the  various 
emotions  awakened  by  singmg  "Rock  of  Ages" 


396 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


— in  the  girl,  in  "lips  grown  aged,"  and  "over 
the  coffin  lid";  and  only  neglect  to  read  the 
verses  could  explain  the  critic's  mistake.  Mrs. 
Moore  contributed  for  several  years  occasional 
short  stories  and  verses  to  various  magazines 
and  newspapers,  and  on  one  occasion  entered 
the  lists  in  competition  for  the  prize  offered 
by  the  Ymdh's  Companion  for  the  best  story 
for  girls.  There  were  seven  thousand  com- 
petitors that  year,  and  Mrs.  Moore  received 
the  first  prize  of  five  hundred  dollars. 

In  1880  Lothrop  &  Co.,  Boston,  published 
her  volume  of  verses  entitled  "Songs  of  Sun- 
shine and  Shadow,"  which  has  passed  through 
two  editions. 

She  must  be  clas.sed  among  the  poets  of 
nature.  A  list  of  her  themes  would  reveal 
this,  for  she  sings  of  trees  and  flowers,  brooks 
and  rills,  of  night-fall,  summer  and  winter, 
and  the  voice  of  spring.  The  much  quoted 
words  of  Wordsworth,  speaking  of  himself, 
would  truly  apply  to  the  author  of  "Songs 
of  Sunshine  and  Shadow": — 

The  "meadow,  grove,  and  stream, 
The  earth,  and  every  common  .sight, 

To  me  did  seem 
Apparelled  in  celestial  light. 

The  glory  and  the  freshness  of  a  dream." 

How  clearly  this  is  revealed  in  the  poem, 
"To  a  Flower  Painter,"  one  of  the  best  of  the 
collection,  through  which  breathes  a  desire 
to  render  immortal  the  varied  beautiful  forms 
of  field  and  forest! — 

"If  I  had  all  an  artist's  vi^ondrous  cunning, 

The  magic  of  the  painter's  glowing  art, 
All  the  wild  flowers  of  limpid  brooklets  running, 

All  blossoms  of  the  field  and  wood  a  part — 
The  buttercup  with  disc  of  sunny  yellow, 

The  l)los.s()m  of  the  wind-flower  frail  and  fair, 
The  honeyed  clover  that  the  brown  bees  fellow. 

The  columbine  that  sways  the  summer  air — 
Pd  paint  them  all  on  tablet,  panel,  (lortal, 
And  render  them  immortal. 

"I'd  whisper  to  the  lily,  standing  stately 

In  fair,  unconscious  grace. 
Or  to  the  sweet  wild  rose  ablu.shing  greatly, 

'Bend  down,  O  queen,  bend  down  a  little  space, 
That  I  may  read  the  beauty  of  thy  face ! ' 

"And  I  would  wander  far  in  forest  reaches, 

Where  wild-wood  vines  entangle  woodland  ways, 


To  find  the  pulpit  whence  the  brown  .lack  preaches 
His  silent  sermons  through  the  summer  days. 

"And  I  would  seek  the  crimson  cup-moss,  growing 
In  shadow'd  nook.s,  and  by  the  brooklet's  brink 
The  fronded  fern,  the  scarlet  lily  glownig 

In  sunny  jilaces,  and  the  wild  clove-pink; 
And  I  would  gather  sprays  of  woodbine  climbing 

And  bearded  grasses  from  the  fields  and  fells, 
List'uing  the  while,  if  I  might  catch  the  chiming 
'  Of  wild  bluebells. 

"From  sunlit  heights,  from  billowy  .seas  of  meadow. 
From  ferny  hollows  and  from  giassy  braes. 
The  blossoms  of  the  sunshine  and  the  shadow. 

With  all  the  grace  of  nature's  wild  sweet  ways, 
I'd  glean  and  paint  on  tablet,  j)anel,  portal, 
To  render  them  immortal. 

"And  they  who  never  see  the  summer's  glory. 
The  treasures  of  the  woodland  and  the  stream, 
Should  learn  from  me  to  read  the  wondrous  story. 

Sweeter  by  far  than  poet's  sweetest  dream 
(And,  reading,  cease  to  count  the  weary  hours) — 
God's  gift  of  flowers!" 


"Rock  of  Ages"  and  "Dandelions"  have 
been  most  widely  quoted,  and  appeal  most 
strongly  to  the  popular  ear,  yet  they  are  by 
no  means  her  best. 

The  poems  are  chiefly  of  the  lyrical  order, 
interspersed  with  ballads,  metrical  transla- 
tions of  odes  of  Horace,  and  some  exquisite 
sonnets.  Occasionally  she  tries  her  hand  at 
.some  historical  incident,  throwing  it,  as  a 
study,  into  poetic  measures.  An  illustration 
of  this  is  "The  Death  of  Charles  the  Ninth." 
This  was  written  for  her  brother,  tJien  a  stu- 
dent at  Bowdoin  College,  to  be  used  as  a  reci- 
tation in  a  competition  for  a  prize. 

If  dramatic  poetry  be  that  in  which  the  ob- 
jects contemplated,  animate  or  inanimate, 
are  presented  as  speaking  for  them.selves, 
then  several  of  her  ]X)ems  are  of  this  class, 
.such  as  "Immortality,"  "Useless,"  "The' Pop- 
lar," and  others.  In  fact,  her  compass  is  wide, 
for  she  has  produced  some  humorous  poetry 
as  well,  of  a  high  order,  that  has  never  foimd 
its  way  into  print. 

But  to  those  who  know  her  best  her  pub- 
lished works  fail  to  adequately  represent  her. 
They  seem  but  a  fragment  of  what,  had  her 
health  been  uniform,  she  would  probably  have 
produced.     For    years    she    suffered    from    a 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


397 


complication  of  nervous  maladies,  and  doubt- 
less "learned  in  suffering  what  she  taught  in 
song." 

Her  endowments  are  found  in  alliance  with 
a  masculine  understanding  and  finely  adjusted 
ethical  and  religious  <iualities.  She  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  l^aptist  church,  and  lives  an  active 
Christian  life;  and  one  of  her  best  rewards  for 
publishing  a  volume  of  poetry  has  been  the 
letters  she  has  received  acknowledging  the 
help  and  comftn-t  ilerived  from  some  of  the 
poems  which  seemed  to  voice  the  sentiment 
of  the  sufferer.  Mrs.  Moore  is  exceedingly 
interested  in  all  (luestions  of  theology  and 
religion,  ac(iuainted  with  the  discussion  of 
"the  higher  criticism,"  well  read  in  science 
and  philosophy,  in  which  she  thinks  profoundly 
and  reasons  acutely.  Should  future  health 
and  leisure  be  granted  her,  with  a  disposition 
to  write  again  ior  publication,  I  should  rather 
expect  from  her  pen  something  in  the  line  of 
religious  life  and  experience,  or  an  examina- 
tion of  some  subject  m  philosophy,  or  some 
application  of  a  new  scientific  fact  to  life  and 
conduct,  than  more  in  the  line  of  poetry  and 
fiction.  I  add  a  sonnet  from  "Songs  of  Sun- 
shine and  Shadow,"  addressed  to  C.  E.  S., 
almost  perfect  in  form  and  rich  in  suggestion : 

"If  thou,  ilear  one,  wert  far  away  from  me, 
And  continents  lay  between,  or  oceans  wide. 
When  lone  I  knelt  to  j^ray  at  eventide, 
First  on  my  lips  would  be  my  prayer  for  thee. 
And  all  the  distance  would  as  nothing  be 
To  swift-winged  blessings  that  to  thee  would  glide. 
Thou  hast  gone  from  me,  and  the  grave  doth  hide 
Thee  in  a  shadow  wider  than  the  wide  sea; 
Yet,  when  I  kneel  at  morn  or  eve  to  pray, 
Shall  I  not  pray  for  thee?     Ne'er  can  come 
A  day  I  do  not  love  thee:  must  I  say 
No  word  of  love?     Thou  livest,  dear,  somewhere. 
Whv,  if  the  dead  are  deaf,  must  we  be  dumb?" 

*  x. 


ELVIRA  ANNA  TIBBETTS,  of  South 
Boston,  an  officer  in  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in 
Massachusetts  and  for  two  years  a 
director  in  the  Woman's  Charity  Club,  was 
born  in  Foxboro,  Mass.,  May  26,  1847,  daughter 
of  Luther  Richmond  and  Almina  Miranda 
(Twitchell)  Grover. 


Her  father  was  born  November  10,  1825,  in 
Taunton,  Mass.,  where  her  grandfather,  Luther 
Grover,  settled  when  a  young  man.  Luther 
was  the  youngest  son  of  Ainasa  and  Olive 
(Paine)  Grover.  Amasa  Grover  was  born 
in  17()0.  When  seventeen  years  of  age,  he 
enlisted  from  Mansfield  as  a  soldier  in  the 
Revolutionary  army,  serving  until  August 
5,  1781.  He  was  an  early  settler  of  Foxboro, 
where  he  purchased  a  tract  of  unbroken  land 
anil  established  a  homestead.  The  house  is 
in  South  Foxboro,  on  the  old  road  that  leads 
from  Taunton  to  Worcester,  and  is  in  a  gooil 
state  of  preservation.  Amasa  Grover  died 
in  1805.  His  wife,  Olive  Paine,  was  born 
in  1764  antl  died  in  1844.  They  had  a  large 
family  of  children. 

Mrs.  Tibbetts's  paternal  grandfather,  Luther 
Grover,  was  a  well-known  blacksmith,  and 
was  successfully  engaged  in  manufacturing 
until  he  retired  from  business  at  the  age  of 
seventy.  He  lived  to  be  fourscore  years, 
and  his  last  days  were  spent  in  Boston.  He 
married  in  Norton,  Mass.,  Anna  Williams 
Caswell,  a  native  of  Taunton  and  daughter 
of  Alvin  Caswell. 

Luther  Richmond  Grover,  father  of  Mrs. 
Tibbetts,  obtained  his  education  in  district 
schools  of  Springfield,  Newton  Upper  Falls, 
and  Foxboro,  Mass.  He  was  a  skilled  wcjrk- 
man,  but  was  obliged  to  give  up  an  excellent 
position  on  account  of  impaired  eyesight. 
For  the  past  fifty  years  he  has  been  engaged 
in  farming,  and  has  conducted  an  extensive 
and  profitable  business.  He  was  married 
May  27,  1846,  in  Dover,  Mass.,  to  Almina 
Miranda  Twitchell,  and  settled  on  the  large 
and  pleasant  estate  in  Foxboro  where  he 
has    lived    for    fifty-seven    years. 

A  great-grandfather  of  Mrs.  Tibbetts  on 
her  mother's  side  was  John  Cheever,  who 
was  born  in  Wrentham,  Mass.,  in  1772,  son 
of  James  and  Sarah  (Shepard)  Cheever.  John 
Cheever  married  Dolly  ^^^leeler,  of  Marlboro, 
N.H.,  who  was  a  daughter  of  David  and  Re- 
becca (Hoar)  Wheeler.  David  Wheeler,  her 
father,  was  Town  Clerk  of  Marlboro  during 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  was  a  useful 
and  highly  esteemed  citizen,  as  is  fully  attested 
by  the  numerous  offices  conferred  upon  him. 


398 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


His  name  is  on  the  Revolutionary  Rolls  of 
New  Hampshire  as  having  enlisted  in  the 
army.  His  daughter  Lucy,  sister  of  Dolly, 
wa»s  the  mother  of  the  late  Hon.  Rufus  Frost, 
ex-Mayor  of  Chelsea,  Mass.  David  was  a 
son  of  Joseph^  and  Deborah  (Whitney)  Wheeler 
and  grandson  of  John'  and  T^lizaheth  (Wells) 
Wheeler,  who  settled  in  Marlboro,  Mass. 
John'  Wheeler  was  born  in  Concord,  Mass., 
in  1661,  son  of  Thonia.s^  antl  Hannah  (Harrod, 
now  spellerl  Harwood)  Wheeler.  According 
to  the  accounts  of  the  Wheeler  family  given 
in  the  histories  of  Marlboro,  Mass.,  and  Marl- 
boro, N.H.,  Thomas^  was  a  son  of  Thomas 
Wheeler,  who  was  in  Concord,  Mass.,  in  1640, 
was  a  Captain  in  King  Philip's  War,  and 
was  wounded  at  Quaboag  (now  BrookfieUl), 
Mass.,  in  August,  1675,  when  his  horse  was 
shot  from  under  him.  His  son  Thomas  placed 
him  on  a  horse  whose  rider  had  been  slain, 
and  both  succeeded  in  escaping. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Luther  R.  Grover  have  two 
children:  Elvira  Anna  (Mrs.  Tibbetts) ;  and 
Stillman  Richmond  Grover,  a  prosperous  jew- 
elry manufacturer  in  Attleboro,  Mass.  Stillman 
R.  Grover  married  December  25,  1873,  Thedora 
Ashley,  of  Taunton,  Mass.  They  have  one 
child,  Esther  Elvira,  born  in  October,  1S87, 
now  a  student  in  the  Attleboro  High  School. 

Elvira  A.  Grover  completed  her  education 
at  the  Foxboro  English  Classical  School, 
a  private  high  school  in  the  centre  of  the 
town.  She  taught  school  several  terms  in 
Dighton  and  Wrentham.  On  June  11,  1873, 
she  was  married  to  John  Chase  Tibbetts, 
a    native    of    Hamilton,    Mass. 

Mr.  Tibbetts  was  born  November  15,  1846. 
He  is  a  descendant  of  Aquila  Chase,  who  came 
from  England  and  settled  at  Hampton,  N.H.,  as 
early  as  1640,  and  a  few  years  later  removed 
to  Newbury,  Mass.  Mr.  Tibbetts  has  been  suc- 
cessfully engagetl  in  mercantile  business  since 
1869.  He  is  a  public-spirited  citizen  of  South 
Boston,  interested  in  all  that  pertains  to  its 
welfare.  He  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Bos- 
ton Retail  Grocers'  Association;  is  a  Past  Nol>le 
Grand  of  Tremont  Lodge,  Independent  Order 
of  Odd  Fellows,  of  Boston;  has  served  as  Dis- 
trict Deputy  of  the  order,  and  is  a  member  of 
Massachusetts  Encampment,  I.  0.  of  0.  F.     He 


is  a  member  of  the  South  Boston  Citizens'  A.sso- 
ciation,  is  treasurer  and  a  Deacon  of  the  Phil- 
lips Congregational  Church  on  Broadway,  and 
is  an  associate  member  of  Dahlgren  Post,  No. 
2,  Grantl  Army  of  the  Republic.  It  has  been 
said  of  him  that  "his  career  is  one  that  adds 
lustre  to  the  history  of  South  Boston." 

Mrs.  Tibbetts  is  interested  in  charitable 
and  patriotic  work.  She  joined  the  Ladies' 
Aid  Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in 
Massachusetts  soon  after  it  was  organized. 
She  has  served  as  visitor  and  director  many 
years,  and  often  visits  the  home  on  Powder 
Horn  Hill  in  Chelsea.  She  has  been  a  member 
of  the  Helping  Hand  Society  and  also  of  the 
Home  for  Aged  Couples.  She  attends  the 
Philli])s  Congregational  Church.  Mrs.  Tibbetts 
is  one  of  the  charter  members  of  the  Charity 
Club,  and  served  two  years  on  its  Board  of 
Directors.  She  has  charter  membership  in 
the  Floral  Emblem  Society  of  Massachusetts, 
and  is  a  member  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  L'nion  at  Upham's  Corner,  Dor- 
chester, of  which  Mrs.  Julia  K.  Dyer  is  president. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tibbetts  have  had  two  children: 
Alva  Grover,  born  September  9,  1878,  in 
Foxboro;  and  John  Richmond,  born  in  Fox- 
boro, January  7,  1882  (died  when  ten  months 
old).  Alva  Grover  Tibbetts  is  a  student 
in    the    Law   School    of   Boston    I'niversity. 

Mrs.  Tibbetts,  although  deeply  interested 
in  public  work,  is  devoted  to  her  home.  She 
enjoys  the  society  of  her  friends,  and  a  friend- 
.ship  once  formed  with  her  is  never  broken. 
Her  house  is  situated  on  a  part  of  Dorchester 
Heights,  the  historic  ground  where  Washington 
viewed  the  departure  of  the  British  troops 
from  Boston.  From  the  tower  of  her  house 
can  be  .seen  the  ships  in  the  harbor  and  many 
places  associated  with  the  history  of  Boston. 


ABBIE  TRASK  USHER,  for  four  years 
/\  President  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
X  ]k.  auxiliary  to  A.  W.  Bartlett  Post, 
G.  A.  R.  of  Newburyport,  was  born  in 
Roxbury,  Mass.,  September  19,  1847,  a  daughter 
of  John  Bowdlear  and  his  wife,  Mary  Seeley. 
Educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Roxbury, 
Abbie  Trask  Bowdlear  shortly  after  her  gradua- 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


399 


tion  was  married,  on  May  25,  1.S65,  to  William 
Robert  Usher,  a  shoe  manufacturer,  of  Stone- 
ham,  Mass.  While  living  in  Stoneham,  Mrs. 
Usher  was  active  in  church  and  benevolent 
work,  thus  endearing  herself  to  the  community. 

In  1884  Mr.  Usher  removed  to  Milton,  N.H., 
starting  a  shoe  factory  there.  During  a  resi- 
dence of  several  years  in  Milton,  Mrs.  Usher 
was  especially  interested  in  religious  work. 
She  attended  the  Baptist  church,  which  had  at 
that  time  only  a  few  members.  The  church 
buikling  and  its  furnishings  were  unattractive, 
and  the  vestry  where  the  prayer  meetings  were 
held  was  "worse  than  the  church,"  she  said. 
An  old  stove  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  room. 
The  men  were  seated  on  old-fashioned  wooden 
seats  on  one  side  of  the  vestry,  the  women  on 
the  other.  There  was  no  settled  minister,  and 
no  cordiality. 

Mrs.  Usher  said:  "I  camiot  stand  this.  If  I 
am  to  live  in  this  town,  I  must  have  a  church 
home."  She  cjuietly  became  acquainted  with 
the  people,  then  started  a  sewing-circle,  and 
formed  other  plans  for  creating  a  new  interest. 
By  suggesting  that  they  open  their  homes  for 
socials,  and  formulating  methods  of  work  that 
was  much  needed,  she  awakened  enthusiasm. 
In  a  brief  time  there  were  many  changes  in  the 
management  of  the  church,  and  thrtuigh  her 
zealous  efforts  a  new  church  edifice  and  parson- 
age were  built. 

In  1886  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Usher  returned  to  Stone- 
ham,  and  soon  after  settled  in  Newburyport, 
where  they  became  leading  citizens.  Mrs. 
Usher  entered  with  enthusiasm  into  the  relig- 
ious, patriotic,  anrl  charitable  work  of  that  city. 
She  was  an  active  member  of  the  Baptist  church, 
was  President  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  to 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  for  six 
years,  and  served  as  Director  of  the  Young 
Woman's  Christian  Association  of  Newbury- 
port. She  attended  State  conventions  as  a 
delegate  to  societies  connected  with  the  Bap- 
tist denomination,  and  had  an  extensive  ac- 
quaintance among  its  leaders  throughout  the 
State.  Her  hospitable  home  was  always  open 
to  welcome  clergymen  and  delegations  from 
other  places  whenever  they  visited  Newbury- 
port to  conduct  special  religious  work. 

Mrs.  Usher's  brother,  Jolm  Augustus  Bowd- 


lear,  was  in  the  Thirty-second  Regiment,  Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers,  during  the  Civil  War; 
and  her  first  work  for  the  soldiers  was  in  the 
early  days  of  that  conflict,  when,  as  a  school- 
girl, she  heli)ed  to  scrape  lint  for  use  in  the  hos- 
pitals. Loyal  to  the  Union  and  all  the  prin- 
ciples it  represents,  she  never  cea.sed  her  efforts 
for  the  "boys  in  blue."  There  was  a  revival 
of  interest  in  A.  W.  Bartlett  Relief  Corps  during 
her  presidency,  and  she  initiated  over  fifty 
members.  Public  meetings  were  held,  also 
union  gatherings  with  the  post — socials  and 
conferences  that  advanced  the  beneficent  work 
of  both  organizations. 

Serving  as  a  delegate  to  the  annual  conven- 
tion of  the  Department  of  Massachusetts, 
W.  R.  C,  in  1886,  she  became  interested  in 
its  work  throughout  the  State.  Her  efficiency 
and  devotion  were  cjuickly  recognized,  and  she 
received  appointment  on  important  conunittees 
representing  the  State  work.  The  duties  of 
Department  Aide,  of  Assistant  Inspector,  ami 
of  Installing  Officer  were  performed  by  her  with 
credit.  For  seventeen  years  she  was  an  active 
worker  for  the  State  organization  and  a  promi- 
nent participant  in  its  annual  conventions. 
Mrs.  Usher  was  elected  for  two  successive  years 
as  Department  Chaplain  of  the  Woman's  Re- 
lief Corps  of  Massachusetts,  and  her  reports 
containetl  suggestions  and  recommendations  of 
value. 

She  was  deeply  interested  in  the  work  of 
patriotic  instruction,  and  at  the  annual  conven- 
tion in  1901,  held  in  Boston,  was  appointed  to 
the  office  of  Department  Patriotic  Instructor. 
A  complete  report  of  the  work  accomplished 
was  given  at  the  convention  in  1902,  and  cov- 
ered twenty-four  printed  pages.  Among  the 
statistics  it  contained  arc  the  following: — 

Number  of  corps  in  Department 172 

Number  of  school-rooms  in  Department  hav- 
ing a  flag 4,255 

Number  of  school-rooms  in  Department  giving 

flag  salute 5,117 

Number  of  .school-rooms  in  Department  dis- 
playing Declaration  of  Independence    .     .        262 

Number   of    towns   or   cities   in    Dejjartment 

holding  patriotic  contests 28 

Mrs.  Usher  in  her  report  stated  that  she  had 
received   many   letters  showing  great  interest 


400 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  the  work  of  patriotic  instruction,  and  that 
in  responding  to  inquiries  and  in  furnishing 
desired  information  she  had  written  nearly  two 
hundred  letters  and  postals. 

She  recommended  that  all  corps  make  a 
special  effort  to  interest  the  superintendent, 
school  hoard,  and  teachers,  assuring  them,  when 
indifferent,  that  this  is  a  national  movement 
and  that  united  action  is  earnestly  desired. 

In  a  circular  issued  to  the  corps  for  their 
guidance,  she  requested  every  president  to  co- 
operate with  the  assistant  patriotic  instructor 
of  her  corps  in  preparing  for  a  patriotic  exer- 
cise or  entertainment,  that  their  respective 
comimmities  may  realize  their  ambition  to 
spread  the  lessons  of  patriotism  among  the 
children.  She  urged  them  to  encourage  the 
children  to  quietly  salute  the  flag  wherever 
they  might  see  it. 

"One  of  the  best  plans  of  creating  an  in- 
terest," she  said,  "is  a  public  gathering,  with 
the  presence  of  the  clergy  and  some  of  the  prom- 
inent citizens  as  speakers.  This  should  be 
arranged  with  a  view  of  presenting  the  cause 
in  a  manner  that  will  appeal  to  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  the  people,  and  especially  to 
those  having  the  management  of  the  public 
schools. 

"Citizens'  Sunday  is  another  method  of 
securing  wides]iread  interest  in  this  move- 
ment. Invite  a  clergyman  to  preach  a  sermon 
devoted  to  this  matter,  or,  if  deemed  more 
effective,  arrange  for  a  union  service  in  one 
of  the  churches,  with  addresses  by  several 
clergymen. 

"  As  the  press  is  an  important  factor  in 
moulding  public  opinion,  secure,  whenever 
possible,  the  .support  of  the  editors  of  your 
local  papers,  for  their  influence  will  be  invalu- 
able. 

"Socials,  festivals,  entertainments,  union 
meetings,  the  observance  of  historical  anniver- 
saries, and  so  forth,  are  among  the  niany  ways 
of  promoting  the  success  of  this  movement. 
The  Patriotic  Primer  for  the  teacher,  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  Chart,  and  the  Oleo- 
graph of  the  History  ami  Origin  of  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  have  been  endorsed  by  the  National 
Woman's  Relief  Corps.  The  presentation  to 
schools  of  flags,  historic  pictures,  and  books. 


and  any  gift  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  upon 
which  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  its 
auxiliary  were  founded,  will  exert  an  influence 
in  the  right  direction." 

Mrs.  Usher  visited  many  corps  and  public 
meetings  in  behalf  of  this  branch  of  the  cause, 
speaking  entertainingly  and  with  earnestness. 
Several  hundred  letters  containing  advice  and 
helpful  instructions  were  written  by  her  each 
year.  As  a  delegate  from  the  Department  of 
Massachusetts,  she  attended  .'several  National 
Conventions  of  the  W.  R.  C,  anrl  was  a  mem- 
ber of  national  committees,  also  an  aide  on  the 
staff  of  the  National  President.  In  all  these 
varietl  duties  she  retained  her  active  interest  in 
the  local  corps,  and  rendered  invaluable  aid  as 
chairman  of  its  Executive  Connnittee. 

Mrs.  I'sher  was  the  second  Worthy  Matron 
of  Beulah  Chapter,  0.  E.  S.,  of  Stoneham,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Order  of  Odd  Ladies  in 
Boston.  She  was  prominent  in  social  circles 
in  Newburyport  and  a  leader  among  women  in 
many  of  the  progressive  enterprises  of  the  city. 
She  was  largely  instrumental  in  securing  a  sol- 
diers' monument  in  Newburyport,  being  the 
only  woman  member  on  the  committee  there- 
for, and  she  had  charge  of  the  exercises  at  the 
unveiling  of  the  monument,  July  4,  1902.  She 
was  a  zealous  worker  in  the  interests  of  the 
Soldiers'  Hf)me  in  Chelsea. 

While  on  a  visit  to  Texas  with  her  husband, 
Mrs.  Usher'  was  very  helpful  in  giving  instruc- 
tion to  the  local  corps.  For  several  years  her 
health  had  been  impaired.  She  received  an 
injury  while  in  Texas,  from  the  effects  of  which 
she  died  in  Newburyport,  May  31,  1903.  Thus 
jmssed  one  who  was  beloved  by  all  who  knew 
her. 

Mrs.  Usher  had  one  son,  William  Ambrose 
I'sher.  Born  in  Stoneham,  Mass.,  December 
14,  1866,  he  received  his  education  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Stoneham,  and  is  now  in  the 
shoe  manufacturing  business  with  his  father. 
On  April  18,  1886,  he  marrietl  Gertrude  Lougee 
Brown,  of  Boston.  They  have  two  children: 
Helen  Gertrude,  born  December  22,  1888;  and 
Abbie  Marion,  born  July  14,  1895.  At  the  sum- 
mer home  of  the  Usher  family  at  Salisbury 
Beach  numerous  friends  have  been  hospitably 
entertained. 


JULIA   WARD   HOWE 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


401 


JULIA  WARD  HOWE,  LL.D.— Wise- 
hearted  men  and  women,  not  a  few,  in 
the  half-century  now  closing,  have  given 
earnest  thought  to  the  solving  of  social 
problems,  have  wrought  for  love's  sake  and 
truth's  in  various  fields  of  helpful  endeavor. 
Eminent  among  them  may  be  named  the  author 
of  the  "  Battle  Hynm  of  the  Republic. ' '  She  was 
born  in  New  York  City,  May  27,  LS19,  daughter 
of  Samuel  and  Julia  Rush  (Cutler)  Ward. 
.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  Mrs. 
Howe's  dominant  characteristics,  her  broad 
philanthropy,  her  love  of  study,  aptitude  for 
language,  predilection  for  metaphysics,  her 
fervid  patriotism,  deep  religiousness,  and  strong 
sense  of  justice,  are  derived,  in  part  at  least, 
from  some  of  the  colonial  worthies,  her  ancestors, 
mentioned  below. 

Samuel  Ward,  third,  father  of  Mrs.  Howe, 
was  son  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  Samuel  and  Phebe 
(Greene)  Ward  and  grandson  of  Governor 
Samuel  Ward,  of  Rhode  Island,  Governor 
Samuel  l)eing  the  son  of  Governor  Richard, 
who  was  a  grandson  of  John  ^\'ar(l,  of  Gloucester, 
Englaml,  and  Newport,  R.I.,  saiil  to  have  been 
an  officer  in  Cromwell's  army.  Richard  Ward 
married  Mary,  daughter  of  John  and  Isabel 
(Sayles)  Tillinghast.  Her  father  was  son  of 
Elder  Pardon  Tillinghast,  who  came  from  Eng- 
land when  a  young  man,  and  during  the  greater 
part  of  a  life  of  more  than  ninety  years,  closing 
in  17IS,  was  a  citizen  of  influence  in  the  civil 
and  religious  affairs  of  Providence,  R.I.,  where 
he  was  a  merchant  and  for  many  years  the  un- 
salaried pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Society,  to 
which  in  1711  he  gave  a  meeting-house.  Mary 
Tillinghast's  mother  was  a  daughter  of  John 
and  Mary  (Williams)  Sayles  and  grand-daugh- 
ter of  Roger  Williams.  Of  this  pioneer  of 
religious  tolerance  in  New  I^ngland,  Mrs.  Howe 
is  thus  shown  to  be  a  descendant  of  the  eighth 
generation. 

Samuel  Ward,  first,  son  of  Richard  and  Mary, 
l>orn  in  Newport  in  1725,  served  three  tertns 
as  Governor  of  Rhode  Island.  He  died  in  Phila- 
delphia in  March,  1776,  during  the  session  of 
the  Continental  Congress,  of  which  he  was  a 
valued  member — in  the  words  of  John  Adams, 
"a  steatlfast  friend  to  his  country  upon  very 
pure  principles." 


He  married  Anne  Ray,  daughter  of  Simon 
Ray,  third,  and  his  wife  Deborah,  daughter  of 
Job  and  Phebe  (Sayles)  Greene.  Phebe  and 
Isabel  Sayles,  named  above,  were  sisters.  Simon 
Ray,  third,  was  the  son  of  Simon,  second,  and 
grandson  of  Simon,  first,  of  Braintree.  Simon 
Ray,  second,  was  one  of  the  sixteen  original 
proprietors  of  Block  Island.  Influential  and 
honored,  a  "lovely  example  of  Christian  virtues," 
he  lived  to  enter  his  one  hundred  and  second 
year.  He  married  Mary  Thomas,  daughter  of 
Nathaniel  and  grand-daughter  of  "William 
Thomas,  a  Welsh  gentleman,"  who  joined  the 
Plymouth  Colony  about  1630,  served  three 
years  as  Assistant  Governor,  and  died  at  his 
home  at  Green  Harbor,  Marshfield,  in  1651.  "  A 
well-approved  and  well-grounded  Christian," 
wrote  Secretary  Morton,  "one  that  had  a  sin- 
cere desire  to  promote  the  common  good,  both 
of  church  and  State." 

Samuel  Ward,  second,  born  in  Westerly, 
R.I.,  in  1756,  a  college  graduate  at  fifteen,  served 
nearly  six  years  in  the  Continental  army,  rising 
from  the  rank  of  Captain  to  Lieutenant  Colonel ; 
was  in  Arnold's  expedition  to  Canada  and  taken 
prisoner  at  Quebec;  later  was  with  Washington 
at  Valley  Forge,  and  after  the  war  was  engaged 
in  mercantile  business  in  New  York  City.  He 
married  his  cousin  Phebe,  daughter  of  Governor 
William  and  Catherine  (Ray)  Greene.  Her 
mother  is  i-emembereil  as  a  youthful  friend  and 
correspondent  of  Franklin. 

Mrs.  Julia  R.  Cutler  Ward,  Mrs.  Howe's 
mother,  was  a  daughter  of  Benjamin  C.  Cutler,  of 
Boston  and  Jamaica  Plain,  sometime  Sheriff  of 
Norfolk  C-ounty,  and  his  wife  Sarah,  daughter 
of  Thomas  and  Hester  (Marion)  Mitchell,  of 
Waccamaw  plantation  and  Georgetown,  S.C. 
Mrs.  Cutler's  mother  was  a  sister  of  General 
Francis  Marion,  the  "Swamp  Fox"  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  granil-ilaughter  of  Benjamin  Marion, 
a  Huguenot,  who  settled  at  CliJarleston,  S.C, 
a  little  over  two  hundred  years  ago. 

Mrs.  Howe's  grandfather  Cutler  was  son  of 
John  Cutler,  third,  brass-founder,  a  well-to-do 
citizen  of  Boston  in  his  day  and  a  prominent 
Mason,  being  Cirand  Master  of  the  Grand  Lodge 
of  Massachusetts,  1792-93.  David  Cutler,  father 
of  John,  third,  was  the  youngest  son  of  Johannes 
Demesmaker,  physician  and  surgeon,  who  came 


402 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


from  Holland,  lived  for  some  years  at  Hinghain, 
married  Mary  Cowell,  of  Boston,  and,  adopting 
the  English  translation  of  his  name,  was  known 
as  Dr.  John  Cutler.  He  served  as  surgeon  in 
King  Philip's  War.  About  1694  he  removed 
to  Bo.st()n,  where  he  acquired  a  large  practice, 
to  which  his  eldest  son,  Dr.  John  Cutler,  Jr., 
succeeded.  John  Cutler,  third,  in  his  old  age 
played  the  organ  at  Trinity  Church,  of  which 
his  son-in-law,  Samuel  Parker,  afterwartl  Bishop 
Parker,  was  rector.  His  wife,  Mary  Clark,  was 
daughter  of  Benjamin  and  Miriam  (Kilby)  Clark 
and  grand-daughter  of  Christopher  Kilby,  Sr., 
of  Boston. 

Mrs.  Howe's  father,  a  successful  banker,  a 
man  of  sterling  integrity  and  of  almost  Puri- 
tanic strictness  of  life,  was  liberal  in  his  plans 
and  provision  for  the  education  of  his  children. 
There  were  three  sons — Samuel,  Henry,  and 
F.  Marion — and  three  daughters — Julia,  Louisa, 
and  Annie.  Two  sons  ilied  unmarried.  The 
eldest,  Sanuiel  Ward,  fourth,  died  in  1884,  sur- 
vived by  the  children  of  his  daughter  Margaret 
(Mrs.  J.  W.  Chanler),  whose  mother,  his  first 
wife,  was  a  daughter  of  William  B.  Astor. 
Louisa  Ward  married,  first,  Thomas  Crawford, 
the  sculptor,  and  after  his  death  married  Luther 
Terry,  an  artist.  Her  home  was  in  Rome,  Italy. 
She  was  the  mother  of  F.  Marion  Crawford. 
Annie  Ward  married  Mr.  Adolph  Mailliard,  and 
lived  in  California. 

Pursuing  her  studies  at  home  under  able  in- 
structors, .Julia  Ward  became  well  versed  in 
music  and  several  languages,  in  after  years 
taking  up  German  philosophy  and  the  study 
of  (ireek,  which  she  still  continvies.  She  was 
married  in  April,  1843,  to  Dr.  Samuel  Cridley 
Howe,  of  Boston,  world-famous  philanthropist 
and  teacher,  in  his  early  Tnanhood  one  of  the 
heroes  of  the  Greek  revolution,  of  which  he 
subsecjuently  wrote  an  historical  sketch.  .AftcT 
a  year  or  more  spent  abroad  and  the  birth  of 
a  daughter,  Julia  Romana,  in  Rome,  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Howe  took  up  their  residence  in  lioston, 
he  to  continue  his  beneficent  activities  as 
superintendent  of  the  School  for  the  Blind 
(1832-76),  head  of  the  School  for  Feeble- 
minded (1848-75),  as  member  of  the  State 
Boartl  of  Education,  and  president  of  the  Board 
of   Charities — to   mention   only   a   few   of    the 


many  lines  on  which  he  worked  to  the  end  of  his 
days — she  in  the  meantime  not  to  remain  idle. 

Five  children  were  born  to  them  in  Boston. 
The  four  now  living  are:  Florence  Marion, 
author  and  lecturer,  wife  of  David  P.  Hall, 
lawyer,  of  New  York  and  Plainfield,  N.J.: 
Henry  Marion,  professor  of  metallurgy  in  (^o- 
lumbia  University,  New  York  City:  Laura  E., 
author,  wife  of  Henry  Richards,  of  Gardiner, 
Me.;  and  Maud,  author,  wife  of  the  well-known 
artist,  John  Elliott.  Samuel,  the  younger  .son, 
died  in  May,  1863,  aged  four  years.  Julia 
Romana,  poet  and  stutlent,  who  died  in  March, 
1886,  was  the  wife  of  Michael  Anagnos,  a  native 
of  Greece,  Dr.  Howe's  successor  as  director  of 
the  School  for  the  Blind  at  South  Boston. 

Mrs.  Howe  has  written  much  both  in  prose 
and  verse.  She  has  been  a  contributor  to  the 
New  York  Tribune;  the  Independent;  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  in  which  the  "  Battle  Hymn," 
written  in  ^^'ashington  after  beholding  the  camp- 
fires  by  night,  first  apjjeared  in  j)rint  (February, 
1862);  the  North  American  Rericiv;  and  other 
periodicals.  Among  her  books  may  be  named 
"Passion  Flowers,"  i.ssued  anonymously  in 
1854;  "Later  Lyrics,"  1866;  "From  the  Oak 
to  the  Olive,"  1867;  "Is  Polite  Society  Polite? 
and  Other  l<]ssays,"  1895;  "From  Sunset  Ridge," 
1898;  and  "  I;Jeminiscences,"  1899',  covering 
fourscore  years  of  exceptionally  rich  and  varied 
experiences. 

Mrs.  Howe's  connection  with  the  woman 
suffrage  movement  began  in  1868.  Her  fii'st 
speech  in  its  advocacy  before  a  legislative 
committee  was  made  in  the  Green  Room  of 
the  State  House  in  1869.  She  has  been  officially 
connected  from  the  start  with  the  New  I'^ngland 
and  other  woman  suffrage  organizations,  in 
which  she  has  taken  an  active  pait.  For  some 
time  she  was  an  associate  editor  of  the  Woman's 
Journal.  As  l(>cturer  and  preacher  the  greater 
number  of  her  journeyings  have  been  made  since 
the  death  of  Dr.  Howe,  in  January,  1876.  In 
her  lectures  she  has  given  interesting  recollec- 
tions with  appreciative  judgments  of  Longfellow 
and  l']merson  and  \\'hittier,  has  spoJ<en  symjia- 
thetically  of  "  Patriotism  in  Lit(>rature,"  has 
offered  a  "Plea  for  Humor,"  and  has  treated  a 
variety  of  other  subjects  with  characteristic 
grace  and  vigor. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


403 


Music,  for  which  Mrs.  Howe  has  a  cultivated 
taste,  is  her  favorite  recreation.  She  has  com- 
posed a  number  of  songs,  some  of  which  are 
well  known  among  her  friends,  although  un- 
published. A  Unitarian  in  religion,  she  is  a 
member  of  the  Church  of  the  Disciples,  Boston. 
For  many  years  she  has  been  the  honored  ami 
beloved  president  of  the  New  England  \\omen's 
Club  and  of  the  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Women.  She  is  Regent  of  Liberty 
Tree  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution, and  an  honorary  member  of  the  Society 
of  Colonial  Dames  in  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island. 

To  this  reprint  of  sketch  publisheil  in  1901 
may  be  atlded  that  Mrs.  Howe  has  recently 
passed  her  eighty-fifth  anniversary,  antl,  im- 
proving the  opportunity  of  age,  is  still  active 
with  voice  and  pen  in  behalf  of  many  good 
causes.  From  Tufts  College,  at  its  recent 
Commencement,  June  15,  1904,  she  received 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

M.  H.  G. 


ELIZABETH  PALMER  PEABODY,  edu- 
cator and  author,  was  born  in  Billerica, 
Mass.,  May  16,  1804,  daughter  of  Dr. 
Nathaniel  Peabotly  and  his  wife,  Eliza- 
beth Palmer.  She  was  the  eldest  of  three  nota- 
ble sisters,  of  whom  in  her  latest  years  she  was 
the  sole  survivor.  The  one  nearest  her  in  age 
was  Mary  Tyler,  b(jrn  in  Cambridge  in  1806, 
who  married  Horace  Mann;  and  the  other  was 
Sophia  Amelia,  who  became  the  wife  of  Nathan- 
iel Hawthorne. 

The  father,  Nathaniel  Peabody,  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  Francis  Peabody,  of  Topsfield,  the 
immigrant  progenitor  of  the  family  of  this 
name  in  New  England,  was  graduated  at  Dart- 
mouth College  in  1800.  For  some  years,  later 
in  life,  he  practised  dentistry  in  Salem  and  Bos- 
ton. He  married  in  1802  Elizabeth  Palmer, 
who  had  been  preceptress  of  the  girls'  depart- 
ment of  an  incorporated  school  in  North  An- 
( lover,  Mass.,  of  which  he  was  the  principal,  the 
school  in  180.'^  being  named  l<>anklin  Academy. 
A  "lady  of  rare  gifts  and  attainments,"  Miss 
Palmer  was  a  successful  teacher,  winning  the 
respect  and  affection  of  her  i)upils  and  inciting 


in  them  a  love  of  learning.  She  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Joseph  Pearse  and  Elizabeth  (Hunt) 
Palmer  and  grand-daughter  of  General  Joseph 
Palmer  of  'Revolutionary  times,  who  with  his 
wife  Mary,  sister  of  Judge  Richard  Cranch,  came 
to  Boston  from  Devonshire,  England,  in  1746. 
Her  maternal  grandfather  was  John  Hunt,  of 
Watertown  (Harvard  College,  1734),  whose  son, 
Samuel  Hunt,  her  uncle,  was  for  about  thirty 
years  master  of  the  Boston  Latin  School. 

Joseph  Pearse  Palmer  (Harvard  College, 
1771)  was  one  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  in  De- 
cember, 1773,  and  he  also  served  his  country  in 
the  Revolution.  Some  years  after  the  close  of 
the  war  he  removed  to  Framingham,  where  he 
taught  school.  He  diet!  in  Vermont  in  1797, 
seven  years  before  the  birth  of  the  grand- 
daughter whose  name  heads  the  present  sketch. 
After  his  death  his  wife  and  chiklren  resided  in 
Watertown. 

Elizabeth  Palmer  Peabody,  descended  from 
this  worthy,  patriotic,  and  scholarly  ancestry, 
was  a  precocious  child,  early  displaying  un- 
usual mental  abilities  and  a  fondness  for  stutly. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  she  began  to  teach  school 
in  Lancaster.  She  subsequently  taught  succes- 
sively in  Hallowell,  Me.,  in  Brookline,  Mass., 
with  her  sister  Mary,  and  in  Boston.  She  was 
acquainted  with  a  number  of  languages,  an- 
cient and  modern,  learning  Polish  when  she 
was  well  advanced  in  years;  and  she  excelled 
as  a  teacher  of  history,  in  which  she  had  classes. 

In  September,  1834,  Mr.  A.  Bronson  Alcott 
opened  hi.s*  school  at  the  Masonic  Temple,  Bos- 
ton. His  diary  thus  mentions  his  assistant: 
"  Mi.ss  Peabyody,  whose  reputation  both  as  re- 
gards original  and  acquired  ability  is  high: 
she  unir^s  intellectual  and  practical  qualities 
of  no  ccnunon  order." 

Miss  Peabody's  great  work,  begun  after  she 
was  fifty  years  old,  was  as  an  interpreter  of 
Froebel's  system  of  education  and  introducer 
of  the  kindergarten  into  this  country. 

For  about  ten  years  (1840-50)  she  kept  at 
the  family  home,  13  West  Street,  Boston,  a 
shop  for  the  sale  of  foreign  books  and  journals, 
and  a  circulating  library,  the  place  becoming 
for  the  time  a  "centre  of  the  finest  intellectual 
culture."  Here  were  held  some  of  Margaret 
Fuller's  conversations. 


404 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Miss  Peabody  was  a  contributor  to  the  Chris- 
tian Examiner,  the  Dial,  Barnard's  Journal  nj 
Education,  and  otlier  periocHcals.  Among  her 
books  were  (not  to  make  an  exhau?;tive  Hst  of 
the  works  of  her  pen):  "Moral  Self-echication," 
translated  from  the  French,  1S28;  "First  Steps 
in  History";  "Key  to  Hebrew  History";  also 
"Keys  to  Grecian  and  to  Roman  History," 
1833;  "Record  of  a  School"  (Mr.  Alcott's), 
1835  (third  edition,  revised,  1874);  with  Mrs. 
Mann,  "Moral  Culture  of  Infancy"  and  "Kin- 
dergarten Guide,"  of  which  after  her  visit  to 
Europe  she  issued  early  in  the  seventies  a  re- 
vised edition;  "Reminiscences  of  William  E. 
Channuig,  D.D.";  and  "A  Last  Evening  with 
Allston." 

Mrs.  Mann,  besides  being  a  writer  on  educa- 
tional topics  and  a  translator,  was  the  author 
of  "A  Physiological  Cook-book,"  "Flower  Peo- 
ple," "Life  of  Horace  Mann,"  and  "Juanita,  a 
Romance  of  Real  Life  in  Cuba." 

Toward  the  close  of  her  life  Elizabeth  Pea- 
body  became  blind.  She  died  in  Jamaica  Plain, 
January  3,  1894,  in  her  ninetieth  year. 

On  May  2,  1904,  two  weeks  before  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  her  birth,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  New  England  \A'omen's  Club,  of 
which  she  had  been  a  valuetl  member,  heart- 
felt tribute  in  the  form  of  letters  and  addresses 
of  some  length  was  paid  to  her  memory  by  Mrs. 
Howe,  president  of  the  club,  Mrs.  Cheney, 
Colonel  Higginson,  Dr.  Hale,  and  others  who 
had  known  her  long  and  well. 

Mrs.  Howe,  after  speaking  of  her  as  one  who 
"recognized  everywhere  the  beauty  and  glory 
of  existence,"  said:  "I  cannot  remember  evei' 
to  have  known  any  one  who  carried  throi\gh 
life  so  much  of  this  serene  atmosphere,  the  re- 
sult of  high  aspirations,  genuine  culture,  and 
sweet  humanity.  Her  nature  was  very  ex- 
pansive and  her  life  full  of  benevolcMit  activity. 
.  .  .  She  helped  Margaret  Fuller  to  arrange  her 
first  conversations  in  Boston.  Slie  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  Pole,  the  Hungarian,  the  Ind- 
ian. She  was  the  devoted  frientl  of  Kossuth's 
sister.  Whom  has  she  not  befriended  when 
they  most  needed  a  friend?  Her  declining 
years  were  followed  with  love  and  gratitude." 

Mrs.  Cheney  alluded  to  the  fact  that  in  her 
old  age   [*;iizabeth   Palmer  Pealxxly  was  often 


spoken  of  as  "the  grandmother  of  Boston," 
and  added:  "She  was  rightly  named  if  the  con- 
stant outflow  of  her  warm  heart  to  every  one 
with  all  manner  of  loving  feelings  and  helpful 
deeds  and  the  best  of  all  instructions  to  the 
children  of  every  age  in  the  city  of  her  love 
could  entitle  her  to  this  distinction.  .  .  .  Her 
large  and  varied  reading  filled  her  mind  with 
stores  of  history,  poetry,  and  philosophy.  She 
gathered  special  advantage  from  the  hobbies 
into  which  she  entered  with  all  her  heart  for 
the  time.  Out  of  them  she  gained  always 
something  rich  and  rare. 

"She  certainly  had  not  the  reputation  of 
being  a  practical  person.  She  was  too  readily 
interested  in  every  scheme  that  offered  good 
to  the  human  race,  too  credulous  of  any  intli- 
vidual  who  sought  her  help  or  comfort.  In  try- 
ing times  her  un.selfish  help,  her  advice,  hei' 
sympathy,  were  all  fruitful  of  good  results 
which  had  seemed  hopeless  to  less  believing 
and  ardent  natures. 

"Goethe  says,  'All  philosophy  must  be  lived 
and  loved.'  Such  was  the  spirit  in  which 
I'ilizabeth  P.  Peabody  spent  her  ninety  years 
in  constant  service  to  mankind." 

M.  H.    G. 


ADh:LINE  D.  T.  WHITNEY,  one  of  the 
/  \  successful  women  writers  of  New  I'>ng- 
X  .^  land  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nine- 
t(>entli  century  and  still  an  active 
member  of  the  craft  in  the  first  decade  of  the 
twentieth,  is  a  Bostonian  by  l)irth  and  breed- 
ing. Her  maiden  name  was  Adeline  Dutton 
Train.  After  her  marriage  in  November,  1843, 
to  Seth  I).  Whitney,  of  Milton,  Mass.,  she  be- 
came a  resident  of  that  town,  where  in  her 
widowhood  she  contimies  to  make  her  home, 
Mr.  Uhitney  having  died  in  1890. 

Born  September  15,  1824,  the  daughter  of 
Enoch  Train  and  his  first  wife,  Adeline 
Dutton,  Mrs.  \\'hitney  is  a  grand-daughter 
on  the  paternal  side  of  Knoch,  Sr.,  and  Hannah 
(Elwing)  Train  and  a  descendant  in  the  seventh 
generation  of  John'  Train(\  who  came  to  Massa- 
chusetts in  1635  and  settled  at  Watertown. 
Mrs.  Whitney's  granrlmother  Train  was  the 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ewing,  of  Pliila(leli)hia, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


405 


who  had  been  a  chaphiiu  in  the  British  army. 
Mrs.  Whitney's  father,  Enoch  Train  the  younger, 
was  a  pioneer  merchant  and  ship-owner  of 
Boston  in  liis  ihiy.  Hei-  maternal  grandparents, 
Silas  Button  and  Nancy  Tobey,  who  were  mar- 
ried in  Boston  on  July  17,  ISOO,  belonged  to 
old  New  England  families. 

For  four  years  in  her  early  teens  Mrs.  A\'hit- 
ney  was  a  student  in  the  excellent  private 
school  for  girls  kept  in  Boston  from  1823  to 
1855  by  George  B.  Emerson,  one  of  the  best  of 
teachers  New  Paigland  has  ever  produced,  ami 
for  one  year  she  was  at  Northampton  in  the 
noted  school  of  Miss  Margarette  Dwight,  who 
was  very  thorougli,  systematic,  and  successful 
in  her  vocation. 

The  first  in  the  long  list  of  jHiblications  wliich 
have  given  Mrs.  Whitney  her  enviable  position 
among  .\merican  authors,  and  won  for  her  a 
host  of  admiring  readers,  was  "Mother  Goose 
for  Grown  Folks,"  issued  by  Rudd  &  Carleton 
in  1859.  Then  came  "Boys  of  Chequasset," 
"Faith  Gartney's  Girlhood,"  and  "The  Gay- 
worthys,"  published  by  Loring.  "A  Sunmier 
in  Leslie  Goldthwaite's  Life"  first  appeared 
as  a  serial  in  Our  Young  Folkfi  in  1866;  "Pa- 
tience Strong's  Outings"  in  tlie  Chrii^iian 
Rec/ister,  1868-70.  Among  her  books  of  later 
(late  may  be  mentioned  "We  Girls,"  "Real 
Folks,"  "Sights  and  Insights,"  "  Bonnybor- 
ough,"  "A.scutney  Street,"  four  volumes  of 
poems,  one  of  them  entitled  "Pansies,"  and 
five  miscellaneous  volumes,  one  being  "Just 
How,  a  Key  to  the  Cook-book."  "Squai-e 
Pegs,  a  Novel,"  came  out  in  the  autunm  of  1894, 
marking  the  completion  of  her  seventieth  year, 
and  was  well  receivetl,  being  a  worthy  successor 
of  the  foregoing,  not  one  of  the  ephemera, 
but  a  l)ook  to  be  read  ami  reread. 

It  was  of  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney  that  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  wrote  some  twenty  or  more 
years  ago :  "  We  have  in  New  England  a  lady 
writer  who  for  our  times  and  seasons  has  done 
very  nmch  the  work  for  young  people  that  Mi.ss 
Edgeworth  ilid  in  hers;  while  her  writings  are 
spicy  and  amusing,  they  have  a  decided  in- 
fluence upon  the  character,  an  influence  any 
parent  might  be  thankful  for.  .  .  .  She  excels 
in  painting  simple,  lovely,  perfect  homes  and 
nice,  gentle,  natural  young  people.   .   .   .  The 


religious  teachings  of  her  books  have  no  cant 
phraseology,  but  they  show  how  the  spirit  of 
Christ  may  be  brought  into  actual  life." 

In  the  words  of  another  thoughtful  critic: 
"Mrs.  Whitney  is  a  sworn  foe  to  sentimental- 
ism.  She  hates  fine  language,  fine  speeches, 
hue  professions  of  virtue  and  piety  and  friend- 
ship. Her  characters,  if  her  favorites,  are 
seldom  afflicted  with  long  tongues.  .  .  .  She  has 
read  nmch  ami  knows  nmch,  ami  shows  inci- 
dentally and  without  pedantry  her  botany 
and  geology  antl  astronomy,  and  that  she  keeps 
up  with  the  science  and  philosophy  of  the  day, 
and  is  familiar  with  the  best  authors.  .  .  .  But, 
after  all,  we  return  to  her  genius  for  religion  and 
for  teaching  religion  by  fictitious  characters, 
characters  working  out  their  own  salvation 
umler  ordinary  human  and  New  England  cir- 
cumstances, as  the  cardinal  glory  antl  charm 
of  these  books." 

Mrs.  Whitney  has  had  four  children — three 
(laughters  and  a  son,  Theodore  T.  One  daugh- 
ter died  in  infancy.  The  eldest  married  in 
1867  Major  (now  Colonel)  Suter,  of  the  United 
States  army,  and  died  in  the  same  year.  The- 
odore Train  Whitney  occupies  the  old  Whitney 
homestead  in  Milton,  his  mother  living  in  a 
little  hou.se  that  she  built  for  herself  a  few  years 
since  in  his  grounds.  Mr.  Whitney  has  a  son, 
Theodore  T.,  Jr.,  and  three  daughters. 

Mrs.  Whitney's  youngest  daughter,  Caroline 
Leslie,  married  James  A.  Field,  of  Beloit,  Wis. 
At  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1884,  their  home 
was  in  Lakewood,  N.J.  Mrs.  Field  was  the 
author  of  "High  Lights,"  a  novel,  and  of 
"Nannie's  Happy  Childhood,"  an  attractive 
book  for  girls.  She  died  December  1,  1902, 
leaving  three  sons.  The  eldest  son,  William 
L.  W.,  is  instructor  of  natural  science  in  Milton 
Academy  and  at  the  summer  school  in  Alstead, 
N.H.  The  .second,  James  A.,  is  a  teacher  at 
Harvard  L^niversity,  where  he  was  graduated 
with  honors  in  1903.  The  third,  Douglas 
Grahame,  is  still  a  Harvard  student,  as  is  his 
cousin  Theodore,  above  named.  Mrs.  Whitney 
has  also  a  great-grandchild,  the  son  of  ^^'iIliam 
L.  W.  Field,  who  was  married  in  1902. 

Mrs.  Whitney,  it  is  pleasant  to  record  in 
closing,  expresses  herself  as  being  very  happy, 
in  these  latter  days  of  her  eightieth  year,  in 


406 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


having  all   these  young  people  so  near  about 
her  and  so  much  with  her  in  her  home. 


M.  H.   G. 


A  LICE  STONE  BLACK  WELL  was  born 
/\  in  Orange,  N.  J.,  September  14,.  1S57, 
L  \.  the  daughter  of  Henry  B.  Blackwell 
and  his  wife,  Lucy  Stone.  In  1869 
her  parents  moved  to  Massachusetts.  She  was 
fitted  for  college  at  Chauncy  Hall  School  in 
Boston,  where  sh(!  took  the  Thayer  prize  for 
English  composition  and  a  special  prize  for 
knowledge  of  Shakespe'are.  .She  graduated 
from  the  Collegeof  Liberal  Arts  of  Boston  Uni- 
versity with  honors  in  1881,  and  began  in  the 
same  year  to  helj)  her  parents  edit  the  Woman' si 
Journal.  For  the  last  sixteen  years  she  has 
also  edited  a  small  fortnightly  paper  called  the 
Woman's  Column,  devoted  to  e(]ual  suffrage. 
She  was  largely  instrumental  in  persuading  the 
two  branches  of  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion, which  had  split  twenty  years  before,  to 
reunite  in  1889;  and  she  has  since  been  record- 
ing secretary  of  the  united  society,  the  National 
American  Woman  Suffrage  Association.  She 
is  also  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  New  England  Woman  Suffrage  Asso- 
ciation and  chairman  of  the  Literature  Com- 
mittee of  the  Massachusetts  Woman  Suffrage 
Association.  She  has  been  much  interested 
in  the  Armenian  question,  has  for  many  years 
been  in  the  habit  of  befriending  Armenian  im- 
migrants, and  is  the  author  of  "Armenian 
Poems,"  a  small  volume  of  verse  translatetl 
from  the  Armenian.  She  is  also  the  cotnpiler, 
with  the  Rev.  Anna  H.  Shaw  and  Miss  Lucy  E. 
Anthony,  of  a  book  of  equal  rights  recitations, 
"The  Yellow  Ribbon  Speaker."  She  was  for 
some  years  Associate  National  Superintendent 
of  Franchise  for  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  She  lectures 
occasionally,  and  is  interested  in  a  number  of 
reforms. 

Miss  Blackwell  inherits  much  of  her  mother's 
tenacity  and  singleness  of  purpose.  Endowed 
with  a  ready  wit  and  retentive  memoiy,  in 
legislative  hearings  for  and  against  suffrage 
she  retains  a  vivid  recollection  of  all  that  is 
said  in  opposition,  and  is  usually  able  to  turn 
the  weapons  of  her  antagonists  against  them- 


selves. Among  the  younger  advocates  of  suf- 
frage she  is  distinguished  for  her  valuable  and 
acceptable   service. 


ADELINE  FRANCES  FITZ.— In  the  list 
/  \  of  Boston's  women  composers  who 
X  ^  occui)y  a  high  jiosition  is  found  the 
name  of  Adehne  Frances  Fitz,  without 
any  self-seeking  on  her  part,  her  work  winning 
its  way  l)y  jjure  merit.  Her  compositions 
were  first  brought  out  in  Boston  after  being 
proiluced  as  a  pastime.  Her  scope  is  almost 
illimitable,  comprising  songs  for  kindergarten, 
hynm  settings,  piano  solos,  songs  for  concert 
use,  and  a  vast  number  of  patriotic  songs. 
Mrs.  Fitz  has  been  an  ardent  worker  for  the 
cause  of  patriotism.-  She  has  .served  the 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  C'onunonwealth 
of  Massachusetts,  three  years  as  State  Historian 
and  two  years  as  Vice-Regent;  and  on  March 
17  last  she  accepted  the  position  of  State  Regent, 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution.  At  the  annual 
convention  of  the  Gf'neral  Society  in  May  she 
was  elected  first  Vice-President-general.  Mrs. 
Fitz  places  music  first  in  her  artistic  likings, 
but  has  a  discriminating  taste  in  literature, 
as  is  shown  by  her  choice  of  words  set  to  nmsic, 
as  well  as  in  her  musical  sketches  which  she  is 
often  called  upon  to  deliver  before  clubs. 

Through  Mrs.  Fitz's  untiring  energy  and  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  her  fellow-members,  the 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts,  placed  in  the  Boston  Public 
Library  a  memorial  tablet  to  the  pre-eminent 
writers  of  American  patriotic  verse  and  song. 
This  tablet  was  unveiled  in  the  Lecture  Hall  on 
Tuesday  evening,  May  3,  1904,  fully  seven 
hundred  people  witnessing  the  ceremony,  which 
was  most  impressive.  The  presentation  speech, 
choicely  worded,  was  made  by  Mrs.  Fitz.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  De  Normandie  responded  in  behalf 
of  the  Public  Library  Trustees.  (For  further 
account  of  the  memorial  see  article  on  "  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution,  Conunon  wealth  of 
Massachusetts.") 

Mrs.  Fitz  was  born  in  ('helsea,  and  is  the 
(laughter  of  David  and  Elizabeth  Wilson 
(Whitaker)  Slade.  She  was  married  in  1S84 
to  the  Hon.  Frank  E.  Fitz,  of   Chelsea.     The 


ADELINE   F.  FITZ 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


407 


first  part  of  her  married  life  was  spent  in  Boston. 
At  present  the  family  make  their  home  during 
the  winter  season  with  Mrs.  Fitz's  father, 
David  Slade,  of  Chelsea.  Th(>y  have  an  attrac- 
tive summer  residence  at  Wakefield,  Mass. 
Three  sturdy  boys  furnisli  inspiration  for  the 
mother's  best  effort. 

Mr.  David  Slade's  paternal  grandfather, 
John  Slade,  the  founder  of  this  branch  of  the 
Slade  family  in  New  England,  camp  from  Devon- 
shire in  the  latter  part  of  th(>  eighteenth 
century.  On  the  4th  of  August,  1776,  he, 
"John  Slade  of  Boston,"  married  "Hannah 
Torrey  of  Scituate."  The  Probate  Records  of 
Suffolk  County  show  that  on  the  lltk  Octoljer, 
1791,  Hannah  Slade,  widow,  w:is  appointed 
"administratrix  of  the  estate  of  John  Slade,  late 
of  Chelsea,  deceased."  It  is  said  that  at  some 
period  of  his  residence  in  Massachusetts  John 
Slade  owned  a  number  of  slaves. 

Through  Mrs.  Hannah  Torrey  Slade,"  Jier 
great-grandmother,  Mrs.  Fitz  is  descended  from 
Lieutenant  James  Torrey,  who  was  an  inhabitant 
of  Scituate  before  1640;  ami  through  her  paternal 
grandmother,  Sally  Danforth,  wife  of  Henry 
Slade,  Mrs.  Fitz  is  a  descendant  in  the  ninth 
generation  of  Nicholas  Danforth,  the  innnigrant 
progenitor  of  the  Middlesex  County  colonial 
family  of  this  name.  Nicholas  Danforth  came 
to  New  England  in  1634.  The  records  of  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  show  that  he  became  a  land- 
owner in  1635,  was  a  Deputy,  or  Representative, 
to  General  Court  in  the  same  year,  and  on  the 
20th  of  November,  1637,  was  one  of  the  impor- 
tant conunittee  selected  "  to  take  orders  for 
college  at  Newtown"  (Cambridge).  He  died 
in  April,  1638.  The  line  of  descent  to  Mrs. 
Sally  Danforth  Slade,  who  was  of  the  seventh 
generation,  was  through  his  third  and  youngest 
son.  Captain  Jonathan  Danforth,  an  early 
settler  of  Billerica,  Mass. 

Joshua  Danforth,  father  of  Sally  and  great- 
grandfather of  Mrs.  Fitz,  was  a  Revolutionary 
soldier  and  in  his  old  age  a  United  States 
pensioner. 

Mrs.  Fitz's  mother  was  a  native  of  England, 
coming  to  this  country  when  but  a  few  months 
old.  She  was  a  loyal  American,  and  taught 
her  children  to  love  her  adopted  country.  It 
is  not  strange,  with  these  records,   that   Mrs. 


Fitz   stantls   to-day   as   a   representative    New 
England  woman. 


SARAH  JOSEPHA  HALE,  author  and 
])hilanthropist,  was  born  October  24, 
17.SS,  in  Newport,  N.H.  She  was  a 
daughter  of  Captain  Gordon  ami  Martha 
(Whittlesey)  Buell  and  grand-daughter  of 
Nathan  and  Tliankful  (Grifhn)  Buell  and  of 
Joseph  and  Sarah  (Whittlesey)  Whittlesley,  all 
descendants  of  New  England  Pui'itans,  early 
settlers  of  Coimecticut. 

Ca|)tain  Gordon  Bu(>ll  served  as  an  officer  in 
the  Revolution,  and  after  the  war  he  settled 
in  Newport,  N.H. 

When  only  sixteen  years  old,  Sarah  J.  Buell 
began  teaching  school,  which  jjrofession  she 
followed  for  nine  years.  In  1813  she  married 
David  Hale,  a  lawyer,  of  Newport,  and  in  1822 
by  his  death  she  was  left  a  wiilow  with  five 
children. 

Mrs.  Hale  had  already  Ijecome  a  worker  with 
her  pen,  contributing  to  various  newspapers 
and  other  periodicals.  In  1823  she  publisheil 
a  collection  of  her  verses,  entitletl  "The  Genius 
of  Oblivion,  and  Other  Poems."  Her  first 
novel,  "Northwood,"  was  issued  in  Boston  in 
1827,  under  the  title  of  "The  Book  of  Flowers." 

In  1828  Mrs.  Hale  n^moved  from  her  home 
among  the  hills  to  Boston,  to  take  the  position 
of  etlitor  of  the  Ladies'  Magazine,  the  first  pub- 
lication of  its  kind  for  women  in  America.  In 
1837  the  Magazine  was  merged  into  Godey's 
Lady's  Book  of  Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Hale  becom- 
ing its  literary  e<litor  and  serving  in  that  capac- 
ity till  her  retirement  in  1877. 

Among  the  publications  of  Mrs.  Hale  were 
"Sketches  of  Americm  Character,"  "Traits  of 
American  Life,"  "Flori's  Interpreter"  (also 
publisheil  in  London),  "The  Way  to  Live  Well 
and  to  be  Well  while  we  Live,"  "Grosvenor,  a 
Tragedy,"  and  a  Dictionary  of  Poetical  Quota- 
tions. Her  most  important  work,  safe  to  say 
that  by  which  she  will  be  longest  rememberecl, 
was  "The  Woman's  Record,"  originally  jnib- 
lishetl  in  1852  (other  editions  ap]jearing  later), 
an  octavo  volume  of  nine  hundred  pages,  con- 
taining biograjihical  sketches  of  more  than  two 
thousand  distinguished  women.     Of  this  book 


408 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


she  said,  "  I  have  sought  to  make  it  an  assistant 
in  home  education,  hoping  the  examples  shown 
and  characters  portrayed  might  have  an  inspi- 
ration and  power  in  advancing  the  moral  prog- 
gress  of  society."  The  account  of  herself  in  its 
pages  is  in  part  as  follows: — 

"I  was  mainly  educated  by  my  mother  and 
strictly  taught  to  make  the  Bible  the  guide  of 
my  life.  The  books  to  which  I  had  access  were 
few,  very  few  in  comparison  to  the  number 
given  children  nowadays;  but  they  were  such 
as  required  to  be  studied,  and  I  did  study 
them.  Next  to  the  Bible  and  the  'Pilgrim's 
Progress'  my  earliest  reading  was  Milton,  Ad- 
dison, Pope,  Johnson,  Cowper,  Burns,  and  a 
portion  of  Shakespeare.  I  did  not  obtain  ail 
his  works  until  I  was  nearly  fifteen.  The  first 
regular  novel  I  read  was  'The  Mysteries  of 
lUlolpho,'  when  I  was  ([uite  a  child.  I  name 
it  on  account  of  the  inHuenco  it  exerted  over 
my  mind. 

"I  had  remarked  that,  of  all  the  works  I 
saw,  few  were  written  by  Americans  and  none 
by  women.  Here  was  a  work  the  most  fasci- 
nating I  had  ever  read,  always  excepting  '  Pil- 
grim's Progress,'  written  by  a  woman.  How 
happy  it  made  me!  The  wish  to  promote  the 
reputation  of  my  own  sex  and  do  something  for. 
my  own  country  was  among  the  earliest  mental 
emotions  I  can  recollect.  These  feelings  have 
had  a.salutary  influence  bydirectinginy  tlioughts 
to  a  definite  object:  my  literary  pursuits  have 
had  an  aim  beyond  se]f-.seeking  of  any  kind." 

A  woman  of  original  ideas  and  forceful  will, 
Mrs.  Hale  in  her  day,  the  middle  ([uarters  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  took  the  initiative  in 
various  public  movements  of  patriotic,  ])hil- 
anthropic,  or  religious  nature.  In  Philadelphia, 
whither  she  removed  from  Boston  in  1841,  and 
where  she  died  on  April  30,  1879,  she  founded 
the  Ladies'  Medical  Missionary  Society  of  that 
city,  and  also  the  Seamen's  Ai<l  Society,  of 
which  she  was  the  first  president.  She  is  cred- 
ited with  having  been  the  first  to  suggest  and 
to  advocate  (which  she  did  for  twenty  years) 
the  setting  apart  annually  of  the  last  Thursday 
in  November  as  a  day  of  national  thanks- 
giving, President  Lincoln  being  the  first  to 
adopt  the  suggestion  by  d(>sigiiating  this  date 
in  his  national  Thanksgiving  proclamation. 


American  patriots  of  to-tiay  may  well  bear 
gratefully  in  mind  the  zeal  and  eflSciency  with 
which  Mrs.  Sarah  Josepha  Hale  more  than  half 
a  century  ago  jjromoted  the  completion  of  the 
granite  obelisk  that  perpetuates  the  memory  of 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  It  is  a  page  of  almost 
forgotten  history.  A  few  years  after  the  laying 
of  the  corner-stone  of  the  monument,  which 
took  place  on  June  17,  1825,  the  funds  of  the 
Monument  Association  had  all  been  expended, 
and  the  shaft  had  risen  only  to  the  height  of 
forty  feet.  In  January,  1830,  as  narrated  in 
Professor  Packard's  brief  history  of  the  work, 
the  directors  received  anil  accepted  from  Mrs. 
Hale  a  "pi-oposition  to  raise  funds  for  its  con- 
tinuance by  an  appeal  to  the  ladies  of  New 
England."  The  efforts  of  the  ladies  at  this 
time  resulted  in  the  contribution  of  less  than 
two  thousand  dollars,  by  18,34  amounting  to 
nearly  three  thousand  dollars.  Other  sums 
were  received,  and  the  structure  grew  to  the 
height  of  eighty  feet.  In  the  report  of  the  as.so- 
ciation  in  June,  1840,  "doubt  was  expressed 
whether  the  j)resent  generation  would  witness 
the  completion  of  the  monument.  ...  In  a 
sewing-circle  of  Boston  several  ladies  proposed 
the  idea  of  a  fair  in  its  behalf." 

Under  the  management  of  a  committee  con- 
sisting of  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Hale,  Mrs.  William  H. 
PresQott,  and  other  ladies  of  Boston,  the  fail- 
was  held  in  t^uincy  Hall  in  September,  1840, 
and  continueil  seven  days.  A  paper  called 
The  Monument,  edited  by  Mrs.  Hale,  was 
printed  daily  in  the  fair  building.  The  fair 
was  admirably  conducted.  The  proceeds, 
amounting  to  thirty  thousand  dollars,  with 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  from  other  sources, 
afforded  th(>  means  for  completing  the  monu- 
ment. 


EVA  MARIA  BROWN,  manager  of  the 
Faxon  Political  Temperance  Bureau, 
was  born  in  Camden,  Me.,  December 
27,  1856,  being  the  only  child  of  John 
and  Matilda  Jane  (Mathews)  Brown.  When 
she  was  two  years  old,  her  parents  moved  to 
Liberty,  Me.  Her  father,  John  Brown,  2d, 
who  was  a  native  of  Palermo,  Me.,  enlisted 
in  the  army,  during  the  Civil  War,  being  as- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


409 


signeil  to  the  Thinl  Maine  Regiment  and 
later  transferred  to  the  Seventeenth.  The  ex- 
posure and  hardsliips  of  a  soliher's  hfe  brought 
on  disease,  from  whicli  lie  died  at  City  I'oiiit, 
Va.,  in  1864,  after  thirteen  months'  service. 
His  wife,  Matilda -J.,  who  was  born  Novem- 
ber 20,  1830,  in  Lincolnville  Centre,  Waldo 
County,  Me.,  was  the  daughter  of  Archibald 
and  Betsey  (Knights)  Mathews. 

On  the  death  of  Mr.  Brown  his  widow  re- 
moved from  Liberty  to  Augusta,  Me.,  where 
her  daughter  was  educated.  While  a  pupil 
at  the  high  school  in  that  city.  Miss  Brown 
was  a  classmate  of  Harriet  and  Alice,  the 
daughters  of  the  Hon.  James  G.  lilaine.  Her 
school-days  were  marked  by  the  faithful  and 
diligent  application  that  has  characterized 
the  work  of  her  later  life,  and  she  was  grad- 
uated from  the  high  school  with  high  honors. 
Besides  being  noted  as  one  of  the  best  schol- 
ars in  her  class,  she  was  beloved  by  her  teachers 
and  school  associates  for  her  kindly  and  ami- 
able disjjosition. 

Early  in  life  Miss  Brown  received  funda- 
mental training  in  temperance  work,  a  sphere 
in  which  she  was  destined  to  wield  a  potent 
influence  in  later  years.  While  yet  a  child 
she  became  a  member  of  a  Cold  Water  Temple 
organized  at  Augusta  by  General  Joshua  Nye, 
and  for  several  terms  held  the  office  of  Chief 
Templar  of  that  society.  Soon  after  leaving 
the  high  school  she  removed  with  her  mother 
to  Massachusetts.  Of  this  State  they  have 
since  remained  residents,  their  home  at  the 
present  time  (May,  1902)  being  in  Quincy. 
Here  Miss  Brown  is  connected  with  the  parish 
of  the  First  Unitarian  Church,  of  which  the 
Rev.  Ellery  Channing  Butler  is  pastor. 

Miss  Brown's  connection  with  the  temper- 
ance movement  in  Massachusetts  may  be  said 
to  date  from  the  fall  of  1878,  when  she  first 
entered  the  employ  of  Mr.  Henry  H.  Faxon, 
the  noted  temperance  reformer.  Mr.  Faxon 
was  then  at  the  zenith  of  his  power,  conducting 
such  vigorous  campaigns  against  the  liquor 
traffic  and  in  support  of  morality  and  an  up- 
lifting home  life  as  never  Ix^fore  had  been 
witnessed  in  the  Commonwealth.  About  this 
time  Miss  Brown  joined  the  orders  of  the  Sons 
of  Temperance   and   the   Good   Templars,    in 


which  she  has  been  honored  with  the  highest 
official  positions.  Her  duties  in  Mr.  Faxon's 
office  were  at  first  those  of  an  assistant  clerk. 
Her  abilities  and  true  worth  were,  however, 
soon  recognized  by  Mr.  Faxon;  and  he  pro- 
moted her  to  the  position  of  chief  clerk.  In 
1884  she  became  Mr.  Faxon's  private  secre- 
tary, in  which  capacity  she  has  since  contin- 
ued. The  nmltifarious  duties  that  have  de- 
volved upon  her  since  assuming  this  office 
can  be  realized  only  by  Mr.  Faxon  and  her- 
self. P'rom  the  first  she  seemed  to  catch  the 
spirit  of  untiring  zeal  and  unremitting  energy 
that  Mr.  Faxon  had  infused  into  his  life  work, 
a  work  that  would  have  Ineen  voiil  of  results 
but  for  those  superabundant  ciualities,  together 
with  his  unsleeping  vigilance  and  the  gener- 
ous use  of  his  money  in  aid  of  the  temperance 
cau.se. 

The  management  of  the  Faxon  Political 
Temperance  Bureau  was  publicly  transferred 
to  Miss  Brown  on  March  22,  1902,  although 
for  several  years  previous  to  that  date  she  had 
been  the  directing  spirit  of  Mr.  Faxon's  work. 
During  his  crusade  in  enforcing  the  liquor 
laws  in  his  home  city,  Quincy,  Mr.  Faxon 
bi'ought  more  than  five  huntlred  cases  before 
the  courts,  the  testimony  in  nearly  all  of  which, 
both  in  the  upper  and  lower  courts,  was  taken 
by  Miss  Brown.  This  experience  proved  of 
inestimable  value  to  her,  and  has  been  turned 
to  good  advantage  in  later  years. 

Nor  is  it  alone  in  direct  temperance  work 
that  Mr.  Faxon  has  found  a  most  helpful 
co-laborer  in  Miss  Brown.  In  all  of  his  great 
political  battles  she  has  proved  to  be  a  most 
efficient  assistant.  She  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  famous  Temperance  Republican  Con- 
vention in  August,  1879,  where  plans  were  per- 
fected for  the  nomination  of  the  Hon.  John  D. 
Long  for  the  office  of  governor,  an  event  to 
have  taken  part  in  which  she  has  always  re- 
garded as  an  honor;  for,  as  she  says,  "John  D. 
Long  has  always  been  a  consistent  temper- 
ance man.  His  record  as  a  legislator  and  as 
an  office-holder  are  perfectly  satisfactory  to 
the  friends  of  the  reform."  Mr.  Faxon  very 
generously  shares  with  Miss  Brown  the  honors 
of  his  victory  over  the  saloon  forces  in  the  city 
of  Quincy.     He   has  always  maintained   that 


-110 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


without  her  assistance  he  could  never  have 
achieved  the  grand  and  beneficial  results  that 
are  apparent  on  every  hand  in  consequence 
of  the  continuous  and  well-enforced  policy  of 
no  license  that  has  prevailed  for  the  past 
twenty  years  in  Quincy.  For  many  years 
Miss  Brown  has  prepared  Mr.  Faxon's  articles 
for  the  press,  besides  editing  all  the  circulars 
and  pamphlets  that  have  been  issued  from  his 
bureau — millions  of  pages  annually. 

Probably  the  most  notable  work  that  Miss 
Brown  has  compiled,  and  which  has  proved 
to  be  of  incalculable  value  to  those  whose  duty 
it  is  to  enforce  the  liquor  laws,  is  the  book  en- 
titled "The  Laws  of  Massachusetts  relating 
to  Intoxicating  Liquors."  The  compilation 
of  this  work  was  a  stupendous  task  and  neces- 
sarily a  most  exacting  one,  since  the  volume 
was  intended  to  be,  as  it  is,  a  standard  author- 
ity, to  which  public  j)rosecutors  might  turn 
for  information  and  advice.  Li  preparing  it 
Miss  Brown  was  obliged  to  make  an  exhaustive 
investigation  of  the  liciuor  laws  passed  by  the 
Legislature,  together  with  the  court  decisions 
rendered  in  cases  of  violation  of  those  laws. 
So  thoroughly  did  she  do  her  work  that  it  is 
safe  to  say  there  is  not  a  law  on  the  statute 
books  pertaining  to  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  intoxicating  liquors,  nor  a  decision  on  the 
same,  with  which  she  is  not  familiar.  Eleven 
editions  of  this  book  have  Ikhmi  published  by 
Mr.  Faxon,  and  to-day  th(>  manual  is  in  gen- 
eral use  in  courts  and  municipal  offices  all  over 
the  State. 

In  LS89  Miss  Brown  was  the  chief  clerk  of 
the  Constitutional  Prohibitory  Amendment 
Campaign  Committee  (of  which  Colonel  Ed- 
ward H.  Haskell,  of  Newton,  was  chairman), 
having  charge  of  the  correspondence  and  the 
assignment  of  the  speakers.  The  campaign  was 
one  of  the  memorable  ones  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  her  abihty  and  untiring  persever- 
ance were  amply  demonstrated  in  connection 
wkth  her  part  in  it. 

About  twelve  years  ago  Miss  Brown  began 
her  career  at  the  State  House.  At  first  she  did 
not  like  the  work,  owing  to  the  publicity  it 
entailed,  but  under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Faxon 
she  soon  became  familiar  with  the  details  of 
legislative    routine.     The    universal    courtesy 


shown  her,  and  the  assistance  accorded  bj' 
the  members  of  the  General  Court,  are  impor- 
tant factors  in  her  legislative  successes;  and 
to-day  there  is  not  a  person  on  Beacon  Hill 
whose  advice  in  coimection  with  temperance 
legislation  is  so  much  sought  as  the  woman 
upon  whose  shoulders  has  fallen  the  mantle 
of  the  renowned  Hemy  H.  Faxon,  and  no  one, 
it  may  be  atlded,  enjoys  greater  confidence. 
P'or  the  past  six  years  Miss  Brown  has  been 
Mr.  Faxon's  sole  representative  at  the  State 
House,  where  she  passes  a  great  deal  of  time 
during  the  legislative  sessions,  looking  after 
the  different  bills  affecting  the  liquor  question, 
the  Sunday  laws,  ami  other  subjects  in  which 
Mr.  Faxon  has  always  taken  a  great  interest. 
Miss  Brown  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being 
the  only  woman  in  New  England  who  is  reg- 
istered as  legislative  agent  and  counsel.  The 
authority  thus  conferred  entitles  her  to  the 
privileges  of  conducting  hearings  before  the 
various  committees  and  of  cross-examining  wit- 
nesses. In  LS96  she  conducted  one  of  the  most 
important  hearings  ever  held  at  the  State  House, 
when  the  bill  authorizing  the  payment  to  the 
State  of  the  entire  sum  received  as  fees  from 
liquor  licenses  was  being  considered. 

The  temperance  forces  all  over  the  Connnon- 
wealth  owe  her  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  effi- 
cient manner  in  which  she  has  labored  for  the 
protection  of  the  restrictive  features  of  the 
laws  regulating  the  sale  of  intoxicating  licjuors. 
Her  able  efforts  which  accomplished  the  defeat 
of  the  "abutters'"  law  every  year  and  the 
famous  semi-colon  law  are  well  known.  Some 
of  the  most  important  statutes  of  a  prohib- 
itive character  that  have  been  passed  owing 
chiefly  to  her  work  and  influence  are  those 
which  compel  the  closing  of  the  saloons  on  all 
legal  holidays,  the  so-called  Faxon  Express 
Law,  and  several  others  restricting  the  sale 
of  liquor  by  druggists.  All  of  these  laws  she 
personally  fonnulated  and  fought  for  until 
their  passage  was  secured. 

The  correspondence  of  the  Faxon  Political 
Temperance  Bureau,  of  which  Miss  Brown 
is  now  the  sok'  manager,  is  almost  unlimited, 
and  covers  more  phases  of  the  reform  than 
that  of  any  other  temperance  society.  She 
is    in    constant    communication    with   munici- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


411 


pal  officers  and  citizens  interested  in  the  en- 
forcement of  the  laws,  and  is  always  found 
willing  and  ready  in  furnishing  information 
and  helping  to  solve  tlieir  local  problems. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  she  has  the 
necessary  authorities  at  her  finger  tijjs,  and 
her  advice  proves  to  be  of  inestimable  value 
in  such  cases. 

In  Miss  Brown  the  temperance  interests  have 
a  careful  and  wide-awake  guardian  and  the 
liquor  forces  as  uncompromising  and  unrelent- 
ing a  foe  as  Mr.  Faxon  himself  ever  proved  to 
be. 

Miss  Brown  is  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Massachusetts  Total  Abstinence  Society,  serv- 
ing upon  all  of  its  important  committees.  The 
po.sition  of  clerk  of  the  corporation,  which  she 
held  for  many  years,  she  resigned  in  1901. 


«^»^»- 


ANNIE     HINCKLEY    STONE     LEIGH- 

/\  TON  (Mrs.  Llewellyn  Morse  Leigh  ton), 
X  JL  of  Portland,  Me.,  was  born  at  Oldtown, 
August  11,  1854,  the  daughter  of  Alfred 
M.  and  Nancy  C.  (Atkins)  Stone.  Her  great- 
grandfather in  the  maternal  line,  Captain 
Nathaniel  Atkins,  of  Truro,  Cape  Cod,  Mass., 
in  one  of  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  sailed  from  Castine  as  master  of  the 
brig  "Polly,"  and  was  taken  by  the  French. 
Through  this  wrongful  seizure  Mrs.  Leighton 
became  one  of  the  French  spoliation  claim- 
ants of  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Her  grandfather,  Nathaniel  Atkins,  ,Ir., 
also  a  seafaring  man,  was  among  the  tlefenders 
of  the  nation  in  the  War  of  1812  with  Great 
Britain. 

Educated  in  the  public  schools  and  the  old 
academy  at  Corinna,  Annie  Hinckley  Stone, 
al  fifteen,  on  account  of  the  proficiency  in  her 
studies  shown  when  she  appeared  before  the 
board  of  examiners,  was  granted  a  certificate 
to  teach  school.  This  was  two  years  before 
she  attained  the  age  prescribed  by  the  law  of 
the  State  for  the  exercise  of  that  vocation. 

In  1871,  at  Corinth,  Me.,  she  became  the 
wife  of  Llewellyn  Monse  Leighton,  then  of 
Exeter.  In  1877  they  removed  to  Portland, 
where  Mr.  Leighton  is  actively  engaged  in  the 
real  estate  business,  being  specially  interested 


in  developing  the  beautiful  suburbs  of  the 
city. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Leighton  have  two  children: 
Marshall  Ora  Leighton,  chief  of  the  depart- 
ment of  hydro-economics  in  the  Geological 
Survey,  of  Washington;  and  Florence  Leigh- 
ton, now  Mrs.  Josiah  H.  Johnson,  of  Portland. 

Mrs.  Leighton's  marriage  was  an  early  one. 
Her  education,  however,  still  went  on.  She 
was  an  enthusiastic  student  of  elocution  and  of 
pliysical  culture,  which  she  taught  after  her  chil- 
dren were  of  school  age.  In  the  church,  philan- 
thropic, club,  and  social  life  of  Portland  she 
is  acknowledged  an  imj^ortant  factor.  The 
Young  Women's  Chiistiaii  Association  of  Port- 
land was  organized  through  her  efforts  in  1893 
and  incorporatetl  in  1894.  She  was  its  first 
president,  and  in  the  face  of  many  discourage- 
ments placed  it  on  a  basis  from  which  it  has 
advanced  to  an  assured  position  of  usefulness. 
The  Chautauqua  movement  early  received  her 
support.  In  th«!  Civic  Club  Mrs.  Leighton 
is  secretary  of  the  Department  of  Trees  and 
Parks,  created  at  her  suggestion.  Japheth 
Club,  a  progre,ssive  literary  organization,  was 
founded  by  her. 


SARAH  SWEET  WINDSOR,  M.D.,  is 
a  native  of  Rhode  Island,  being  the 
daughter  of  Benjamin  Angell  antl 
Sarah  (Sweet)  Windsor,  of  Smithfield, 
thijt  State.  On  the  paternal  side  she  is 
descended  from  Joshua  Windsor,  who  came 
to  this  country  from  England  at  an  early 
date,  and  was  one  of  the  thirteen  signers 
of  the  civil  compact  adopted  at  the  town 
meeting  held  in  Providence,  August  20,  1637, 
the  year  after  the  settlement  was  begun; 
and  she  is  also  descended  from  Roger  Williams, 
the  founder  of  Rhode  Island,  through  his 
ilaughter  Mercy,  who  in  1677,  as  the  widow 
of  Resolved  Waterman,  became  the  wife 
of  Samuel"  Winsor,  Joshua  Winsor's  only 
son. 

Dr.  Windsor  obtained  her  early  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  Providence.  In  1885 
she  received  her  medical  degree  from  the 
Boston  University,  graduating  as  speaker  of 
her  class.     She  spent  one  year  as  house  phy- 


412 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


siciau  at  the  Massachusetts  Homoeopathic 
Hospital,  and  in  1(S86  went  abroad  for  study 
and  hospital  work  in  Vienna.  Returning  to 
Boston  in  1SS7,.  she  began  practice,  l)eing 
soon  after  a]>pointed  assistant  in  obstetrics 
at  the  Boston  University  School  of  Medicine. 
In  1889  she  entered  the  College  of  Lil)eral 
Arts,  and  four  years  later  receivetl  her  tlegree 
of   A.B. 

Dr.  Windsor  was  the  first  woman  president 
of  the  Boston  Homa^opathic  Medical  Society, 
attaining  that  distinction  in  1899.  In  1902 
came  another  recognition  of  her  ability:  she 
was  then  appointed  as  one  of  the  staff  at 
the  Massachusetts  HonKeo])athic  Hospital, 
being  the  first  woman  to  receive  such  an 
appointment  for  a  full  term  of  service.  She 
is  one  of  the  directors  and  a  member  of  the 
College  Club  of  Boston.  At  present  she  is 
obstetrician  to  the  maternity  department  of 
the  Massachusetts  Honiccopathic  Hospital  and 
associate  professor  of  olistetrics  at  the  Boston 
University  Medical  School. 


STELLA  EDWARDS  FIERPONT 
DRAKE,  now  in  the  ranks  of  success- 
ful New  England  business  women,  was 
born  in  Sturgis,  Mich.,  December  1, 
1855.  Daughter  of  Addison  Tuttle  and  Cath- 
erine (McKinney)  Drake  and  the  eldest  of 
a  family  of  five  children,  on  the  paternal  side 
she  is  a  descendant  of  Robert  Drake,  an  early 
settler  of  Hampton,  N.H.,  and  through  her 
mother  is  a  grand-tlaughter  of  Mary  Edwards, 
who  was  a  great-grand-daughter  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  theologian  and  metaphysician,  char- 
acterized by  John  Fiske  as  "  probably  the  great- 
est intelligence  that  the  western  hemisphere 
has  yet  seen." 

Robert  Drake  came  from  Colchester,  Essex 
County,  England,  to  New  England  before 
1643,  lived  for  a  time  in  Exeter,  N.H.,  and 
in  1651  settled  in  Hampton,  N.H.  His  de- 
scendants in  colonial  times  were  prominent 
in  public  affairs,  several  of  them  serving 
with  distinction  in  the  French  and  Indian 
War  and  in  the  Revolution.  The  next  four 
ancestors  in  this  line,  successively  named 
Abraham,     were     among    the    wealthy    men 


of  Hampton,  N.H.,  and  very  active  in  the 
affairs  of  that  town  and  vicinity,  where  the 
original  Drake  farms  and  homestead  may  still 
be  seen. 

Among  the  rei)resentatives  of  the  family 
in  later  days  in  this  vicinity  were  Samuel 
Gardner  Drake,  the  anti(|uary,  an  early  jiresi- 
dent  of  the  New  England  Historical  and  Gen- 
ealogical Society,  and  his  son,  Samuel  Adams 
Drake,  the  well-known  author. 

Tlie  fourth  Abraham  Drake  in  direct  line, 
Colonel  Abraham,'"  born  in  1715,  married  for 
his  first  wife  Abigail  Weare,  daughter  of  Na- 
thaniel Weare,  of  Hampton,  Justice  of  the 
Su])erior  Court,  and  was  father  of  Weare" 
Drake,  born  in  1738,  who  married  Anne  Tay- 
lor and  settled  in  Effingham,  N.H.  John' 
Drake,  son  of  AVeare"  and  his  wife  Anne,  was 
father  of  Weare*  Drake,  who  married  Lydia 
Tuttle,  and  grandfather  of  Addison  Tuttle 
Drake,  who  was  born  in  Eflingham,  N.H.,  in 
1822,  and  died  in  Kalamazoo,  Mich.,  in  1890. 

Catherine  McKinney,  l)orn  in  Binghamton, 
N.Y.,  in  1834,  daughter  of  James  and  Mary 
(Edwards)  McKinney,  was  married  to  Addi- 
son T.  Drake  in  February,  1855.  She  is  now 
residing  in  California.  Her  Edwards  ancestry 
in  America  began  with  William'  Edwards  (son 
of  the  Rev.  Richard  Edwards,  a  Welsh  clergy- 
man), who  came  over  about  1640,  and  in  1646 
was  a  landholder  in  Hartford,  Conn.  The 
line  continued  through  Richard,^  born  in  1647, 
and  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth  Tuttle;  the  Rev. 
Timothy,M3orn  in  1669  (Harvard  Coll.,  A.B.  and 
A.M.,  July  4,  1691),  who  married  Esther  Stod- 
dard, and  was  pastor  of  the  church  at  East 
Windsor,  Conn.;  Jonathan,^  above  named, 
born  in  1703  (Yale,  A.B.  1720),  who  married 
Sarah  Pierpont,  was  for  twenty-five  years 
minister  at  Northampton,  later  had  charge 
of  a  missionary  cliurch  in  Stockbridge,  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1758  was  President 
of  Princeton  College;  Timothy,'^  born  in  1738, 
who  married  Rhoda  Ogden;  to  Edward"  Ed- 
wards, born  in  Stockbridge,  Mass.,  in  1763, 
who  married  Mary  Ballard,  of  Hadley,  and 
was  the  father  of  Mary  Edwards,  born  in  1792, 
who  became  the  wife  of  James  McKinney  and 
mother  of  Catherine,  as  noted  above. 

Sarah  Pierpont,  a  woman  of  great  personal 


STELLA  E.  P.  DRAKE 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


413 


beauty  and  loveliness  of  character,  the  wife 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  was  the  tlaughter  of  the 
Rev.  James  Pieri^ont,  of  New  Haven.  Her 
mother,  Mrs.  Mary  Hooker  Pierpont,  was 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  HamueF  and  Mary  (Wil- 
lett)  Hooker  and  grand-daugliter  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas'  Hooker,  of  Hartford,  and  of  Captain 
Thomas  Willett,  sometime  of  Plymouth  Col- 
ony and  later  the  first  Mayor  of  New  York  City. 

Addison  Tut  tie  Drake  for  many  years  was 
interestetl  in  the  iron  and  foundry  business 
in  Sturgis,  Mich.  He  served  as  Quartermas- 
ter of  the  Eleventh  Michigan  \'olunteer  In- 
fantry during  the  Civil  War,  and  at  its  close 
was  honorably  discharged  with  the  rank  of 
Captain.  He  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  tem- 
perance and  an  active  nunnber  and  trustee 
of  the  Methodist  Ejjiscopal  church.  For  about 
eight  years  and  till  within  a  few  months  of  his 
death  he  held  a  position  in  the  War  Depart- 
ment in  Washington,  D.C. 

Mr.  Drake  is  survived  t)y  his  wife  Catherine 
and  five  children,  namely:  Stella  E.  P.,  the 
sul)ject  of  this  sketch;  Edward  Edwards,  man- 
ager for  the  Pacific  coast  tei-ritory  of  the  Union 
Metallic  Cartridge  Company  of  New  York; 
Caroline  E.  Bailey,  a  widow,  of  San  Francisco, 
who  has  two  sons,  Edwards  and  Leonard : 
Katherine  M.,  wife  of  W.  R.  Herbert,  of  San 
Francisco,  who  has  a  son,  Claude  Drake,  and 
a  daughter,  Stella  Marguerite;  and  Jeanne 
Ogden,  wife  of  Edwin  M.  Miller,  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah,  who  has  two  daughters,  Elizabeth 
and  Golda. 

Stella  E.  P.  Drake  was  educated  in  the 
public  schools  of  Sturgis,  Mich.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-three  she  removed  to  Kalamazoo, 
where  she  improved  her  opportunities  for  intel- 
lectual culture  by  joining  study  classes  in  his- 
tory, art,  and  literature,  conducted  by  James 
an(l  Lucinda  H.  Stone,  teachers  of  rare  gifts 
and  attainments,  also  receiving  private  instruc- 
tion from  Mrs.  Stone,  whom  at  one  time  she 
served  as  secretary.  The  intimacy  thus  fos- 
tered yielded  to  the  eager  student  large  returns 
in  the  way  of  liberal  education.  Socially  she 
was  a  welcome  and  helpful  presence,  often 
assisting  with  her  fine  elocutionary  powers  at 
local  public  entertainments,  acting  for  one  year 
as  secretary  of  the  Ladies'  Library  Club,  and 


also  serving  for  some  time  as  chairman  of  its 
Miscellaneous  Conuuittee.  After  a  few  years 
of  married  life  it  became  nece.ssary  for  her  to 
support  herself,  an  entirely  new  experience. 
This  led  her  to  resume  her  maiden  name,  by 
which  she  has  ever  since  been  known.  In  1S96 
Mrs.  Drake  came  East  to  join  the  army  of 
self-supporting  and  self-respecting  women.  She 
was  eciuipped  for  the  battle  with  courage,  a 
firm  will,  and  both  natural  and  acciuired  ability. 
Numbering  among  her  personal  friends,  besides 
Lucinda  H.  Stone,  above  mentioned  (now  de- 
ceased), such  women  as  Frances  Willard,  Mary 
A.  Livermore,  the  Rev.  Anna  Shaw,  the  Rev. 
Caroline  Bartiett  Crane,  and  Alice  Ives  Breed, 
she  dill  not  lack  sagacious  counsel  and  kindly 
intercession. 

After  working  for  some  months  for  various 
publishing  houses,  she  became  connected  with 
tiie  Boston  agency  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insur- 
ance Company  of  New  York,  and  in  1900  suc- 
ceeded Mrs.  M.  A.  F.  Potts  as  manager  of  its 
women's  department,  the  first  to  be  organized 
in  connection  with  any  life  insurance  company 
in  Boston.  Under  her  management  this  depai't- 
ment  has  grown  to  be  a  factor  in  life  insurance 
recognized  by  the  different  companies  as  well  as 
by  the  insuring  public  at  large.  In  training 
women  for  the  profession  of  life  insurance,  to  tlo 
the  work  intelligently  and  conscientiously,  and 
thus  with  a  success  gratifying  to  all  concerned, 
Mrs.  Drake  has  shown  herself  an  adept.  As 
shown  from  the  unanimous  testimony  of  her 
associates,  she  possesses  in  a  marked  degree 
tact,  dignity  of  character,  a  keen  sense  of 
honor,  and  exceptional  (jualifications  for  direct- 
ing the  work  of  others,  being  one  of  the  few  to 
whom  authority  means  nothing  more  or  less 
than  the  courteous  and  appreciative  recognition 
of  the  rights  and  interests  of  those  who  act 
under  her  instructions. 

Mrs.  Drake  is  a  member  of  the  Ciiurch  of 
the  Disciples,  and  has  been  a  worker  along 
charitable  lines.  She  belongs  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Woman  Suffrage  Association,  and. 
she  retains  her  membership  in  the  above  men- 
tioned Ladies'  Library  Society  and  also  in  the 
Twentieth  Century  Club  of  Kalamazoo,  of 
which  .she  was  one  of  the  founders. 

Of    the    Aaron    Burr    Legion,    founded    by 


414 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Charles  Felton  Pklgin,  author  of  "Blenncr- 
hassett,"  for  the  purpose  of  historical  research, 
she  is  an  active  member,  holding  the  office  of 
vice-councillor.  Her  interest  in  the  work  of 
the  legion  is  thus  explained: — 

As  is  well  known,  Aaron  Burr,  thiril  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  was  a  grandson 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  theologian,  Presitlent 
of  Princeton  College.  His  mother  was  Estlicr 
Edwards,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  and 
wife  of  the  Rev.  Aaron  Burr,  Sr.  Her  son, 
Aaron  Burr,  was  cousin  to  Edward"  Edwards; 
and  Aaron  Burr's  daughter,  Theodosia  Bun- 
Alston,  and  Mary  Edwards  McKinney,  Mrs. 
Drake's  grandmother,  were  second  cousins. 

From  her  girlhood  the  story  of  Theodosia 
Burr,  with  its  mysterious  tragical  ending, 
has  had  for  Mrs.  Drake  a  strong  fascination. 
The  brief  verdict,  "Lost  at  sea,"  was  supjile- 
mented  in  1850,  some  years  before  the  birth  of 
Stella  Drake,  by  the  confession  of  an  aged 
pauper  in  the  Cassopolis  (Mich.)  poorhouse, 
that  he  had  been  one  of  the  pirates  by  whom 
the  "Patriot,"  the  vessel  in  which  Mrs.  Alston 
had  taken  passage  at  Charleston,  S.C.,  on  De- 
cember 30,  1812,  for  New  York,  had  been  capt- 
ured, and  that  he  himself  had  been  set  to 
tip  the  plank  on  which  she  walked  to  her  death 
off  the  stormy  shore  of  Cape  Hatteras.  He 
remembered  her  for  her  marvellous  beauty 
and  her  unshrinking  fortitude. 

This  grewsome  tale  was  told  to  Mrs.  Drake's 
grandmother  McKinney  by  a  Mrs.  Parks,  who 
heard  the  confession. 

One  of  Mrs.  Drake's  sisters,  Mrs.  Jeanne 
Ogden  Miller,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  bears  a  strik- 
ing resemblance  in  the  general  outline  of  her 
features  to  Vanderlyn's  portrait,  a  profile 
view,  of  Theodosia  Burr,  as  reproduced  in 
James  Barton's  "Life  of  Aaron  Burr." 

A  comparison  of  the  photograph  of  another 
sister,  Mrs.  Katherine  McKinney  Herbert, 
with  the  photograph  of  a  painted  portrait, 
supposed  to  be  that  of  Theodosia  Burr,  reveals 
a  marked  likeness  between  the  two.  Of  this 
more  below. 

It  was  from  an  article  in  a  Chicago  news- 
paper that  Mrs.  Drake,  while  living  at  her 
father's  home  in  Sturgis,  Mich.,  first  heard  of 
the  existence   in   Elizabeth   City,   N.C.,   of   a 


portrait  which  was  thought  to  represent  the 
daughter  of  Aaron  Burr.  It  was  owned  by 
a  Dr.  Pool.  In  the  sunmier  of  1888  Mrs.  Drake, 
then  staying  with  her  parents  at  Virginia 
Beach,  N.C.,  visited  the  home  of  the  Pool 
family,  only  a  few  miles  distant.  On  the  parlor 
wall,  over  the  mantle-piece,  hung  the  portrait 
of  a  young  woman  of  great  beauty,  dressed 
in  white.  She  knew  it  at  once  as  the  picture 
she  had  come  to  see,  and  she  felt  confirmed 
in  her  belief  that  it  was  a  portrait  of  Theo- 
dosia Burr  because  it  resembled  her  sister, 
Katherine  McKinney  Heibert.  Miss  Pool  (now 
Mrs.  Overman),  daughter  of  the  deceased 
doctor,  told  her  how  it  came  into  her  father's 
possession,  as  the  gift  of  a  patient,  a  Mrs.  Mann, 
to  whom  it  had  lieen  given  by  a  sailor  lover  many 
years  l)efore.  The  portrait  and  two  silk  dresses 
that  accompanied  it  as  presents  had  been  taken 
from  an  abandoned  pilot  boat  off  Cape  Hat- 
teras, these  articles  being  found  in  the  cabin. 
The  sailors  who  boarded  the  boat  found,  or 
professed  to  have  found,  nothing  to  identify 
either  the  vessel  or  the  owner  of  the  dresses 
and  the  f)riginal  of  the  portrait.  After  the 
picture  came  into  the  possession  of  Dr.  Pool 
and  its  story  became' known,  it  was  surmised 
that  the  jiilot  boat  was  the  missing  "Patriot," 
and  the  dresses  a  part  of  the  wardrobe  of  Theo- 
dosia BiuT  Alston,  of  whom  the  picture  is 
considered  by  Mrs.  Drake  to  be  an  undoubted 
likeness. 

Mrs.  Drake's  story  of  the  picture  will  be 
retold  by  Mr.  Pidgin  in  his  forthcoming  book, 
whose  object  is  to  throw  light  on  the  mystery 
that  enshrouds  the  fate  of  the  beautiful  and 
accomplished  Theodosia  Burr. 


A  ELIZABETH  NEWELL  and  OPHE- 
LIA S.  NEAVELL,  twin  daughters 
.  of  Fisher  Ames  and  Ann  Elizabeth 
(Whipple)  Newell,  were  born  June 
6,  1841,  at  the  home  of  their  maternal 
grandfather,  Benjamin  Whipple,  in  Charles- 
town,  Mass.  A.  I'^Iizabeth,  the  first  named  of 
the  two  sisters,  is  now  the  .sole  female  survivor 
of  her  father's  family. 

Miss  Newell's  father,   Fisher   Ames   Newell, 
a  sea  captain,  was  son  of  Thomas  and  Polly 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


415 


(Fhipps)  Newell  and  grandson  of  Andrew  New- 
ell, of  Sherborn,  Mass.,  who  was  born  in  Charles- 
town  in  1729,  son  of  An(h-ew  Newell,  Sr. 

Polly,  wife  of  Thomas  Newell,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Jedediah^  Phipjis  and  great-grand-daugh- 
ter of  John'  Phipps,  of  Wrenthani,  nephew  and 
adopted  son  of  Sir  Willianr  Phipps  (James'), 
colonial  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

Benjamin  Whipple,  above  mentioned,  was 
a  man  of  progressive  and  lilx-ral  thouglit,  of 
remarkalile  aliility  and  intelligence.  He  was 
prominent  in  public  life,  serving  several  years 
in  the  Legislature  and  in  almost  every  office 
in  the  town  government,  at  one  time  head  of 
the  fire  department,  and  many  years  a  popular 
connnander  of  the  Charlestown  Light  Infantry 
and  hence  known  as  Captain  Whipple.  He 
served  eighteen  years  as  inspector  of  tlie  Boston 
Custom  House.  He  belonged,  it  is  said,  to 
the  old  Massachusetts  family  of  this  name  from 
which  sprang  General  \Mlliam  Whipple,  a  na- 
tive of  Kittery,  Me.,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Captain  Whip- 
ple's wife,  Catherine  Coats,  whom  he  married 
in  Boston  in  July,  ISOl,  was  an  amiable  woman 
antl  one  in  whom  the  poor  and  needy  always 
found  a  friend.  Miss  Newell's  mother  was  the 
second  of  the  seven  children  of  Benjamin  and 
Catherine  Whipple.  Fond  of  Ixjoks  and  study 
from  her  early  childhood,  she  was  sent  to  the 
acatlemy  in  Derry,  N.H.,  then  under  the  charge 
of  the  now  famous  Mary  Lyon.  She  began 
teaching  school  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  antl  for 
twelve  years  was  considered  one  of  the  best 
teachers  in  Charlestown  and  vicinity.  She 
was  always  studious  and  progressive.  In  all 
her  trials  of  after  years,  and  they  were  oiany, 
she  showed  her  courage  and  Christian  spirit 
in  the  sweetness  with  which  she  met  them. 
She  was  to  every  one  who  came  within  her  in- 
fluence a  woman  of  unusual  magnetism,  a 
mother  of  mothers. 

Captain  Newell  was  a  man  of  energy  and 
ability.  In  1846,  having  received  a  commission 
from  King  Kamahamaha  III.  to  build  a  schooner 
for  business  purposes,  he  sailed  around  Cape 
Horn  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  only  to  return 
to  build  another,  the  king  offering  him  good 
business  and  citizenship  of  the  place.  This 
he  accepted,   and    with    his  family  sailed    to 


those  far-away  islantls.  This  was  in  the  days 
of  rare  conununication,  and  the  isolation  was 
complete.  In  1848  and  1S49  the  excitement 
became  intense  over  the  gold  discoveries  in 
California,  and  Captain  Newell  was  the  first 
to  bring  the  news,  as  his  vessel  several  years 
after  was  the  first  to  go  to  Australia  with  j)as- 
sengers  and  freight  from  San  Francisco.  The 
Hawaiian  Islands,  at  this  time  (middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century)  so  far  away  from  civiliza- 
tion, ])resented  much  that  was  novel  and  in- 
teresting, besides  being  the  theatre  of  many 
exciting  events.  It  was  an  ideal  home  for 
children,  but  lacking  in  educational  advan- 
tages. A  school  called  the  Royal  School  was 
finally  opened,  and  into  it  were  gathered  dark 
and  white  chiefs  and  chiefes.ses.  For  playmate 
and  schoolmate  Liliuokalani  (now  the  ex- 
queen)  was  the  favorite  of  the  Newell  children. 

In  1853  Captain  and  Mrs.  Newell  anil  fam- 
ily left  Honolulu  and  returned  to  the  Lhiited 
States.  They  made  their  home  in  Charles- 
town for  a  short  time;  but,  when  Captain  New- 
ell returned  to  his  profession,  the  daughters 
were  placed  at  the  West  Newton  English  and 
Classical  School,  then  in  charge  of  the  Rev. 
Cyrus  Pierce  and  Nathaniel  T.  Allen.  Here 
they'  received  the  greater  part  of  their  educa- 
tion. Here  they  became  interested  in  the 
anti-slavery  cause  and  woman  suiTrage,  form- 
ing their  own  opinions  anil  broadening  their 
thoughts. 

In  1860,  under  adverse  circumstances,  the 
father  having  given  his  life  to  the  ocean,  the 
widowed  mother  and  her  daughters  came  to 
South  Boston.  After  various  struggles  the 
Misses  Newell  began  their  work  in  the  schools. 
In  1862  the  subject  of  this  sketch  became  a 
teacher  in  the  Lawrence  district.  Later  she 
was  in  the  Norcross,  and  afterward  was  pro- 
moted to  the  position,  of  first  assistant  in  the 
Cyrus  Alger  Primary  School. 

In  January,  1882,  Mrs.  Newell  died,  and  her 
death  was  followed,  in  February,  1883,  by  that 
of  the  daughter  Ophelia.  Thus  deprived  of 
tliose  whose  lives  had  been  hitherto  so  closely 
connected  with  her  own.  Miss  Newell  threw 
her  energies  more  strongly  into  the  cause  of 
woman.  She  has  been  a  firm  believer  in  her 
sex  and  an  advocate  for  woman's  advancement 


416 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  all  directions.  Miss  Newell  is  a  woman  of 
broad  Christian  spirit  and  an  earnest  worker 
in  the  Unitarian  church.  She  has  been  and 
is  an  active  worker  in  many  lines.  She  organ- 
ized the  Mattapannock  Club  of  South  Boston, 
which  has  a  representative  membership  and 
is  a  benefit  to  the  district.  Miss  Newell  is  a 
strong  suffragist.  When  Mrs.  Julia  W^ard 
Howe  organized  a  branch  in  South  Boston, 
she  and  her  mother  and  sister  were  some  of 
the  first  to  respond.  Mi.ss  Newell  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  Ward  and  City  Committee  in 
the  early  days  of  women's  voting  and  among 
the  first  to  cast  her  vote. 

She  was  among  the  first  to  become  inter- 
ested in  the  Associated  Charities  when  a  branch 
was  formed  in  South  Boston,  and  as  far  as  able 
she  continues  to  hold  her  interest  in  the  work 
of  the  organization.  She  was  the  first  ])resi(lent 
of  the  Primary  Teachers'  Association  of  Bos- 
ton, and  has  been  for  eight  years  president  of 
the  Lady  Teachers'  Association  of  South  Bos- 
ton. This  association  was  formed  in  LS74, 
it  being  the  only  one  where  relief  in  case  of 
sickness  is  made  prominent.  She  is  a  member 
of  the  Denison  and  Boston  Teachers'  Club, 
president  of  the  Mattapannock  Club,  corre- 
sponding secretary  of  Hawes  Church  Women's 
Alliance,  and  historian  for  the  Dorchester 
Heights  Chapter,  I).  R.  She  is  a  good  presid- 
ing officer.  She  writes  with  ease  and  fluency, 
and  has  given  many  lectures. 

Miss  Newell  has  always  been  very  patriotic 
and  devoted  to  the  interests  of  her  country. 
At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War,  while 
waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  enter  the  public 
schools,  she  gave  her  time  to  her  country,  and 
was  one  of  the  first  to  enter  Liberty  Hall,  in 
Boston,  when  busy  fiands  made  light  work 
of  much  that  was  needed  in  those  days.  Again, 
years  after,  during  the  Spanish-American  War, 
when  organizations  were  formed  for  a,ssisting 
the  soldiers,  she  gave  the  greater  part  of  her 
vacation  to  the  cause,  although  greatly  in  need 
of  a  change  from  her  long,  continuous  lal)or 
of  teacliing. 

Miss  Newell  has  made  many  ocean  voyages 
with  her  father  and  mother,  having  been  around 
Cape  Horn  four  times.  Her  travels  have  been 
extensive,  and  she  has  usetl  her  opportunities 


for  the  benefit  of  others.  Her  life  to  the  pres- 
ent has  been  a  strenuous  one,  with  many  tragic 
and  strange  jjcriods:  but  the  privations  and 
trials  have  given  her  place  among  women  who 
have  striven  to  overcome  difficulties,  and  have 
made  them  stepping-stones  to  a  broad  and 
noble  life. 


MARY  ALDERSON  ATHERTON  was 
l)orn  in  Pennsylvania,  near  the  vil- 
lage of  LeRaysville.  Her  parents, 
John  and  Margaret  Alderson,  were 
English  ])eople  whose  chief  wealth  consisted 
of  their  eleven  children,  eight  boys  and  three 
girls.  In  1881  Miss  Alderson  married  Willard 
M.  Chandler,  of  Boston,  a  leader  in  liberal 
thougiit,  who  died  in  1889.  In  1903  Mrs. 
Chandler  liecame  the  wife  of  Frederick  Ather- 
ton,  a  well-known  attorney  of  Boston. 

Her  education  began  in  the  typical  coim- 
try  school,  o]ien  three  months  in  winter  and 
three  in  summer.  It  was  continued  at  the  vil- 
lage academy  one  term  and  at  the  Orwell  Hill 
graded  school  three  terms,  a  teacher's  certificate 
then  being  granted  her  at  the  age  of  fifteen. 
At  sixteen,  or  as  early  as  the  law  of  the  Key- 
stone State  permitted,  she  began  teaching  in 
a  small  country  school  in  what  was  locally 
known  as  the  "Cleveland  District." 

Having  entered  upon  the  work  to  which 
she  was  by  nature  inclined,  she  determined 
to  gain  in  it  the  front  rank.  This  necessi- 
tated a  broader  education  and  special  training, 
and  from  what  source  the  requisite  funds  were 
to  come  was  an  unsolved  and  seemingly  hope- 
less -{jroblem.  But  at  this  critical  juncture 
Fate  took  her  by  the  hand,  and,  as  if,  in  its 
earnest  aspirations,  one  soul  had  bounded  over 
the  intervening  mountains  and  wildernesses  and 
struck  a  responsive  chord  in  the  heart  of  another, 
a  letter  came  from  a  good  elder  Brother,  who 
many  years  before  had  gone  prospecting  in  the 
rough  country  that  lay  toward  the  setting  sun. 
The  letter  said  in  ])art :  "The  little  sister  whom 
I  left  behind  me  years  ago  must  be  a  young 
lady  by  this  time,  and  I  want  her  to  be  given 
an  education.  Send  her  away  to  school.  Here 
is  two  hundred  dollars  as  a  starter,  and  if 
I  make  a  big  stake,  as  I  have  a  good  show  to 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


417 


do,  will  send  more  when  needed."  This  un- 
expected opportunity  was  eagerly  seized,  and 
Miss  Alderson,  entering  the  State  Normal 
School  at  Mansfield,  Pa.,  was  graduated  with 
the  honors  of  her  class  two  years  later. 

The  first  three  years  of  her  i)ublic  life  were 
spent  in  teaching  in  Venango  City  (since  merged 
into  Oil  City)  and  Franklin,  in  the  heart  of  the 
Pennsylvania  oil  district.  At  [the  end  of  this 
period  she  ventured  across  the  continent  to 
California,  the  land  of  lier  girlhood  dreams. 

In  four  weeks  after  her  arrival  she  began 
teaching  in  Gait,  a  small  town  near  Sacramento, 
at  a  salary  of  .seventy-five  dollars  jier  month. 
The  next  year  found  her,  with  an  increa.sed 
salary,  at  San  Jose,  where  for  several  years 
she  held  the  position  of  vice-principal  in  the 
Empire  School.  Later  she  went  to  the  city 
of  Oakland,  where  her  career  as  a  teacher  in 
the  public  schools  terminated  finally. 

Yearning  for  growth,  she  gave  up  a  certainty 
for  an  uncertainty,  and  with  characteristic 
.self-reliance  resolutely  turnetl  toward  the  un- 
known future.  Boarding  an  ocean  steamer 
and  waving  a  farewell  to  the  friends  on  shore, 
she  sailed  out  of  the  Golden  Gate  with  the 
fixed  purpose  of  entering  upon  a  new,  broader, 
and  therefore  more  u.seful  career.  Going  first 
to  Philadelphia,  she  spent  one  year  in  study 
in  that  city,  and  th(>n,  in  1S8I,  came  to  Boston, 
the  field  of  her  later  activities. 

Here,  in  a  strange  city,  with  new  surround- 
ings, occui^ation  gone,  restless  for  something 
to  tlo,  .she  incidentally  entered  upon  the  study 
of  shorthand,  at  that  time  attracting  con- 
siderable public  attention,  to  the  practical 
development  of  which,  along  original  lines, 
she  has  since  devotetl  her  time,  talent,  anil 
financial  resources.  The  chief  features  of  her 
achievements  in  this  direction  may  be  briefly 
sunnnari'zed  as  follows: — ■ 

In  1883  instituted  "The  Home  School  of 
Shorthand  and  Typewriting."  In  1888  pub- 
lished her  first  shorthand  text-book,  "The 
Chandler  Practical  Shorthand  for  Schools  and 
Colleges,"  now  in  its  sixth  edition  and  exten- 
sively used  in  the  public  schools  of  New  Eng- 
lanil.  In  1890  introiluceil  her  system  of  .short- 
hand into  the  Gloucester  High  School,  when> 
its  merit  was  promptly  recognized.      In  1893 


founded  the  Chandler  Normal  Shorthantl  School, 
chiefly  for  the  training  of  teachers,  the  first 
.school  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  In  1895  called 
a  Public  School  Shorthand  Convention,  the 
first  in  the  history  of  education.  In  1895 
foundeil  the  f^handler  Thinking  Club,  for  the 
promotion  of  individual  growth  by  indepen- 
dent thinking.  In  1898  founded  a  periodical 
called  The  Thinker,  which  has  met  with  a  cordial 
rece])tion  at  the  hands  of  the  public. 

The  original  i)lanks  of  her  shorthaiul  educa- 
tional platform  were  two — "Quality,  not  quan- 
tity," "Legibility,  not  guessibility" — to  which 
the  following  has  since  been  added,  "A  uni- 
form shorthantl  in  the  public  schools.' 

Mrs.  Atherton  is  a  member  of  the  Free  Re- 
ligious Association  of  America,  an  organization 
broad  enough  to  meet  the  retjuirements  of  her 
liberal  spirit. 

Being  the  embodiment  of  enthusiasm,  she  is 
a  natural  leader  and  to  the  young  an  unfailing 
source  of  inspiration.  The  high  esteem  in 
which  she  is  held  by  those  who  have  come  under 
her  direct  influence  is  indicateil  by  the  following 
extract  from  the  constitution  of  the  National 
Association  of  Chandler  Shorthand  Writers,  re- 
cently (1904)  organized  by  them:  "The  object 
of  this  association  .shall  be  to  extend  and  per- 
petuate, through  the  means  of  a  permanent 
organization,  the  valuable  work  which  Mary 
Aklerson  Atherton  has  done  for  humanity  in 
the  interest  of  true  education  and  character- 
building." 

It  may  be  truthfully  said  that  Mrs.  Atherton 
has  contributed  something  of  value  to  the  age 
in  which  she  lives. 


KATE  DOUGLAS  WIGGIN  (Mrs.  George 
C.  Riggs)  is  an  author  whom  New 
Englanders  like  to  claim  as  one  of 
their  own  number,  her  inherited  tastes 
and  aptitudes  being  derived  from  generations 
of  New  p]nghuKl  ancestry.  Of  the  dift'erent 
localities  that  have  known  her  as  a  resident 
she  herself  has  thus  s|joken:  "Pennsylvania 
was  the  State  of  my  birth,  Maine  was  where  my 
childhood  and  happy  girlhood  were  passed, 
California  is  the  scene  of  all  the  practical  work 
I   have  done  among  poor  children,  while  my 


418 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


married  life  the  past  nine  years  has  been  divided 
between  New  York  and  Great  Britain."  (She 
became  the  wife  of  George  C.  Riggs  in  1895.) 

Born  in  Philadelphia,  daughter  of  Robert 
Noah  and  Helen  E.  (Dyer)  Smith,  she  is  a 
grand-daughter  of  Noah,  Jr.,  and  Hannah 
( W'heatoii)  Smith  and  of  Jones  and  Lydia 
(Knight)  Dyer,  all  of  Maine  in  their  day,  and 
great-grand-daughter  of  Noah  Smith,  Sr.,  of  the 
South  Parish  of  Reading  (now  Wakefield), 
Mass.,  born  in  1775,  who  was  a  Captain  of 
cavalry  in  the  State  militia.  Captain  Noah 
Smith  is  spoken  of  by  the  historian  of  Reading 
as  a  "man  of  great  vivacity,  intelligence,  and 
public  spirit,  remarkable  for  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  witty  anecdote  and  lively  story,  with 
large  develo])ment  of  language  and  mirtlifuliK'.ss. 
His  father  was  Captain  David  Sm'itli. 

Noah  Smith,  Jr.,  son  of  Captain  Noah  and 
his  wife  Mary,  daughter  of  Paul  Sweetser,  of 
Reading,  was  born  in  1800.  He  settled  in 
Maine,  where  he  became  prominent  in  pul)lic 
life,  serving  for  a  number  of  years  as  Speaker 
of  the  House  in  the  State  Legislature  and  later 
as  clerk  in  Congress. 

Kate  Douglas  Smith,  the  subject  of  our 
.sketch,  was  educated  first  at  her  home  in  Hollis, 
a  small  Maine  village,  then  at  Gorham  Seminary 
near  by,  and  later  at  Abbot  Academy,  An- 
dover,   Mass. 

In  1873  the  family  removed  to  Santa  Bar- 
bara, Cal.,  and  in  1876,  while  living  in  (Cali- 
fornia, the  future  chronicler  of  childhood 
studied  kindergarten  methods  under  Emma 
Marwedel,  and,  after  teaching  in  the  Santa 
Barbara  College  for  a  year,  she  organized  in 
San  Francisco  the  first  free  kindergarten  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  This  school,  the 
Silver  Street  Kindergarten,  was  in  a  quarter  of 
the  city  where  squalor  and  poverty  reigned 
supreme,  and  it  was  to  the  very  poor  that  she 
began  giving  liberally  her  time,  energy,  and 
enthusiasm.  She  .soon  saw  the  need  of  trained 
assistants,  and  in  1880  she  organized  the  Cali- 
fornia Kindergarten  Training  School. 

After  her  marriage  in  the  same  year  to  Samuel 
B.  Wiggin,  of  Sail  Francisco,  the  training  school 
was  conducted  by  her  sister,  Miss  Nora  Archi- 
bald Smith,  who  had  been  associated  with  her 
in   the   Silver   Street   Kindergarten.     In    1888 


Mrs.  Wiggin  removed  with  her  husband  to  New 
York,  where  he  died  in  1889. 

Mrs.  AMggin,  while  living  as  a  widow  in  New 
York,  thnnv  herself  with  great  energy  into  the 
kindergarten  movement  in  that  city,  and  it 
was  in  this  interest  that  she  was  drawn  into  the 
semi-public  reading  of  her  own  stories. 
::;  Her  first  |)uljli.shed  story,  ''Half-a-dozen 
Hous(>keep(>rs,"  written  in  California  when  she 
was  eighteen,  appeared  in  St.  Nicholas  in  No- 
veml)er  and  December,  1878.  "The  Story  of 
Patsy,"  writtim  for  the  l)enefit  of  the  kinder- 
garten, is  said  to  have  reachetl  a  sale  of  three 
thousand  copies  without  the  aid  of  a  publisher. 
The  "  Birds'  Christmas  C'arol,"  whose  sale  was 
ec|ually  large,  has  been  translated  into  Jajianese, 
French,  German,  Danish,  and  Swedish,  and  has 
been  put  in  raised  type  for  the  blind.  Among 
her  other  books  may  be  mentioned  "Polly 
Oliver's  Problem,"  "A  Summer  in  a  Canon," 
three  volumes  relating  to  kindergarten  work  (of 
which  she  was  joint  author  with  her  sister, 
Nora  A.  Smith),'  "The  Milage  Watch-tower," 
"Timothy's  Quest,"  "A  Cathedral  Courtship," 
the  three  Penelope  books,  "  Diary  of  a  Goose- 
girl,"  and  "Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook  Farm." 
Plea.sant  River,  in  "Timothy's  (Juest,"  is  said 
to  have  been  drawn  from  the  Hollis  locality, 
the  summer  home  of  Mrs.  Riggs. 

British  opinion  of  "Rebecca"  is  indicated  in 
the  following  press  notices:  "Child  or  girl, 
Rebecca  is  just  delightful.  .  .  .  The  opening 
chapter,  relating  the  conversation  between 
Mr.  Cobb,  the  driver  of  the  stage-coach,  and 
Rebecca,  as  he  conveys  her  to  Aunt  Mirandy's, 
is,  in  its  subtle  humor  and  simple  pathos,  equal 
to  any  parallel  passage  in  Dickens.  Rebecca 
is  thoroughly  refreshing"  (Punch). 

"This  is  a  story  that  will  be  read  and  reread. 
.  .  .  Tears  and  laughter  will  greet  her,  but  smiles 
and  laughter  will  predominate.  We  have  no 
doubt  of  the  success  of  '  Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook 
Farm'  "  {Glasgow  Herald). 

"  Rebecca  is  as  charming  and  as  new,  as  hu- 
morous and  as  natural,  as  ever  was  anything 
in  a  story  or  out  of  it  .  .  .  touches  literature 
of  a  very  high  order"  {Country  Life). 

Mrs.  Riggs  goes  abroad  yearly,  Init  usually 
spends  the  summer  wholly  or  in  ])art  at  Hollis, 
where  she  is  a  welcome  guest,  for  the  old  and 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW  -ENGLAND 


419 


young  love  her.  She  takes  up  work  in  the  old 
Orthodox  church  on  Tory  Hill,  playing  the  organ, 
singing  when  needed,  helping  in  the  Suntlay- 
school  library.  She  opens  her  house,  "  Quilleote," 
for  sociables  and  sewing-circles,  and  every 
autumn,  just  before  leaving  for  her  New  York 
home,  she  gives  a  reading  from  her  own  books 
for  the  benefit  of  the  old  church,  the  only  public 
reading  she  gives  nowadays. 

During  her  absence  in  Scotland  in  .June,  1904, 
Bowdoin  College  conferred  on  Mrs.  Kiggs  the 
honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Literature. 


MARY  ANN  WRIGHT  CHAPMAN, 
Past  State  Regent  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution,  is  a  native 
of  Phillipston,  Mass.,  and  the  daugh- 
ter of  Sylvester  Carpenter  and  Susan  D.  (Bur- 
bank)  Wright.  Her  father  was  for  many  years 
a  manufacturer  of  iron-working  machinery  in 
Fitchburg,  where  the  greater  part  of  her  life 
has  been  passetl. 

Her  grandparents  on  the  paternal  side  were 
W'illiam  Kendall  and  Relief  (Bowker)  Wright, 
and  on  the  maternal,  Arthur  and  Sarah  (Bates) 
Burl)ank.  One  line  of  her  grantlfather  Bur- 
bank's  ancestry  goes  back  to  John  Webster, 
who  was  Governor  of  Connecticut  in  1656; 
and  one  line  of  her  grandmother  Burl)ank's 
(born  Bates),  to  Stephen  Hopkins,  of  the 
"Mayflower"  company  of  Pilgrims,  1620.  De- 
scent from  Governor  Webster  is  through  his 
daughter  Mary,  who  married  a  Mr.  Hunt;  Jon- 
athan Hunt;  Jonathan  Hunt,  Jr.,  and  his  wife, 
Martha  Williams;  Mary  Hunt,  who  marrieil 
Seth  Pomeroy;  Sarah  Pomeroy,  born  in  1744, 
who  married  Abraham  Burbank,  and  was  the 
mother  of  Arthur  Burbank,  grandfather  of 
Mrs.  Chapman. 

Descent  from  Stephen  Hopkins  Mrs.  Chap- 
man traces  through  his  daughter  Constance, 
who  married  Nicholas  Snow;  Mary  Snow,  wife 
of  Thomas  Paine;  Mary  Paine  Cole;  Hannah 
Cole  Higgins;  Israel  Higgins;  Ruth  Higgins, 
wife  of  Ca]itain  Abner  Stocking;  Hannah  Stock- 
ing, wife  of  Eleazer  Bates;  Sarah  Bates,  wife 
of  Arthur  Burbank  and  mother  of  Susan  Doo- 
little  Burbank,  who  (as  indicated  above)  mar- 
j'ietl  Sylvester  Carpenter  Wright. 


Among  the  ancestors  of  Mrs.  Chapman  who, 
as  military  men  or  as  civilians,  engaged  in  the 
public  service  in  colonial  times,  may  be  men- 
tioned Deacon  Medad  Pomeroy,  of  Northamp- 
ton, who  was  a  soldier  at  Turner's  Falls  in 
King  Philip's  War,  1676,  and  who  served  as 
Town  Clerk  and  Treasurer,  Register  of  Deeds, 
Associate  County  Judge,  and  Deputy  to  Gen- 
eral Court;  Ebenezer  Pomeroy,  Captain  and 
then  Major  in  the  militia  and  high  sheriff  of 
the  county;  also  General  Seth  Pomeroy  and 
four  other  Revolutionary  soldiers — namely. 
Captain  Abner  Stocking,  John  Bowker,  Eleazer 
Bates,  and  Nehemiah  Wright. 

Seth  Pomeroy  served  with  distinction  in 
the  French  and  Indian  wars.  He  was  Major 
in  the  Massachusetts  forces  at  the  capture  of 
Louisburg  in  1745,  was  Lieutenant  Colonel  in 
the  expedition  against  Crown  Point  in  1755,  and 
at  the  death  of  Colonel  Williams  in  the  battle 
of  Lake  George,  September  8,  1755,  he  took 
connnand  of  the  regiment  and  ably  assisted  in 
winning  the  victory.  In  1774-75  he  was  a 
delegate  to  the  Provincial  Congress.  He  was 
elected  a  Brigadier-general  in  February,  1775. 
He  fought  at  Bunker  Hill  as  a  private,  and 
was  soon  after  appointeil  a  senior  Brigadier- 
general  by  the  Continental  Congress,  but  de- 
clined the  honor  in  consequence  of  disputes 
about  military  rank,  and  retired  to  his  farm. 

In  the  autunui  of  1776,  when  New  Jersey 
was  invaded  by  the  British,  at  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  Washington,  he  again  took  the 
field,  and,  at  the  heail  of  the  military  force  he 
had  raised,  marched  as  far  as  the  Hudson  River 
at  Peekskill,  where  he  was  taken  ill  with  pleu- 
risy, and  died  in  February,  1777,  in  the  seventy- 
first  year  of  his  age. 

On  June  17,  1898,  it  may  be  mentioned, 
Mrs.  Chapman  attended  the  unveiling  of  the 
monument  in  the  old  churchyard  at  Peekskill, 
erected  by  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution  anil  his 
descendants.  One  of  the  inscriptions  reads 
as  follows: — 

Peekskill,  February  1],  1777. 
I  go  cheerfully,  for  I  am  sure  the  cause  we  are  en- 
gaged in  is  just ;  and  the  call  I  have  to  it  is  clear  and 


the  call  of  God. 


Seth  Pomeroy. 


Abraham    Burbank,    of    West    Springfield, 


420 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


great-grandfather  of  Mrs.  Chapman,  was  gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  in  1759.  A  prominent 
lawyer  and  a  judge,  he  served  a  number  of 
years  as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Leg- 
islature, and  in  1777  was  a  commissary  for 
forwarding  stores.  His  fine  old  colonial  man- 
sion is  still  standing  at  Feeding  Iliiis,  Mass. 
His  mother  was  sister  to  Colonel  Timothy 
Dwight,  grandfather  of  President  Timotiiy 
Dwight,  of  Yale  College. 

Mrs.  Chapman,  under  her  maiden  name, 
Mary  A.  Wright,  was  graduated  from  the 
Fitchburg  High  School  at  an  early  age,  after- 
ward attending  the  Maplewood  Institute  in 
Pittstieid,  Mass. 

On  September  13,  1864,  she  married  James 
L.  Chapman,  son  of  Daniel  Chapman,  who  was 
then  engaged  in  manufacturing  in  Fitchburg  in 
company  with  Mr.  Wright,  her  father.  He  is 
now  retired. 

The  children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chapman  are: 
Walter  Butler  (who  died  in  infancy),  Josephine 
Wright,  (ieorge  Daiuel  (deceased),  and  Louis 
Raymond.  Josephine  AV right  Chapman  is  an 
architect.  Inheriting  from  her  maternal  grand- 
father a  talent  for  designing  and  for  using  tools, 
after  receiving  her  education  in  the  Fitchburg 
public  schools,  she  came  to  Boston,  and,  en- 
tering the  office  of  Mr.  C.  H.  Blackall,  fitted 
herself  for  her  profession,  in  which  she  is  now 
engaged.  She  resides  in  Boston.  She  de- 
signed the  Worcester  Woman's  Club  House; 
"The  Craigie,"  a  students'  dormitory  at  Cam- 
bridge; the  New  England  States  Building 
at  the  Pan-American  Exposition  in  Buffalo; 
the  Episcopal  church  in  Leominster;  and 
many  other  public  buildings  and  private  resi- 
dences. 

George  D.  Chapman  was  connected  for  a 
number  of  years  with  the  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology,  being  an  instructor 
after  his  graduation.  Later  ami  at  the  time 
of  his  death  he  was  supervising  engineer  of  the 
New  York  Ship  Building  Company  at  Cam- 
den, N.J.  He  was  a  young  man  of  great  prom- 
ise. Louis  Raymond  ('hapman,  a  graduate 
of  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  Harvard  College, 
and  Boston  LTniversity,  is  a  practising  lawyer 
in  Boston. 

Mrs.  Chapman  was  one  of  the  first  meml)ers 


of  the  Fitchburg  Woman's  Club,  was  a  direc- 
tor and  chairman  of  the  science  section  and 
superintendent  of  the  household  school  for 
three  years,  when  that  work  brought  the  club 
into  prominence.  She  contributed  to  the 
Fitchburg  Evening  Mail  an  article  u])on  the 
svibject  of  town  impi'ovement,  an  e(lition  of 
which  was  published  Ijy  the  clul)  for  charitable 
work. 

Mrs.  ('hapman  was  treasurer  for  two  years 
of  the  Children's  Home  in  Fitchburg.  She 
is  a  charter  member  of  the  George  Washmgton 
Memorial  Association.  At  two  of  the  annual 
meetings  held  in  Washington,  D.C.,  she  was  a 
delegate  fi-om  this  State,  and  was  one  of  the 
vice-chairmen  representing  Ma.ssachusetts.  She 
was  the  third  State  Regent  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution  of  Massachusetts,  and 
is  ex-\'ice-President -general  of  the  National 
Society  of  the  D.  R.  She  was  chairman  of  its 
patriotic  work  at  the  time  they  erected  a  mon- 
vunent  at  Valley  Forge,  and  she  was  ])resent 
at  the  dedication  and  unveiling  of  this  monu- 
ment, which  took  i)lace  October  19,  1901 
(Coi'iiwallis  day).  She  went  to  Washington, 
D.C.,  with  tiie  other  general  officers,  and  ad- 
dressed the  Senate  and  House  committee  on 
military  affairs  in  behalf  of  tiie'^biil  to  make 
Valley  Forge  a  National  Park. 

On  June  17,  1901,  the  Massachusetts  State 
Society,  Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  held 
its  celebration  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill 
■with  exercises  in  the  New  England  States 
Building  at  the  Exposition  in  Buffalo,  N.Y. 
Mrs.  Chapman  presiiled  and  made  the  address 
on  that  occasion. 

Mrs.  Chapman  is  a  member  of  Dorothy  Q. 
C'hapter  of  Boston.  In  1902  she  was  the 
nominee  of  the  State  Society  for  the  office  of 
President-general  of  the  National  Society. 
She  is  an  honorary  member  of  the  Martha 
Washington  Chapter,  D.  R.,  of  Boston,  and 
Honorary  RegentJ  of  the  Betsy  Ross  Chapter, 
I).  R.,  of  Fitchburg.  She  is  a,  member  of  the 
Woman's  Charity  Club  of  Boston  and  its  Sec- 
ond Vice-President,  a  member  of  the  Peter 
Faneuil  Chapter,  D.  R.,  of  Allston,  and  of  the 
Floral  Emblem  Society,  Boston,  and  has  also 
just  become  a  memlier  of  the  Boston  Women's 
Educational  and  Industrial  L^nion. 


CAROLINE   H.  HITCHCOCK 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


421 


CAROLINE  HANKS  HITCHCOCK  was 
born  September  20,  1863,  in  Lowell, 
Mass.  From  that  city  during  her  early 
chiUlhood  she  came  to  the  house  on 
Harvard  Street,  Cambridge,  which  is  still  her 
home.  Her  parents  were  the  Rev.  Stedman 
Wright  Hanks  and  Sarah  Hale  Hanks.  Her 
father  was  descended  from  an  old  English 
family  of  Malmesbury,  near  the  great  Stone- 
henge  in  Wiltshire.  "  All  the  Malmesbury  men 
who  fought  in  the  battle  of  I']ddington  under 
Alfred  the  Great  were  rewarded  with  certain 
tracts  of  land,  which  are  still  held  by  the  de- 
scendants of  these  old  families.  Among  these 
so  called  '  connnoners,'  each  of  whom  had  five 
hundred  acres,  were  two  brothers  of  the  name 
Hankes,  who.se  descendants  still  hold  the  '  com- 
moners' rights'  in  Malmesbury,  King  Athelstan, 
the  grandson  of  Alfred  the  Great,  having  given 
them  one  charter,  King  John  another  later,  and 
so  on." 

It  was  along  the  old  Roman  Foss  Road  that 
the  first  known  ancestor  of  Mrs.  Hitchcock  trav- 
elled when  he  ventured  to  leave  his  native  place. 
This  was  Thomas  Hanks,  who  then  .settled  in 
Stow-on-the-Wold,  and  whose  son  Benjamin 
with  his  wife  Abigail  "came  from,  London,  Oc- 
tober 17,  1699,  and  landed  in  Plymouth,  Massa- 
chusettts."  This  Benjamin  Hanks  was  the 
great-grandfather  of  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  sixteenth  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  olil  records  show  that  "  the 
history  of  the  descendants  of  Benjamin  Hanks 
is  interwoven  in  the  annals  of  New  England, 
where  they  are  known  as  'a  remarkably  inven- 
tive family'  ami  'a  family  of  founders.'  The 
first  bells  ever  made  in  America  were  cast  on 
Hanks  Hill  in  their  old  New  England  farm. 

"Mrs.  Hitchcock's  great-grandfather,  one  of 
the  descendants  of  this  Benjamin  Hanks,  placed 
in  the  steeple  of  the  old  Dutch  Church  in  New 
York  City  the  first  tower  clock  in  America,  a 
iuu(iue  affair,  run  by  a  windmill  attachment. 
The  bells  antl  chimes  made  by  members  of 
the  Hanks  family,  are  now  ringing  all  over  the 
world,  on  land  and  sea,  one  of  them  being  the 
bell  in  Philadelphia  which  replaced  the  old 
Liberty  Bell,  and  another  the  great  Columbian 
liberty  bell,  which  hung  in  front  of  the  Ad- 
mini.stration   Building  at  the  World's  Fair  in 


Chicago  in  1893.  This  bell  weighed  thirteen 
thousand  pounds,  to  represent  the  thirteen 
original  States,  and  was  made  from  relics  of 
gold,  silver,  old  coins,  antl  metal  sent  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  On  it  were  inscribed  the 
words,  'Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  ])eace,  good  will  toward  men';  also  these: 
'  Proclaim  liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto 
all  the  inhabitants  thereof,'  and  'A  new  com- 
mandment I  give  unto  you.  That  ye  love  one 
another.'" 

It  was  Mrs.  Hitchcock's  great-grandfather 
who  erected  the  first  silk-mill  in  America  to 
run  by  water-j)ower.  He  also  made  the  first 
cannon  carried  by  the  Connecticut  artillery 
into  the  battles  in  which  many  of  the  family 
gave  their  lives  for  their  country.  For  the 
United  States  army  and  navy  during  the  Revo- 
lution the  Hanks  inventions  in  almost  every 
department  were  manifold.  The  founder  of 
the  American  Bank  Note  Company  antl  also 
the  discoverer  of  the  new  mineral  in  California, 
named,  after  Professor  Hanks,  "  Hanksite,"  were 
of  her  family.  Sunday-school  publications 
prepared  by  a  member  of  this  family  from 
a  careful  research  into  the  Hebrew  language 
and  literature  have  been  studied  all  over 
America. 

Mrs.  Hitchcock's  father  was  the  author  of 
the  well-known  Black  \^alley  Railroad  temper- 
ance illustrations  and  of  many  books  on  the 
subject  of  temperance.  Realizing  the  needs  of 
those  who  "go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  that 
ilo  business  in  great  waters,"  he  instituted 
sailors'  librai'ies.  His  daughter  well  remembers 
helping  prepare  the  first  little  box  of  books 
that  was  sent  on  board  ship  as  a  "library,"  and 
which  was  ivally  the  nucleus  of  what  has  become 
a  great  system  of  floating  libraries. 

She  is,  as  was  her  father,  an  ardent  believer 
in  temperance.  On  her  mother's  side,  also,  Mrs. 
Hitchcock  is  of  English  descent.  The  English 
historian  Atkyns  says,  "The  family  of  Hale 
has  been  of  ancient  standing  in  this  county, 
and  always  esteemed  for  their  probity  and 
charity."  Illustrious  names  have  crowned  this 
family  throughout  its  history,  from  Sir  Matthew 
Hale,  Lord  C'hief  Justice,  to  the  patriot  soldier, 
Nathan  Hale  and  the  beloved  minister  philan- 
thropist, the    Rev.  Dr.  Eilward  Everett  Hale, 


422 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


now  chaplain  of  the  United  States  Senate.  Mrs. 
Hitchcock's  great-grandfather  Hale  was  a  sur- 
geon in  the  Revolution,  and  her  grandfather 
a  drummer  boy  in  the  company  with  his  father. 
Her  mother  was  born,  and  lived  until  she  was 
sixteen  years  old,  on  one  of  the  rare  spots  on 
God's  green  earth,  on  the  edge  of  a  little  lake 
called  "Indian  Pond,"  in  the  heart  of  our 
New  England  mountains,  in  Orford,  N.H. 
After  teaching  in  the  little  red  school-house 
among  the  hills,  she  was  called  to  Lowell, 
where,  after  having  taught  a  few  years,  she 
married.  Later  she  removed  with  her  husband 
to  Cambridge  to  educate  the  children.  Here 
her  daughter,  Caroline  Hanks,  went  through  the 
public  schools,  and  then  entered  the  Harvard 
Annex,  now  Radcliffe  College.  After  leaving 
college,  she  taught  in  the  Harvard  School  until 
her  marriage  in  1887,  when  she  went  with  her 
husband,  Sanmel  M.  Hitchcock,  to  New  York. 
She  now  lives  with  her  son,  James  Hitchcock, 
on  Harvard  Street,  Cambritlge. 

A  few  years  ago  Mrs.  Hitchcock  became  in- 
tensely interested  in  theosophy.  She  is  now 
president  of  the  Cambridge  Lodge  of  the  l^ni- 
versal  Brotherhood  Organization  and  Theo- 
sophical  Society,  whose  head(iuarters  are  at 
Point  Loma,  Cal.  Here  the  Children's  Raja 
Yoga  School  is  being  carried  on  with  marked 
success,  and  the  School  for  the  Revival 
of  the  Lost  Mysteries  of  Anticiuity  has  been 
already  established  under  Katherine  Tingley, 
of  Newburyport,  Mass.  When  asked  the  other 
day,  "What  are  the  Mysteries?"  Mrs.  Hitch- 
cock answered:  "What,  indeed,  is  there  that  is 
not  a  mystery?  Is  not  life  it-self  the  Great 
Mystery — life,  this  jjanoramic  glimpse  be- 
tween two  vast  silences?  Raja  Yoga  is  the 
Science  of  Life,  the  study  by  means  of  which 
we  may  come  to  understand  the  inner  workings 
of  that  great  law  which  has  made  brotherhood 
a  fact  in  nature,  and  has  made  life  joyful  just 
in  that  degree  that  we  recognize  that  the  welfare 
of  one  is  indissohibly  and  forever  a  part  of  the 
welfare  of  all.  Tlieoso])hy  is  nior(>  than  a 
name,  more  than  a  theory:  it  is  a  living,  trans- 
forming ])()wer,  that  shall  lift  the  whole  world 
and  fill  all  life  with  light  and  joy.  It  is  the 
history  of  the  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  evo- 
lution of  the  sou!  on  this  planet." 


Mrs.  Hitchcock  believes  that  the  future  of  the 
world  rests  in  the  hands  of  the  little  children. 
"At  Point  Loma  hundreds  of  them,"  it  is  said, 
"  gathered  from  many  nations,  are  being  trained 
in  the  atmosphere  of  love,  the  spiritual  science 
of  the  soul.  Music  and  art  are  the  transform- 
ing powers  of  life,  and  here  they  are  taught  in 
their  deepest- meaning.  The  power  of  beauti- 
ful expression  comes  from  the  arousing  of  the 
inner  powers  of  the  soul,  which  are  in  sym- 
pathy with  whatever  is  high  and  pure.  Many 
of  these  little  children  are  homeless  waifs,  who 
are  being  instructed  in  the  laws  of  Universal 
Nature  and  Justice,  the  laws  governing  their 
own  being,  and  the  wisdom  of  mutual  helpful- 
ness. The  children  are  taught  to  regard  them- 
selves as  integral  and  responsible  parts  of  the 
nation  to  which  they  belong;  to  aspire  to  the 
position  of  national  benefactors,  teachers,  and 
helpers,  and  so  become  exponents  of  the  truest 
and  wisest  patriotism."  Mrs.  Hitchcock  is  also 
interested  in  the  various  branches  of  this  .school, 
which  are  found  in  all  the  large  centres  of  Amer- 
ica, as  well  as  in  her  own  Cambridge,  where 
she  works  indefatigably  with  the  children. 

As  stated  in  a  recent  periodical,  she  is  "en- 
thusiastically loyal  to  her  countrywomen,  as 
she  is,  indeed,  to  everything  truly  American. 
She  believes  heartily  in  woman  suffrage,  and 
regrets  deeply  varicnis  fraudulent  methods  that 
govern  motlern  politics."  Another  subject 
which  has  deeply  interested  her  of  late  is  anti- 
compulsory  vaccination,  on  which  she  spoke 
earnestly  at  the  State  IIf)use  some  months  ago. 
Although  she  was  obliged  to  refuse  the  nomi- 
nation for  presidency  of  the  society  of  that 
name,  her  heart  is  entirely  in  sympathy  with 
the  cause. 

The  Cambridf/e  /-"rfs.s  of  May  13,  190.3,  says: 
"As  a  writer,  Mrs.  Hitchcock  is  especially  gifted. 
Her  l)()oks — '  Nancy  Hanks,  a  Story  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  Mother'  and  'The  History  of  the 
Hanks  I'^amily  in  America' — are  regarded  as 
authorities  on  these  subjects.  The  first  clears 
up  what  had  b(>en  for  y(>ars  before  its  publica- 
tion mysterious  and  unsatisfactory  with  regard 
to  the  biography  of  tlie  most  lovable  and 
noble  mother  of  our  great  President.  As  a 
lecturer,  Mrs.  Hitchcock  is  fluent  and  inter- 
esting as  W(>!1  as  graceful.     Her  lectures  upon 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


423 


the  different  religions  of  the  world,  illustrated 
with  beautiful  stereopticon  views,  are  well 
known." 


DOROTHEA  LYNDE  DIX.— Over  a 
grave  in  Mount  Auburn  Cemetery, 
Massachusetts,  the  American  flag  al- 
ways waves.  It  is  kejjt  there  by  the 
Army  Nurses'  Association  of  Boston  and  the 
Grand  Army  Post,  and  its  presence  fittingly 
commemorates  the  service  which  Dorothea  Dix 
rendered  her  country  in  the  war  of  the  Rebellion. 

Miss  Dix  was  born  April  4,  1802,  during  the 
temporary  residence  of  her  parents,  Joseph  and 
Mary  (Bigelow)  Dix,  in  Hampden,  Me.  She 
dieil  July  17,  1887,  at  the  State  Asylum,  Tren- 
ton, N.J.,  "one  of  her  hospital  homes,"  where 
she  had  tieen  tenderly  cared  for,  a  loved  and 
revered  guest,  in  her  declining  years  of  exhaus- 
tion and  pain. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  Miss  Dix  seems 
to  have  inherited  the  strong  points  of  her 
character  not  from  her  parents,  but  from  her 
paternal  grandparents.  Dr.  Elijah  Dix  and  his 
wife,  Dorothy  Lynde.  "  Her  father,  Joseph 
Dix,  was  a  visionary  man  f)f  delicate  health, 
and  died  early.  Her  mother,  after  the  birth 
of  her  second  son,  fell  into  invalidism,  leaving 
to  the  child  Doi'othea  the  care  of  her  two  broth- 
ers, a  trust  she  faithfully  fulfilled. 

"The  grandfather.  Dr.  Elijah  Dix,  of  whom 
Miss  Dix  always  cherished  pleasant  memories, 
was  located  many  years  as  a  physician  at 
Worcester,  where  he  is  remembered  to-day  as  well 
developed  physically  and  mentally  antl  in  ad- 
vance of  his  age  in  village  improvement  and 
educational  theories.  He  was  characterized 
■for  his  bravery,  honesty,  and  patriotism.  In 
1795  he  removed  to  Boston  and  estalilished  a 
drug  store  under  Faneuil  Hall,  and  founded  in 
South  Boston  chemical  works  for  the  refining 
of  sulplun-  and  the  purifying  of  canqjlior.  He 
entered  largely  into  the  land  speculations  in 
the  State  of  Maine,  purchased  large  tracts  of 
forests,  out  of  which  he  founded  the  towns  of 
Dixmont  and  Dixtield."  He  died  in  1809,  his 
widow  surviving  him  twenty-eight  years. 

At  twelve  years  of  age  Dorothea,  lea\'ing 
her  home  in  A\'orcester,  went  to  live  with  her 


grantlmother.  Madam  Dix,  in  Boston.  At 
fourteen  she  opened  a  school  for  little  chiklren 
in  Worcester,  which  she  taught  in  1816-17. 
A  number  of  years  later  she  established  in  the 
Dix  mansion  in  Boston  a  boarding  and  day 
school,  which  she  continued  successfully  for 
five  years,  but  at  the  cost  of  her  health.  In 
her  school-teaching  days  Miss  Dix  wrote  several 
books,  mostly  for  children,  one  of  which,  "Con- 
versation on  Common  Things,"  reached  its 
sixtieth  edition.  In  the  spring  of  1836  she 
broke  down  completely,  and  was  obliged  to 
give  up  school-keeping.  Going  to  England  for 
change  of  scene  and  rest,  she  returned  to  Boston 
in  the  autumn  of  1837  with  her  health  greatly 
improved,  but  found  it  necessary  to  go  South 
for  the  following  winter.  She  had  received 
fiom  her  grandmother  a  bequest  which,  with 
what  she  had  saved  from  lier  earnings  as  a 
teacher,  gave  her  a  competency,  enabling  her 
henceforth  to  dispose  of  her  time  and  follow 
her  tastes  as  she  would. 

She  chose  to  be  a  worker  in  a  n^uch  neglected 
field  of  philanthropy.  Visiting  in  March,  1841, 
the  jail  in  East  Cambridge,  "Miss  Dix,"  says 
her  biographer,  "  was  first  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  condition  of  things  prevailing  in  the 
jails  anil  almshouses  of  Massachusetts,  which 
laimched  her  on  her  great  career." 

Note-book  in  hand,  she  visitetl  jails  and  alms- 
houses throughout  the  State,  accumulating 
statistics  of  outrage  and  niLsery,  and  then 
addressed  a  memorial  to  the  Legislature  (Janu- 
ary, 1843),  showing  the  need  of  reform  in  the 
system  and  appealing  for  legislative  action. 
She  was  supported  by  such  men  as  Dr.  Samuel 
G.  Howe,  Horace  Mann,  Charles  Sumner,  and 
Dr.  Chaiming.  The  connnittee  to  which  the 
menmrial  was  referred  made  a  report  strongly 
indorsing  the  truth  of  Miss  Dix's  statements; 
and  engineered  by  Dr.  Howe,  chairman  of  the 
connnittee,  a  "bill  for  immediate  relief  was 
carried  by  a  large  majority,  and  the  order 
passed  for  providing  State  acconunodations  for 
two  hundred  additional  insane  persons." 

"Thus  was  venture<l  and  won  Miss  Dix's 
first  legislative  victory,  the  ])recursor  of  num- 
bers to  follow  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  United  States." 

A  small  asylum  in  Providence,  R.I.,  receiving 


424 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


from  Mr.  Cyrus  Butler,  in  answer  to  a  personal 
appeal  from  Miss  Dix,  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  was  enlarged  and  had  its  name  changed 
to  Butler  Hospital. 

Taking  up  the  cause  of  the  insane  in  New 
Jersey,  Miss  Dix  went  "  from  county  to  county, 
making  personal  investigations,  jM'eparing  a 
memorial  to  the  Legislature,  and  moving  them 
to  appropriate  means  for  building  the  Trenton 
Hospital  with  its  lofty  walls  and  extensive 
grounds.  At  the  same  time  she  was  creating 
the  State  Lunatic  Asylum  at  Harrisburg,  Pa. 
Through  her  efforts  the  asylum  at  Utica,  N.Y., 
was  doubled  in  size,  and  the  .4sylum  for  the 
Insane  at  Toronto,  Canada,  tniilt.  From  State 
to  State,  from  county  to  county,  Miss  Dix 
journeyed,  seeking  out  the  suffering  in  jails, 
almshouses,  and  wherever  they  were  to  be  found, 
who  had  no  other  earthly  heljier.  Hos])itals 
sprung  up  at  her  touch,  until  she  saw  structures 
of  her  own  creation  rise  in  Lidiana,  Illinois, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mis.'iouri,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  Alabama,  South  Carolina,  North 
Carolina,  Maryland,  Washington,  and  Halifax, 
N.S. 

"  Far-away  Japan  owed  its  first  asylum  for 
the  insane  to  Dorothea  L.  Dix.  She  so  inter- 
ested Mr.  Mori,  the  first  Minister  from  Japan  to 
the  United  States,  that  on  his  return  to  his 
home  he  was  instrumental  in  building  two 
hospitals. 

"She  was  known  and  loved  everywhere. 
In  1S5S  and  1S59  she  visited  the  hospitals 
throughout  the  South  that  she  had  been  in- 
strumental in  founding.  She  writes  in  Texas: 
'  Everybody  was  kind  and  obliging.  I  had  a 
hundred  instances  that  filled  my  eyes  with  tears. 
I  was  taking  dinner  at  a  small  puljlic  house 
on  a  wide,  lonely  prairie.  The  master  stood 
with  the  stage  way-bill  in  his  hand,  reading 
and  eying  me.  I  thought  because  I  was  the 
only  lady  ]3assenger;  but  when  I  drew  out  my 
purse  to  pay,  as  usual,  his  (|uick  expression  was: 
"No,  no!  by  George,  I  don't  take  money  from 
you!  Why,  I  never  thought  I  should  .see  you, 
and  now  you  are  in  my  house.  You  have  done 
good  to  everybody  for  years  and  years.  Make 
sure,  now,  there's  a  welcome  for  you  in  every 
hou.se  in  Texas!  Here,  wife,  this  is  Miss  Dix. 
Shake  hands  and  call  the  children."' 


"The  same  kindly  spirit  was  manifested  by 
the  press  of  the  South,  which  spoke  of  her  as 
'  the  chosen  daughter  of  the  Republic,'  that 
'angel  of  mercy.' 

"  It  was  during  this  period  of  her  life  that 
Miss  Dix  through  legislative  bodies  secured 
large  sums  of  money  for  humane  ])urposes, 
more  than  was  ever  before  raised  by  one  in- 
dividual. 

"  At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  Mi.ss 
Dix  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  but  she 
entered  Washington  with  the  first  wounded 
soldiers  from  Baltimore,  and  reported  at  once 
to  Secretary  Camei-on  as  a  volunteer  nurse 
without  j)ay,  and  was  by  him  apjxiinted  '  Super- 
intentlent  of  Women  Nurses,  to  select  and  assign 
women  nurses  to  general  or  jsermanent  military 
hospitals.' 

"While  in  personal  devotion,"  writes  Mr. 
Tiffany  of  Miss  Dix  (then  under  the  burden  of 
"responsibilitiesJoo  great  for  any  single  mind  to 
cope  with"),  "no  portion  of  her  career  surpassed 
this,  still  in  wisdom  and  ])ractical  efficiency  it 
was  distinctively  inferior  to  her  work  in  her 
own  s])here.  Of  its  consecration  of  purpo.se 
there  can  be  no  question."  Mr.  Tiffany  testifies 
that  through  the  four  years  of  the  war  "she 
never  took  a  day's  furlough.  Untiringly  did 
she  remain  at  her  post,  organizing  bands  of 
nurses,  forwarding  sup])lies,  ins})ecting  hos])itals, 
and  in  many  a  case  of  neglect  and  abuse  mak- 
ing her  name  a  salutary  terror." 

Secretary  Stanton,  having  a  high  sense  of  the 
country's  indebtedness  to  Miss  Dix  for  her  in- 
estima])l(>  services  on  the  l)attle-fiel(l,  in  camps 
and  hospitals,  ordered  the  jiresentation  to  her 
of  a  stand  of  the  United  States  colors.  The 
beautiful  flags,  received  by  her  in  January, 
1867,  she  bequeathed  to  Harvard  College.' 
They  now  hang  in  the  Memorial  Hall,  over  the 
main  portal. 

Aftei-  the  war  Miss  Dix  continued  general 
philanthropic  work  for  many  years.  Worn 
out  with  fatigue,  in  October,  1S81,  she  went 
for  rest  to  the  Trenton  Asylum,  which  was  her 
home  till  the  end  came. 

It  has  been  .said  of  Mi.ss  Dix  that  personally 
she  was  most  attractive.  "  Her  voice  was  of 
a  quality  that  controlled  the  rudest  and  most 
violent — sweet,  lich,  low,  perfect  in  enunciation, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


425 


pervaded  in  every  tone  by  love  and  power. 
Her  apparel  was  quiet,  spotlessly  neat,  and 
uni(]uely  tasteful — the  apparel  of  a  delicate, 
high-breil  Friend.  A  plain  gray  dress  sufficed 
for  travelling,  a  black  silk  one  was  reserved  for 
social  and  public  occasions.  A  shawl  or  velvet 
mantle  without  ornament  .she  ilonned  when  she 
went  to  meet  persons  of  high  rank.  Her  waving 
brown  hair  was  brought  over  the  temples  anil 
carried  above  the  ears,  in  the  fashion  of  the 
period.  Her  soft,  brilliant,  blue-gray  eyes, 
with  pujjils  so  dilating  as  to  make  them  appear 
black,  the  bright  glow  of  her  cheeks,  the  well- 
set  head,  and  distinction  in  carriage,  all  ex- 
pressed the  blending  of  ilignity,  force,  anil  ten- 
derness in  her  character." 


MARION  A.  M.\cBRIDE,  journalist, 
widely  known  through  the  country 
for  her  work  in  the  field  of  tlomestic 
science  and  for  her  [ihilanthropic 
efforts  in  connection  with  the  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union,  is  a  native  of  East- 
hampton,  Mass.  Her  ancestors,  the  Snows  and 
W-arners,  have  lived  in  Williamsl)urg,  Mass., 
since  1731.  Solomon  Snow  and  Jonathan  War- 
ner responded  to  the  Lexington  alarm  of  April 
19,  1775,  marching  from  Hamp.shire  County  to 
the  defence  of  the  country. 

Mrs.  MacBride  was  educated  in  New  York,  but 
her  home  for  the  greater  part  of  her  life  has 
been  in  Boston.  Her  first  newspaper  work  was 
done  for  the  Neiv  York  Tribune  in  1881,  and 
sinco  that  time  her  name  has  been  prominent 
in  the  field  of  journalism.  From  1881  to  1885 
she  was  a  reporter  antl  correspondent  of  the 
Bo>>ton  Post,  but  for  the  j^ast  fifteen  years  .she 
has  given  more  time  to  magazine  work.  A  reg- 
ular contributor  to  the  colunms  of  the  Boston 
Daily  Globe,  New  York  Herald,  Nexv  Orleans 
Picayune,  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer,  and  St.  Louis 
Chronicle,  she  has  also  conducted  a  department 
in  the  American  Art  Magazine,  has  written  arti- 
cles for  ih^Decorator  and  Furnisher,  and  has 
filled  important  jjositions  on  the  leading  period- 
icals devoted  to  domestic  science. 

Mrs.  MacBride  is  noted  for  her  ability  as  an 
organizer.  At  the  Cotton  Centennial  Exposi- 
tion in  1885  she  organized  the  National  Woman's 


Press  Association,  which  became  international 
in  1887.  The  Woman's  Press  Association  of 
Ohio,  the  Southern  Woman's  Press  Association, 
and  the  New  p]ngland  Woman's  Press  As.socia- 
tion  were  all  called  into  existence  largely  through 
her  personal  efforts. 

Mrs.  MacBride  organized  the  first  woman's 
tlejmrtment  of  the  New  England  Manufacturers' 
and  Mechanics'  Institute  Fair  held  in  Boston 
early  in  the  eighties,  and  was  also  organizer 
and  first  superintendent  of  the  woman's  depart- 
ment of  the  Massacluisetts  Charitable  Mechanic 
A.ssociation.  Long  the  faithful  secretary  of  the 
Woman's  Charity  Club,  she  was  presented  by  its 
members  in  1890  with  a  handsome  gold  watch 
and  badge. 

As  an  honorary  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Army  Nunses  Association,  Mrs.  MacBride  was 
l)rominent  in  arranging  for  the  reception  at 
Memorial  Hall,  State  House,  Boston,  August 
17,  1904,  during  the  National  Encampment  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repulilic. 

Mrs.  MacBride  is  a  national  superintendent  of 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  She  is  never  too  busy  to  con- 
sider all  sorts  of  demands  made  upon  her  time 
and  strength,  provided  they  have  a  worthy  ob- 
ject. She  was  one  of  the  first  and  most  effi- 
cient workers  for  the  police  matron  measure  in 
Boston.  For  several  years  Mrs.  MacBride  has 
pas.setl  her  winters  in  Philadelphia,  where  her 
only  child,  James  D.  MacBride,  follows  the 
profession  of  draftsman  which  he  learned  in 
Gla.sgow,  Scotland. 


FANNIE  M.  JONES,  a  prominent  worker 
in  patriotic  and  other  societies,  was 
born  in  Boston,  daughter  of  Captain  Cal- 
vin C.  and  Harriet  K.  (Chase)  Wilson. 
Her  father  has  been  connectetl  with  the  Boston' 
fire  department  for  more  than  forty  years.  He 
is  an  active  member  of  the  Masons,  the  Inde- 
pendent Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  the  Knights  of 
Honor,  and  other  organizations.  Her  mother 
is  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Daughters 
of  Rebekah,  of  Massachusetts,  and  is  also  identi- 
fied with  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Ladies, 
having  held  the  highest  offices  m  both  organiza- 
tions. Mrs.  Jones  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Boston,  and  is  a  graduate  of  the 


420 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Girls'  English  High  and  Normal  Schools.  She 
was  fitted  for  the  ])rofession  of  teacher:  but, 
soon  after  beginning  this  work,  she,  as  Fanni(> 
\\'ilson,  married  Dr.  William  i'elby  Jones,  a 
physician  and  surgeon  of  Boston,  whose  father, 
Dr.  Joseph  S.  Jones,  was  a  prominent  surgeon 
and  active  in  medical  and  other  societies. 

After  the  death  of  her  husband,  in  1<S90, 
Mrs.  Jones  moved  to  Somerville,  where  she  has 
since  resided.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Prospect 
Hill  Church,  a  teacher  in  its  Sunday-school, 
and  interested  in  all  its  various  work.  She  is 
a  member  of  Unity  Lodge,  L  0.  of  O.  L.,  and 
for  the  past  fourteen  years  has  served  in  all  its 
offices.  She  has  held  office  in  the  State  Society, 
and  in  1902  was  Lady  Governess  of  the  ortler 
(which  includes  Massachusetts,  New  Ham])shire, 
antl  New  Jersey),  travelling  extensively  in  these 
States.  She  is  also  connected  with  the  Su- 
preme Board. 

Mrs.  Jones  is  a  member  of  Erminie  Lodge, 
Daughters  of  Rebekah,  and  has  presided  at  its 
meetings  as  the  highest  officer,  that  of  Noble 
Grand.  She  is  a  Past  Deputy  of  the  Grand 
Lodges.  In  1S91  she  united  witli  Willard  C. 
Kinsley  Relief  Corps,  of  Somerville,  and  in 
1894  was  president  of  the  corps.  She  is  the 
present  treasurer,  and  has  been  secretary, 
performing  all  the  duties  of  the  several  offices 
in  a  thorough  manner. 

In  1895  Mrs.  Jones  was  secretary  of  the  staff 
of  aides  appointed  by  Mrs.  Eva  T.  Cook,  then 
Department  President  W.  R.  C,  to  exemplify  the 
work  in  different  parts  of  the  State.  For  the 
past  ten  years  she  has  held  some  position  of  re- 
sponsibility in  the  Department  of  Massachu- 
setts, W.  R.  C,  and  in  1903  was  Department 
Inspector  on  the  staff  of  Mrs.  Clara  H.  B. 
Evans,  Department  President.  Mrs.  Jones  has 
rendered  efficient  service  as  a  member  for  three 
years  of  the  Department  Executive  Board,  and 
as  Inspector  she  visited  every  part  of  the  State. 
As  chairman  of  the  Auditing  Conmiittee,  as  a  De- 
partment and  National  Aide,  also  as  Assistant 
National  Inspector  and  secretary  and  treasurer 
of  large  committees,  she  has  proved  to  be  sys- 
tematic, capable,  and  conscientious.  In  1903 
Mrs.  Jones  served  as  a  delegate  to  the  National 
W.  R.  C.  Convention  at  San  Francisco.  She 
journeyed   nine    thousand   miles  on   this    trip, 


and  was  a  help  to  her  associates  in  the  order, 
being  always  ready  to  sacrifice  her  own  com- 
fort for  the  hajjpiness  of  others.  A  friend  has 
written  of  her  as  follows:  "Mrs.  Jones  is  very 
business-like  in  all  her  methods,  yet  always 
a  genial  companion  and  jiopular  with  her 
associates." 

Mrs.  Jones  is  treasurer  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  National 
W.  R.  C.  Convention  in  Boston  (August  15  to 
20,  1904),  and  is  a  member  of  the  executive, 
the  floral,  and  other  connnittees. 

Mrs.  Jones  has  one  daughter,  who  is  a  resi- 
dent of  Hamilton,  Mass. 


MARTHA  PERRY  LOWE,  poet  and 
journalist,  was  born  in  Keene,  N.H., 
November  21,  1829,  daughter  of 
General  Justus  Perry  and  his  wife, 
Hannah  W^ood.  She  was  educated  in  Keene 
and  in  tlie  private  school  of  Mrs.  Charles  Sedg- 
wick at  Lenox,  Mass.,  then  one  of  the  leading 
institutions  of  the  kind  in  New  England.  She 
devoted  nmch  time  in  her  earlier  years  to  music, 
literature  and  travel. 

In  September,  X857,  as  Martha  Perry,  she 
married  the  Rev.  Charles  Lowe,  a  Unitarian 
minister,  who  at  a  later  period  was  known  as 
one  of  the  leading  clergymen  of  that  denomi- 
nation in  America. 

Mr.  Lowe  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  N.H., 
November  18,  1828.  His  parents  were  John 
and  Sarah  Ann  (Simes)  Lowe.  While  he  was 
very  young,  they  removed  to  Exeter,  N.H. 
His  paternal  grandparents  were  Elisha  P.  and 
Maria  (Yeaton)  Lowe;  and  his  maternal  grand- 
parents, George  and  Nancy  (Hardy)   Simes. 

The  home  of  his  grandfather  Simes  was  for 
many  years  the  headquarters  in  Portsmouth  of 
the  Universalist  ministers,  he  being  an  active 
member  of  that  denonunation.  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Yeaton,  his  father's  grandmother,  was  a  de- 
voted Unitarian. 

Charles  Lowe  was  fitted  for  college  at  Phillips 
(Exeter)  Academy,  was  graduated  A.B.  at 
Harvard  University  in  1847  and  from  the  Di- 
vinity School  in  1851.  In  1852  he  accepted  a 
call  from  the  Unitarian  church  in  New  Bed- 
ford  to  become  colleague   to   the  Rev.  John 


REPRESENTATIVE    WOMEN   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 


427 


Weiss.  He  was  onlainctl  in  July,  antl  con- 
tinued active  in  the  duties  of  the  ministry  until 
the  failure  of  his  health  led  him  to  seek  rest 
and  change  in  foreign  travel,  (ioing  abroad  in 
September,  1853,  he  journeyed  in  Europe, 
Egypt,  and  Syria,  and  then  spent  some  time 
studying  in  Germany,  returning  to  Boston  in 
May,  1855.  His  next  pastorate  was  in  Salem 
(September,  1855,  to  July,  1856) ;  his  third  and 
last,  in  Somerville,  to  which  place  he  removed 
with  his  family  in  the  autumn  of  1859,  and 
where  he  remained  aTesident  as  long  as  he  lived. 
Elected  secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  in  June,  1865,  lie  served  as  such 
"with  singular  and  growing  success"  until  the 
spring  of  1871,  when  his  strength  gave  way  and 
he  resigned  the  office. 

His  patriotism  during  the  stirring  events  of 
the  Civil  War  was  earnest  and  practical.  His 
health  not  permitting  him  to  enter  the  army, 
he  offered  his  services  to  Governor  Andrew  in 
any  capacity  he  could  fill,  and  was  appointed 
chaplain  at  the  camp  at  J^ong  Island.  In  No- 
vember, 1864,  as  chairman  of  the  Army  Com- 
mission of  the  American  Unitarian  Association, 
he  visited  the  soldiers  at  the  front.  He  also 
served  as  one  of  the  Teachers'  Conunittee  of  the 
New  England  Freedman's  Aid  Society.  In  all 
these  positions  he  renderetl  invaluable  service 
to  the  Union  cause. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  June  20,  1874,  he  was 
etlitor  of  the  Unitarian  Review. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lowe  had  two  daughters,  both 
of  whom  are  married  and  live  in  Somerville. 
Mrs.  Lowe  survived  her  husbantl  many  years, 
her  earthly  life  closing  at  her  pleasant  home  on 
Spring  Hill,  May  7,  1902.  She  was  devoted  to 
the  higher  interests  of  Somerville,  and  during 
her  long  resilience  in  that  city  slie  substantially 
aided  its  charities  and  schools.  In  appreciation 
of  her  services  in  behalf  of  educational  projects 
the  school  board,  soon  after  her  death,  named  a 
new  building  in  her  memory. 

Mrs.  Lowe  often  participated  in  public  gath- 
erings, and  accepted  invitations  to  read  original 
poems  on  special  occasions.  She  was  a  fre- 
([uent  contributor  to  papers  and  magazines, 
and  made  many  earnest  appeals  for  the  cause 
of  charity,  temperance,  woman  suffrage,  and 
other  objects  connected  with  the  public  welfare. 


She  was  the  author  of  "The  Olive  and  the 
Pine,"  a  volume  of  poems  published  in  1859; 
"  Ivove  in  Spain,  and  Other  Poems";  "The 
Story  of  Chief  Joseph";  "Bessie  Gray";  Me- 
moir of  Charles  Lowe;  and  a  book  of  Easter 
poems,  called  "The  Innnortals." 

The  following  notice  of  Martha  Perry  Lowe 
is  taken  from  an  address  by  the  Rev.  William 
H.  Pierson,  pastor  of  the  Ihiitarian  church  in 
Somerville: — 

"Mrs.  Lowe  was  a  woman  of  delightful  per- 
sonal qualities.  She  had  the  advantages  of 
early  culture  and  education.  Her  journey  to 
S])ain  when  she  was  a  young  girl  to  visit  lier 
brother,  who  was  the  Secretary  of  the  Ahieri- 
can  Legation,  and  who  married  Carolina 
Coronado,  a  Spanish  poetess,  lent  a  tinge 
of  romance  and  imagination  to  her  mind, 
which  revealed  itself  afterward  in  many  of  the 
poems  she  wrote  about  that  fascinating  but 
mediiL'val  country.  But  the  basis  of  her  mind 
was  sound  common  sen.se.  '  ~ 

"  She  came  here  with  lier  young  antl  talented 
husband  somewhat  more  than  forty  years 
since,  to  be  the  past(jr's  wife  in  the  First  Con- 
gregational (Uiutarian)  Society  of  the  town, 
and  from  that  time  to  this,  in  matters  of  edu- 
cation and  the  schools,  in  matters  of  temper- 
ance and  reform,  and  in  those  that  concern  the 
rights  and  suffrages  of  women,  in  matters  which 
related  to  the  local  Alliance,  of  which  she  was 
president  for  many  years,  in  the  work  of  the 
Unitarian  Association,  of  which  at  one  period 
her  husband  was  the  able  and  efficient  secre- 
tary, and  to  whose  interests  she  was  ardently 
devoted — in  all  these  things  by  her  written  and 
spoken  words  she  was  not  only  doing  good  to 
the  community,  but  she  was  building  up  a 
character  and  influence  of  her  own,  the 
recognition  of  which  is  to-day  the  sweetest 
and  most  grateful  tribute  we  can  pay  to  her 
memory. 

"Mrs.  Lowe  was  ever  giving  out,  thinking, 
writing,  expressing  her  thought.  She  would 
be  inditing  a  poem,  composing  an  article  for  the 
Unitarian  Revieip,  the  Chrititian  Register,  or 
the  local  journal,  making  an  address  at  the 
Alliance,  the  Educational  Union,  the  Woman's 
Suffrage  Club.  In  this  way  she  kept  herself 
alive,  alert,  in  touch  with  the  great  world  and 


428 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


its  interests.  In  the  old  days  of  the  Unitarian 
Review  many  turned  in  every  issue  first  of  all 
to  the  section  headed  'At  Homo  and  Abroad,' 
articles  which  she  wrote  for  that  publication 
for  many  years. 

"Besides  the  good  work  that  Mrs.  Lowe  did 
and  the  influence  she  exerted,  there  was  another 
salient  feature  in  her  life  that  no  one  who  had 
any  particular  accpiaintance  with  her  could  fail 
to  recognize.  That  was  the  sweet  remembrance 
of  her  husband.  Charles  Lowe  was  the  idol 
of  her  heart.  To  lovingly  write  the  story  of 
his  life  and  work,  to  cherish  his  character  and 
memory,  to  live  over  again  unceasingly  the 
hap])^  days  and  years  in  which  they  lived  to- 
gether for  causes  dear  to  humanity  and  God, 
was  her  greatest  joy  and  delight.  ...  A  typi- 
cal Unitarian,  she  loved  the  church  of  Chan- 
ning.  She  was  proud  of  its  past,  and  had  high 
hopes  for  its  future. 

"  Mrs.  Lowe  was  one  of  the  clearest  and  most 
positive  in  her  own  expression  of  what  she  be- 
lievetl  to  be  true.  Her  whole  life  and  character 
was  kindly,  philanthropic,  beneficent.  Hhc 
sought  to  be  useful  and  to  _  do  good  in  the 
world.  Hence  the  large  place  and  the  wide 
and  long-sustained  influence  she  has  had  in 
this  community." 


SARAH  ORNE  JEWKTT,  Litt.D.— An 
assured  position  among  American  men 
and  women  of  letters  has  been  won  by 
Sarah  (^rne  Jewett  in  her  thirty  and 
more  years  of  authorship,  dating  from  her  first 
contribution  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  December, 
1869.  Miss  Jewett  is  a  native  of  South  Berwick, 
Me.  Born  September  3,  1849,  the  second 
daughter  of  Theodore  H.  Jewett,  M.D.,  and  his 
wife  Caroline,  she  still  retains,  with  her  sister 
Mary,  her  home  in  the  well-known  "Jewett 
House  "  at  South  Berwick,  a  comely  and  spacious 
mansion  built  in  1740,  now  rich  in  historical 
associations. 

Miss  Jewett  is  of  iMiglish  descent,  traced 
through  long  lines  of  American  ancestry,  with 
a  French  strain  inherited  from  her  paternal 
grandmother.  Her  maternal  grandparents  were 
Dr.  William  and  Abigail  (Oilman)  Perry,  the 
grandmother  a  daughter  of  Nathaniel  Gilman 


and  descendant  of  Edward  Gilman,  one  of  the 
earliest  settlers  of  Exeter,  N.H. 

Dr.  Theodore  H.  Jewett  (Bowdoin  College, 
1834;  Jefferson  Medical  College,  1840)  was  a 
man  of  note  in  his  profession,  nuich  trusted 
and  beloved  as  a  family  physician,  and  for  some 
years  a  professor  in  the  Medical  School  con- 
nected with  Bowdoin  College.  Sarah,  in  her  girl- 
hood, not  being  strong  and  needing  all  the  out- 
door life  possible,  used  often  to  accompany  her 
father  during  his  long  drives  to  visit  his  country 
patients.  Her  reading  and  study  received 
most  of  its  direction  at  home,  though  at  in- 
tervals she  attendetl  the  South  Berwick  Acad- 
emy. 

While  yet  of  school  age,  she  wrote  for  Our 
Young  Folks  and  the  Rivemide  Magazine. 
F'or  a  few  years,  as  witnessed  by  the  index  to 
the  Atlantic  Monllih/,  1857-76,  she  veiled  her 
identity  as  an  author  under  the  pen  name  of 
Alice  Eliot.  "  Deephaven,"  her  first  book, 
published  in  1877,  has  been  followed  by  several 
novels,  as  "A  Country  Doctor,"  "A  Marsh 
Island,"  and  "The  Tory  Lover"  (1901);  a 
number  of  volumes  of  short  stories  and  sketches, 
including  (not  to  mention  them  all)  "Country 
Bv-ways,"  "Old  Friends  and  New,"  "The  Mate 
of"  the  'Daylight'  and  Friends  Ashore,"  "The 
King,  of  Folly  Island  and  Other  People,"  "A 
White  Heron  and  Other  Stories";  three  stories 
for  girls — namely,  "Betty  Leicester,"  "Betty 
Leicester's  Christmas,"  and  "Playdays";  and 
"The  Story  of  the  Normans,"  in  Putnam's  series 
of  Stories  of  the  Nations. 

From  competent  critics  Miss  Jcwett's  writings 
have  received  gracious  meed  of  praise.  In- 
stance the  following,  which  bears  date  1897: 
"As  the  best  material  for  stories  may  be 
wasted  by  unskilled  hands,  so  the  plain,  the 
meagre,  the  connnonplace,  may  be  used  to  mar- 
vellous advantage  by  the  masters  of  the  craft 
Miss  Jewett's  'Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs'  is 
a  case  in  point.  .  .  .  The  casual  observer  could 
see  little  of  interest  here  (in  a  fishing  village 
on  the  Maine  coast),  the  average  writer  could 
make  little  of  what  he  sees,  but  the  acute  and 
sympathetic;  observer,  the  exceptional  writer, 
comes  on  the  scene,  looks  about,  thinks,  writes, 
and,  behold!  a  fascinating  story."  Later  work 
in  1900  called  forth  this  appreciation:    "With- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


429 


out  falsifying  cither  inanimate  or  human  nature, 
she  transmutes  their  ruggechiess  into  pure 
gold,  and  arranges  a  harmony  without  one 
jarring  note." 

The  scene  of  "The  Tory  Lover,"  Miss  Jewett's 
latest  work,  is  laid  in  the  neighborhood  of  her 
own  town  of  South  Berwick.  The  famous  Paul 
Jones  is  one  of  its  personages,  and  other  figures 
are  drawn  with  tlue  regard  to  historic  facts  and 
probabilities.  The  story  is  told  with  all  the 
grace  and  skill  which  characterize  her  literary 
workmanship. 

In  1901  Miss  Jcwctt  received  from  Bowdoin 
College  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Literature,  she 
being  the  first  woman  thus  honored  by  that 
institution. 


MRS.  L.  E.  ORTH  was  born  in  Mil- 
ford,  N.H.,  July  6,  1858.  Her 
father,  James  Blood,  was  descended 
from  Peter  Blood,  who  was  one  of 
the  first  settlers  of  Dunstable,  Mass.  Her 
mother,  Emeline  AVheeler  Blood,  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Major  James  Wheeler,  of  Hollis,  N.H., 
whose  ancestors  were  English,  and  his  wife, 
Dorcas  Mooar,  daughter  of  Jacob  Mooar,  wlio 
was  of  Scottish  descent. 

In  1775  Jacob  Mooar,  Mrs.  Orth's  great- 
grandfather, was  sixteen  years  of  age;  and, 
when  the  bell  of  the  Hollis  meeting-house  was 
rung  to  call  the  minute-men  to  arms,  he  was 
hoeing  in  his  grandfather  Nevin's  field,  three 
miles  away.  Hearing  the  bell,  he  dropped  h's 
hoe  upon  the  nearest  boulder,  and  ran  to  an- 
swer the  summons.  The  boulder  upon  which 
his  hoe  rested  was  a  few  years  ago  removetl  to 
'the  centre  of  Hollis,  and  now  stands  on  the 
green  near  the  okl  meeting-house  fnjin  whose 
belfry  the  summons  rang.  Jacob  Mooar  fought 
in  the  battle  of  Bennington. 

Mrs.  Emeline  W.  Blood  was  the  leading  so- 
prano in  the  village  choir,  and  always  took  a 
prominent  part  in  the  local  nmsical  conven- 
tions. The  daughter,  Lizzie,  inherited  musical 
tendencies  from  her  mother,  and  began  the 
study  of  the  piano  at  the  age  of  ten.  Later, 
when  living  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  she  continued 
her  studies  under  Professor  F.  Zuchtmann,  at 
that   time    the   foremost   nmsician   in   Central 


Massachusetts.  Her  musical  talent  showed 
such  promise  that,  urged  by  her  advisers,  she 
planned  t«  go  to  Germany  for  study  in  June, 
1877.  On  a  visit  to  friends  in  Boston  in  Feb- 
ruary of  that  year  she  met  the  pianist,  John 
Orth,  who  but  two  years  before  had  returned 
with  much  eclat  from  five  years'  study  in  Ger- 
many with  the  foremost  masters  of  that  time — 
Kullak,  Liszt,  Deppe,  Lebert,  and  Pruckner — 
in  piano  playing,  and  Kiel,  Paisst,  Weitzmann, 
and  P.  Scharwenka  in  theory. 

Coming  to  Boston  to  live  in  May,  1877,  loi" 
five  years  she  studied  the  piano  with  Mr.  Orth. 
During  the  latter  jjart  of  this  period  she  taught 
large  classes  of  i)ui)ils,  and  made  many  success- 
ful public  appearances  in  concerts  and  recitals. 
She  also  studied  harmony  with  the  late  Charles 
L.  Capen. 

In  May,  1883,  she  was  married  to  John  Orth, 
her  teacher.  One  of  the  happiest  experiences 
of  her  wedding  trip  abroad  was  a  stay  of  three 
weeks  in  Weimar,  made  memorable  by  many 
delightful  afternoons  in  the  salon  of  Liszt,  who 
with  his  wonderful  and  never  to  be  forgotten 
graciousness  welcomed  back  his  former  pupil. 
Here  Mrs.  Orth  met  many  aspiring  students 
who  have  since  become  world  famous,  among 
them  Alexander  Siloti,  Alfretl  Reisenauer,  and 
Arthur  Friedheim.  Arthur  Bird,  the  American 
com])oser,  was  one  of  the  "  Lisztianer."  The 
beautiful  Mary  F.  Scott-Siddons,  the  English 
actress,  was  of  the  coterie,  with  her  son,  Henry 
A\'aller,  the  pianist.  While  in  Stuttgart  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Orth  went  with  friends  of  the  sculptor 
Donsdorf  to  see  his  statue  of  Bach,  just  then 
completed  and  ready  to  be  taken  to  Eisenach, 
the  great  master's  birthplace,  where  in  the 
following  year  it  was  unveiled.  The  genial 
sculptor  later  .sent  to  Mrs.  Orth  in  Boston  a 
cast  from  the  small  model  of  the  Bach  statue, 
dcnibtless  the  only  one  in  this  country.  Dons- 
dorf also  sent  a  cast  of  his  large  medallion  heail 
of  Robert  Schumann,  which  forms  part  of  the 
pedestal  of  the  Beethoven  monument  at  Bonn. 
At  that  time  the  sculptor  had  made  but  one 
other  cast,  which  he  had  presented  to  Madame 
Clara  Schumann. 

From  her  marriage,  in  May,  1883,  mitil  May, 
1895,  Mrs.  Orth's  musical  activity  was  confinecl 
to  teaching  her  own  and  other  children.     While 


430 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


she  had  always  extemporized  on  the  piano  with 
freedom,  she  had  never  thought  seriously  of 
composition;  but  in  May,  1895,  witlviut  warn- 
ing, forethought,  or  effort,  the  inner  musical 
life  began  to  express  itself  in  this  form.  At 
first  Mrs.  Ojth's  compositions  were  for  the  piano 
alone,  and  were  naturally  the  outcome  of  her 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  musical  needs  of 
children.  To  the  writing  of  music  for  children 
many  seem  to  think  themselves  "called,"  but 
indeed  few  are  by  nature  chosen.  Sucli  nuisic 
must^be  naively  simple,  well  defined  in  rhythm, 
and  as  spontaneous  as  a  child  itself.  To  write 
music  of  this  type  without  triteness  recjuires 
nothing  less  than  a  rare  sort  of  genius.  Ac- 
complished musicians,  men  famed  for  their  work 
in  larger  forms,  have  tried  this  and  failed.  In- 
deed, it  may  be  (|uestioned  if  any  but  a  woman, 
a  mother  full  of  the  child  spirit,  can  ade((uately, 
lovingly,  and  sympathetically  give  musical  ex- 
pression to  that  which  appeals  to  the  child 
heart.  Mrs.  Orth's  work  has  clearly  shown  her 
to  be  one  of  the  chosen  few. 

Perhaps  the  most  original  of  all  piano  works 
for  children  is  her  "Mother  Goose  Songs  with- 
out Words,"  Op.  5.  This  volume  contains 
seventy  little  piano  pieces  in  the  exact  rhythm 
of  the  Mother  Goose  rhymes,  which  are  printed 
on  the  opposite  pages,  each  number  a  tone 
miniature,  grave  or  gay,  quiet  or  sparkling,  ac- 
cording to  the  story  portrayed.  The  success 
of  this  musical  volume  and  her  delight  in  writ- 
ing it  prompted  Mrs.  Orth  later  to  the  compo- 
sition of  "Mother  Goose's  Jubilee,"  an  opera 
for  children,  in  three  acts,  which  was  performed 
with  the  greatest  success  at  the  Tremont  The- 
atre, Boston,  for  a  week  in  the  spring  of  1901. 
In  the  opera  the  tribe  of  Mother  Goose  assem- 
bles to  celel)rate  her  jubilee.  Tlie  company  is 
received  by  Mother  Goose  and  Jack,  her  son, 
at  her  cottage  in  the  wood,  identified  as  the 
House  that  Jack  Built.  The  characters  speak, 
as  they  naturally  would,  the  language  of  Mother 
Goose,  the  entire  libretto,  a  unique  feature, 
being  based  upon  her  rhymes  and  jingles.  In 
its  published  form  this  opera,  her  Opus  12,  a 
volume  of  sixty  songs,  is  the  largest  collection  of 
its  kind  in  print.  To  group  togeiher  sixty 
short  songs  without  suspicion  of  monotony  is 
in  itself  an  achievement. 


Mrs.  Orth  subsecjuently  composetl  the  music 
for  a  comic  opera,  entitled  "The  Song  of  the 
Sea-shell,"  which  ran  for  a  week  in  one  of  the 
Boston  theatres  in  April,  1903.  While  so 
much  of  Mrs.  Orth's  work  has  been  devoted  to 
music  for  children,  her  Opus  25  and  Opus  26 
reveal  her  melodic  gift  in  serioug  songs  of  a 
higher  type.  Among  her  other  published  com- 
positions may  be  mentioned  the  following: 
Op.  1,  Four  Character  Sketches  in  F,  for 
piano;  0]).  2,  Six  Recreation  Pieces,  for  piano; 
Op.  6,  "The  Merry-go-round,"  eighteen  piano 
pieces;  Op.  7,  "Daffodils,"  three  piano  duets; 
Op.  10,  Ten  Tone  Pictures  for  the  Piano;  Op. 
11,  Twelve  Miniatures  for  the  Piano;  Op.  IS, 
"On  the  White  Keys,"  an  introduction  to  tlie 
])iano;  Op.  19,  Festival  Minuet;  Op.  21,  "Ten 
Little  Fingers,"  ten  piano  pieces;  Op.  23,  "What 
Little  Hands  can  do,"  ten  piano  pieces;  Op.  28, 
Songs  for  Sleepy-time,  twenty-four  chiklren's 
songs. 


MARY  A.  LR'KRMORl'],  LL.D.,  pub- 
lic si)eaker  and  writer,  during  the 
Civil  War  one  of  the  foremost  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission  workers, 
and  in  these  later  years  an  able  antl  distinguislied 
advocate  of  social  reform,  is  a  thorough  New 
I'jigland  woman  ])y  birth  and  breeding,  and 
through  six  generalions  of  paternal  ancestry. 
Born  in  Boston  on  December  19,  1820,  daughter 
of  Timothy  and  Zeliiah  \'ose  Glover  (Ashton) 
Rice,  slie  bore  until  marriage  the  name  Mary 
Ashton  Rice.  She  was  one  of  a  family  of  six 
children,  only  one  of  whom  besides  herself — a 
sister  Abby,  Mrs.  Coffin — attained  adult  age 
and  is  now  living.  Her  father  served  in  the' 
United  States  navy  in  the  War  of  1812.  Her 
mother  was  a  daughter  of  Captain  Nathaniel 
Asliton,  of  London,  England. 

luhnuiid  Rice,  the  founder  of  this  branch  of 
the  Rice  fnmily  in  Massacluisetts,  came  from 
Barkhamstead,  Hertfordshire,  England,  in  1639, 
and  settled  in  Middlesex  County,  making  his 
liome  at  first  in  Sudbury,  and  removing  thence 
to  Marlboro.  He  was  known  as  "Goodman 
Rice,"  and  was  a  citizen  of  influence,  being 
appointed  to  solenmize  marriages,  a  function 
not   entrusted,  to    the   clergy    in    those    days, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


431 


serving  several  years  as  "Townsman,"  or 
Selectman,  and  several  years  as  Deputy  to 
the  General  Court.  He  was  a  Deacon  of  the 
church. 

From  Goodman  Rice  the  line  to  Timothy 
Rice,  father  of  Mary  Ashton,  was  continued 
through  his  son  Thomas;  his  grandson  Elisha, 
who  married  r]lizabcth  Wheeler,  of  Concord, 
Mass.;  their  son  Silas,  who  married  Copia 
Broughton;  and  Silas,  Jr.,  who  niarrietl  Abigail 
Hager,  daughter  of  Benjamin  and  Abigail 
(Warren)  Hager  ami  a  descendant  of  William 
Hager  and  of  John  Warren,  two  early  settlers 
ami  prominent  citizens  of  Watertown,  Mass. 
Silas  Rico,  Jr.,  who  lived  for  some  years  at 
Northfield,  Mass.,  was  the  father  of  Timothy, 
whose  home  after  marriage  was  in  Boston.. 

Born  with  a  love  for  books,  possessed  of  a 
"genius  that  would  study,"  an  energy  that 
knew  no  such  word  as  fail,  Mary  Ashton  Rice 
was  graduated  at  the  Hancock  School,  Boston, 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  years  and  six  months  as- 
a  medal  scholar,  then  to(jk  a  four  years'  course 
in  two  years  at  a  seminary  for  young  ladies  in 
Charlestown,  Miss  Martha  Whiting,  principal, 
and  subsequently  taught*  Latin  and  French 
there  for  two  years,  at  the  same  time  continuing 
her  own  more  advanced  stuilics.  Her  ne.xt  ex- 
perience was  of  three  years  as  teacher  in  a 
planter's  family  in  Southern  Mrginia.  She  re- 
turned to  Boston  a  confirmed  abolitionist  and 
champion  of  human  rights.  The  three  years 
following  saw  her  at  the  head  of  a  school  of 
her  own  fo'r  ailvanced  pupils  in  Duxbury,  an 
experiment,  and  a  successful  one,  in  co-educa- 
tion. Then  came  a  turning-point  in  her  course. 
She  was  marri'ed  in  1845  to  the  Rev.  Daniel 
Parker  Livermore,  an  earnest,  persuasive 
preacher  of  the  Universalist  faith,  a  man  who 
did  not  ask  or  e.xpect  her  to  become  anything 
less  than  an  equal  partner  in  life's  faring.  As 
the  wife  of  a  settled  minister,  for  the  first 
.  twelve  years  of  their  marrietl  life  Mrs.  Livermore 
found  abundant  opportunity  for  the  use  of  her 
varied  talents.  With  a  keen  sense  of  the  needs 
of  the  young  people  of  the  parish  and  warm 
sympathy  for  their  aspirations,  she  formed 
circles  for  reading  and  study,  and  continued 
the  literary  work  which  she  had  begun  some 
time  before,  contributing  stories,  sketches,  and 


poems  to  the  Ladies'  Repository,  the  Neic  York 
Tribune,  and  other  publications,  frecjuently 
lending  her  pen  to  the  temperance  ci.use. 
Children  came  to  brighten  the  home  life,  wliich 
was  a  happy  though  a  busy  ami  strenuous  one, 
and  not  exempt  from  the  cares  and  sorrows  of 
sickmss  and  bereavement. 

In  1S57  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Livermore,  with  their 
two  daughteis,  lemoved  to  Chicago,  where  for 
a  number  of  yeais  Mr.  Livcimore  edited  and 
published  a  religious  paper.  Mrs.  Livermore, 
as  a  co-worker,  often  duiing  his  absence  on 
a  missionary  trip  had  sole  charge  of  the  paper, 
printing-office,  and  its  concerns.  She  wrote 
much  for  tiie  paper  on  every  tojMc  except 
theology,  and  was  also  a  writer  for  Eastern 
papers,  their  well-kept  home,  in  the  meantime, 
being  the  centre  of  far-reaching,  generous  hos- 
pitality. Her  practical  energy  made  itself  felt 
in  philantinopic  work,  such  as  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Home  for  Aged  Women,  the  Hos- 
pital for  Women  and  Children  in  Chicago,  and 
the  Home  of  the  Friendless. 

When  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  came,  with 
its  pressing  needs — suffering,  hunger,  and  desti- 
tution— Mrs.  Livermore,  having  always  been 
at  work,  was  reatly  with  well-developetl  forces, 
powers  keen  and  alert,  for  new  service.  This 
she  rendered  as  an  associate  member  of  the 
I'nited  States  Sanitary  Commission  with  her 
friend,  Mrs.  Hoge,  their  headquarters  being  in 
Chicago.  She  organized  soldiers'  aid  societies, 
planned  sanitary  fairs,  conducted  an  endless 
correspomlence,  went  to  the  front  to  distribute 
supplies,  tletailed  army  nurses.  These  and 
many  similar  deeds  of  mercy  were  crowded  into 
those  years  of  strife.  Pleading  for  money  to 
meet  the  wants  of  sick,  wounded,  and  dying  sol- 
diers, Mrs.  Livermore  revealed  a  gift  of  elo- 
tjuence  of  whose  possession  she  was  ignorant, 
and  became  an  effective  puljlic  speaker  years 
before  she  would  achiiit  the  fact. 

When  the  war  was  ended,  she  returned  to  her 
literary  and  philanthropic  activities  in  Chicago, 
using  her  pen  as  before  to  advocate  the  higher 
education  of  women  and  their  entrance  into  the 
professions  and  wider  industrial  fields,  and  also 
urging  the  repeal  of  unjust  laws,  which  had 
hindered  their  progress.  Joining  the  ranks  of 
the  woman  suffragists,  with  these  ends  in  view. 


432 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


she  took  the  lead  in  making  arrangements  for 
a  woman's  suffrage  convention  in  Chicago, 
which  was  in  1S6(S;  and  when  the  Illinois 
Women's  Suffrage  Association  was  organized 
she  was  elected  its  president.  To  further  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  the  great  reform  move- 
ments, suffrage  and  temperance,  she  started 
in  .January,  1869,  a  weekly  paper  called  the 
Agitator,  which  she  conducted  successfully  for 
a  year  in  Chicago.  Then  it  was  merged  in  the 
Woman's  Journal,  established  in  Boston  in 
Jaunary,  1870,  by  a  joint  stock  company,  antl 
she  was  made  its  editor-in-chief.  The  Liver- 
more  family  then  returned  to  Massachusetts, 
and  have  since  resided  in  Melrose.  For  two 
years  Mrs.  Livermore  edited  the  Woman's 
Journal,  and  then  resigned  that  position  and 
all  other  work,  to  devote  herself  to  the  lecture 
field,  which  has  witnessed  her  severest  toil  as 
well  as  her  most  signal  triumphs.  For  nearly 
thirty  years  she  has  spoken  from  platform  and 
pulpit  on  a  variety  of  topics,  religious,  reforma- 
tory, sociological,  historical,  and  ethical,  and 
has  lectured  in  nearly  every  State  of  the  Union, 
and  also  in  England  and  Scotland.  In  these 
later  years  her  itinerary  extends  not  far  from 
the  home  fireside.  Still,  wherever  she  speaks, 
whether  as  presiding  officer  of  a  memorial 
meeting,  where  a  tender  tribute  is  paid  to  the 
gracious  memory  of  a  departed  leader,  or  at 
a  biweekly  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Suf- 
frage Association,  of  which  she  is  president,  or 
to  voice  a  need  of  the  hour,  people  crowd  to 
hear,  and  are  moved  by  the  old-time  fluent 
force  and  earnestness,  the  vivid  expression  of 
her  powerful  personality,  which  every  good 
cause  is  sure  to  arouse. 

Mrs.  Livermore  has  written  all  her  life  for 
the  magazines  of  the  day,  the  New  York  Trib- 
une, Ladies'  Repository,  Youth's  Companion, 
North  American  Revicir,  Inclejiendent,  Chavtaii- 
quan,  Arena,  and  other  periodicals.  Among  the 
books  which  she  has  published  are:  "What 
shall  we  do  with  our  Daughters?"  "Thirty 
Years  too  Late"  (illustrative  of  the  Wasliing- 
tonian  reform),  "My  Story  of  the  War"  (of 
which  nearly  a  himdred  thousand  copies  were 
sold),  and  her  Autobiography. 

She  has  recently  passed  through  the  great 
sorrow  of  her  life,  in  the  death  of  her  husband, 


with  whom  she  hatl  been  unitetl  in  marriage 
fifty-four  years. 

The  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was 
conferred  on  Mrs.  Livermore  in  1896  by  Tufts 
College.  She  was  for  ten  years  president  of 
the  Massachusetts  W.  C.  T.  U.;  has  been  presi- 
tlent  of  the  American  \A'oman's  Suffrage  As.so- 
ciation;  president  of  the  Association  for  the 
Atlvancement  of  Women;  is  president  of  the 
Massachusetts  W' Oman's  Suffrage  Association; 
president  of  the  Beneficent  Society  of  the  New 
England  Conservatory  of  Music;  is  a  life  mem- 
ber of  the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union,  of  Boston;  a  member  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Indian  Association,  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  the  Massachusetts  Woman's  Prison  As- 
sociation, and  other  societies,  and  of  various 
literary  clubs.  She  is  jiractically  a  Unitarian 
in  religion,  holding  to  a  creedless  Christianity 
that  shows  itself  in  love  and  work,  and  trusting 
ever  in  the  Eternal  Goodness  that  rules  both 
this  life  and  that  which  is  to  come,  of  which 
this  is  the  beginning. 


ANNA  M.  LELAND  BAILEY,  ex-Regent 
/\  of  Paul  Revere  Chapter,  D.  A.  R., 
j[_  j^  of  Boston,  and  President  of  the  West 
Newton  Women's  Educational  Club 
(1903),  was  born  in  Somerville,  Mass.,  a 
daughter  of  John  Murray  Leland  and  his 
wife,  Sophronia  Page  Savage.  The  Lelands 
were  among  the  pioneer  families  of  Middlesex 
County,  Hemy  Leland,  from  whom  John  Mur- 
ray Leland  was  a  descendant  in  the  seventh 
generation,  becoming  an  inhabitant  of  Med- 
field  in  1652,  his  home  being  in  that  part  of 
the  town  which  in  1674  was  incorijorated  as 
Sherborn.  Isaac  Leland,  a  great-grandson  of 
Henry  and  great-grandfather  of  John  Murray 
Leland,  removed  about  th(>  year  1774  from 
Massachusetts  to  Rintlge,  N.H.  ,  He  was  a  soldier 
of  the  Revolution,  being  a  private  in  Captain  • 
Philip  Thomas's  company  in  1775,  and  in 
1777  a  private  in  Captain  Samuel  Blodgett's 
company,  "raised  by  the  State  of  New  Hamp- 
shire for  the  Continental  service." 

He  died  in  the  army,  September  3,  1777. 
(Revolutionary  Rolls  of  New  Hampshire  and 
History  of  Rindge,  N.H.) 


ANNA   M.    L.  BAILEY 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


433 


John  Murray  Leland  was  a  highly  respected 
citizen  of  Somerville  for  more  than  fifty  years. 
His  wife  Sophronia  was  of  Maine  ancestry. 
They  had  five  chiUh'en,  namely:  Albert  A.; 
Arabella,  who  died  in  infancy;  Anna  M.  (now 
Mrs.  Bailey);  EllaF.:  and  Frank  E. 

Anna  M.  Leland  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Somerville,  and  graduated  from  the 
Somerville  High  School,  being  one  of  the  first 
girls  to  take  the  full  classical,  or  college  pre- 
paratory course  of  stuily  in  that  school.  Liv- 
ing within  sight  of  Harvard  College,  it  was  but 
natural  that  she  should  incline  toward  a  col- 
lege education;  but  fate  beckoned  in  another 
direction,  and  she  was  induced  to  accept  the 
position  of  teacher  in  the  public  schools  of  her 
native  city,  soon  becoming  the  principal  of 
the  Jackson  School.  She  afterward  hail  a 
position  in  the  Harvard  Grammar  School  in 
Cambridge,  which  she  held  until  lier  marriage. 
She  was  very  successful  as  a  teacher,  her  great 
love  for  children,  her  sympathy  with  their 
needs,  and  her  enthusiasm  for  her  cho.sen  work 
endearing  her  to  parents  and  pupils  alike. 

In  addition  to  her  regular  work  she  con- 
tinued her  studies,  forming  classes  at  ilifferent 
times  in  French,  German,  art,  literature,  elo- 
cution, antl  physical  culture,  before  the  days 
of  women's  clubs,  and  spending  her  vacations 
in  travel.  With  a  cultivated  musical  taste, 
she  was  for  several  years  a  pupil  of  the  New 
England  Conservatory  of  Music,  and  has  been 
a  member  of  various  musical  organizations, 
among  them  the  Handel  and  Haytln,  the  Som- 
erville Musical  Association,  and  the  Newton 
Choral  Association,  which  she  was  largely 
instrumental  in  organizing. 

She  was  married  February  14,  1884,  to  Alvin 
Richarils  Bailey,  a  graduate  of  the  Somerville 
High  School  and  for  many  years  president  of 
the  alumni  of  that  school.  Mr.  Bailey  is  one 
of  the  intelligent  and  prosperous  business  men 
of  Boston.  His  father,  Joshua  S.  Bailey,  was 
one  of  the  first  to  ship  crackers  all  over  the 
world. 

Since  her  marriage  Mrs.  Bailey  has  made 
her  home  in  Newton.  She  is  a  member  of 
the  Channing  Religious  Society,  has  been  a 
teacher  in  the  Sunday-school  for  many  years, 
assisting  her  husband  in  his  duties  as  super- 


intendent, serving  also  as  president  of  the 
Ladies'  Society  and  chairman  of  the  Hospital- 
ity Committee.  She  is  vice-president  of  the 
Social  Science  Club  of  Newton,  Secretary  of 
the  Newton  Fetleration  of  Women's  Clubs,  and 
the  Shattuck  Club  of  Boston,  and  has  been 
a  member  of  the  West  Newton  Women's  Edu- 
cational Club  for  sixteen  years,  serving  most 
of  that  time  as  director,  recording  secretary, 
and  now  (1903)  as  president.  vVmid  these  many 
and  varied  interests  she  has  not  been  found 
wanting  in  patriotism,  being  a  member  of  the 
Sarah  Hull  Chapter,  D.  R.,  of  Newton,  and 
of  the  National  Society,  D.  A.  R.,  and  at  pres- 
ent Regent  of  the  Paul  Revere  Chapter,  D.  A.  R., 
of  Boston.  These  honors  and  many  others 
with  which  her  friends  have  testified  to  their 
high  regard  for  her  are  doubly  valued  since 
they  came  unsought.  That  they  are  merited, 
no  one  will  deny. 

Her  bright  and  cordial  manner  and  her  sym- 
pathetic nature  have  been  powerful  factors 
in  the  deserved  success  which  she  has  achieved, 
and  have  helped  to  cheer  and  uplift  those 
who  have  come  within  the  influence  of  her 
personality. 


MARION  HOWARD  BRAZIER,  jour- 
nalist, of  Boston,  is  the  daughter 
of  the  late  William  Henry  Braziery 
a  veteran  of  the  Civil  War  and  mem- 
ber of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  Ac- 
cording to  family  tradition  Mr.  Brazier  was 
descended  from  Sir  Henry  Brazier,  who  lived 
many  years  ago  in  Lincolnshire,  England. 

The  maiden  name  of  Miss  Brazier's  mother 
was  Sarah  Jane  Sargent.  She  was  daughter 
of  David  Sargent  (the  fourth  of  that  name  in 
direct  line)  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  I.  Fille- 
brown,  and  was  a  descendant  in  the  ninth  gen- 
eration of  William  Sargent,  of  Maiden,  Mass., 
who  came  from  Northampton,  England,  in 
1638.  William  is  said  to  have  been  son  of 
Roger  and  grandson  of  Hugh  Sargent,  of  North- 
amptonshire, .  England. 

Two  of  Miss  Brazier's  ancestors  on  the  ma- 
tei-nal  side — namely,  David  Sargent  and  Abra- 
ham Rand — were  soUliers  of  the  Revolution, 
the  last  named  serving  three  years  in  the  army. 


434 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


His  mother,  Anne  Devens,  wife  of  Thomas 
Rand,  was  "probably  daughter  of  Philip 
Devens"  and  nearly  related  to  the  family  to 
which  Judge  Devens  belonged. 

Another  patriotic  ancestor,  John  Hicks,  of 
Cambridge,  was  slain  by  the  British  in  the 
retreat  from  Lexington,  April  19,  1775.  The 
Hon.  Charles  Saunders,  former  Mayor  of  Cam- 
bridge, first  president  of  the  Sons  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  is  also  a  descendant  of  John 
Hicks  and  second  cousin  to  Miss  Brazier. 

Marion  H.  Brazier  was  born  in  Charlestown 
on  the  day  that  California  was  made  a  State, 
and  was  graduated  from  the  Bunker  Hill 
Gra,nmiar  School  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War. 
This  completed  her  schooling,  but  not  her 
education,  which  has  come  through  her  c^)n- 
tact  with  the  world,  her  ambition  leading  her 
to  associate  with  her  superiors  in  intellect,  to 
keej)  up  to  date,  and  never  to  look  back.  After 
Miss  Brazier  had  filled  positions  of  trust  as 
accountant  and  cashier  for  a  number  of  years, 
her  health  became  so  seriously  impaired  as  to 
demand  a  change "  of  scene  and  occupation. 
She  crossed  the  continent  in  ISSS,  and  while 
in  Santa  Fe  a  sudden  inspiration  came  to  her 
to  write  of  the  scenes  in  that  picturescjue  city. 
Thus  it  happened  that,  in  the  room  where 
General  Lew  Wallace  had  written  "lien-Hur," 
Miss  Brazier  wrote  her  first  article  for  pulili- 
cation.  While  in  California  her  pen  was  kept 
busy  in  supplying  the  local  and  New  England 
papers  with  breezy  specials  on  many  topics. 
She  was  for  a  long  time  society  and  club  edi- 
tor of  the  Boston  Sunday  Poxt,  regular  con- 
tributor to  the  Boston  Transcript,  editor  of  a 
New  York  society  magazine,  and  space  writer 
for  innumerable  news)«ipers.  She  is  a  jour- 
nalist of  the  widp-awake  type,  and  has  been  the 
biographer  of  many  noted  people. 

Her  writing  has  been  largely  devoted  to  pa- 
triotic matters.  The  I'nlriotic  Review,  founded, 
edited,  and  published  by  Miss  Brazier,  is  a  fine 
example  of  historical  literature.  It  has  a  good 
circulation  and  a  host  of  appreciative  readers. 

Mi.ss  Brazier  is  at  present  (1904)  society 
editor  of  the  Boston  .Journal  and  a  regular  con- 
tributor to  the  Sunday  Hirald  and  the  Globe. 
She  holds  membershi])  in  ihv  following  organ- 
izations:  New  England    Woman's  Press    Asso- 


ciation; Charity  Club;  Actors'  Church  Alliance; 
Daughters  of  Veterans;  U.  S.  W.  V.  Auxiliary; 
Daughters  of  New  Hampshire  and  of  Massa- 
chusetts; Woman's  Club  House  Corporation; 
and  in  the  National  Society,  D.  A.  R.,  in  which 
she  has  founded  two  chapters — Bunker  Hill 
and  Paul  Jones.  Thnnigh  her  efforts  the  naval 
hero  of  the  American  Revolution  is  honored  in 
Ma.ssachu.setts,  and  a  handsome  schoolhouse 
bears  his  name  in  East  Boston. 


ELIZA  ANN  BRADBURY  was  born  in 
Augusta,  Me.,  March  18,  1815.  Her 
father,  Thomas  Westbrook  Smith,  was 
born  in  Dover,  N.H.,  in  1785.  He  was 
a  grandson  of  Thomas  Westbrook  Waldron 
and  a  great -great-grandson  of  Colonel  Richard 
Waldron,  who  came  to  New  Hampshire  from 
ICngland  in  1635,  and  who  was  killed  by  Indians 
at  his  garrison  in  Dover  in  1689.  The  Wal- 
drons  were  among  the  oldest  inhabitants  of 
Dover,  and  bore  prominent  part  in  its  earl}' 
history. 

Thomas  Westbrook  Smith  came  to  Augusta 
in  1S()5,  and  for  fifty  years  was  one  of  the  lead- 
ing business  men  of  that  city.  He  died  in 
March,  1855.  His  wife  was  Abigail  Page. 
They  had  one  son,  Henry  R.  Smith.  Their 
j'oungest  child,  Elizabeth  Westbrook,  died  in 
infancy.  Kliza  Ann,  the  only  surviving  daugh- 
ter, was  married  November  25,  1834,  before 
she  was  twenty  years  of  age,  to  the  Hon.  James 
AVare  Bradltury,  who  was  twelve  years  her 
senior.  For  a  long  period  Mr.  Bradbury  was 
one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Kennebec 
County  bar.  I'^lected  United  States  Senator 
in  1846,  he  ser\(>(l  in  Congress  through  the  term 
ending  March  4,  1853.  Two  of  the  four  sons 
born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bradbury  died  liefore 
th(nr  mother,  an  affliction  from  which  she  never 
<(uite  rallied.  Mrs.  Bradbury  died  January 
29,  1879.  Her  memory  was  always  very  pre- 
cious to  her  husband.  Nothing  seemed  to 
please  him  more  than  to  have  a  sympathetic 
listener  while  he  recounted  tlie  many  pleasant 
reminiscences  of  his  happy  married  life.  The 
anniversary  evenings  of  their  marriage  were 
always  sacred  to  him.  He  would  watch  the 
clock   (which   had  stood   in   the  corner  of   the 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


435 


library  for  more  than  sixty  years)  and  tell 
those  who  were  gathered  aronnd  him  the  exact 
moment  when  the  ceremony  began.  The  mem- 
ory of  his  wife  seemed  to  keep  Mr.  Bradbury 
bright  for  the  more  than  score  of  years  that  he 
survived  her.  "To  live  in  the  hearts  we  leave 
behind  is  not  to  die."  He -died  January  6, 
1901,  full  of  years  and  full  of  honors.  He  was 
born  June  10,  1802. 

Mr.  Bradbury,  like  a  wise  man,  always  de- 
ferred to  his  wife  in  hou.?ehokl  matters,  saying: 
"It  relieves  me  of  great  responsibility.  My 
wife  is  more  fitted  than  I  am  for  it."  And  cer- 
tainly Mrs.  Bradbury  had  great  business  ca- 
pacity, possessing  unconunon  executive  abil- 
ity, which  she  inherited  from  her  father,  a  man 
of  strong  will,  great  industry,  sterling  sense, 
and  correct  judgment.  She  inherited  much 
property  from  her  father  and  from  her  only 
brother  (Henry  R.  Smith,  who  died  in  March, 
1876);  and,  being  always  self-reliant,  she  en- 
joyed the  management  of  it.  Sympathetic 
and  full  of  energy,  she  was  active  in  works  of 
benevolence,  and  had  great  tact  and  power 
in  bringing  others  to  co-operate  in  carrying 
them  forward.  Much  of  her  income  was  used 
in  alleviating  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  and 
needy,  who  found  in  her  a  warm  friend.  One 
of  her  favorite  charities  was  the  Old  Ladies' 
Home  of  Augvista,  of  which  at  the  tinie  of  her 
death  she  wa3»-president.  Many  gifts  from 
other  hands  were  the  result  of  her  persuasive 
efforts.  In  her  will  she  left  to  this  home  a 
generous  bequest  and  also  one  to  the  (ieneral 
Hospital  at  Portland  for  a  free  bed,  also  dona- 
tions to  the  Howard  Benevolent  Society"  and 
the  Episcopal  (kiild  of  Augusta. 

Mrs.  Bradbury  always  enjoyed  society,  and 
with  her  husband  helil  m^iy  pleasant  recep- 
tions at  their  home.  During  Mr.  Bradbury's 
senatorship  she  always  accom{)anietl  him  to 
Washington,  where  she  derived  nuicli  satis- 
faction from  her  increased  social  activities. 

For  many  years  she  was  a  member  of  the 
Congregational  church,  but  during  the  last  few 
years  of  her  life  she  attended  the  Episcopal 
church.  A  writer  saitl  of  her,  "  Her  creed  was 
much  broader  than  that  of  any  denomination. 
She  observed  strictly  the  Golden  Rule,  and  hers 
were   the  charities   that  soothe  and   heal   and 


bless.  The  epitaph  on  her  tombstone  is  truly 
expressive  of  her  character:  'She  loved  to  do 
good.'" 


DORCAS  HARVEY  LYMAN,  Past  De- 
partment President  of  the  Wonum's 
Relief  Corjjs  of  Massachusetts,  has 
resided  within  the  present  limits  of 
the  city  of  Boston  the  past  forty-six  years. 
Born  in  1845  in  Liverpool,  N.S.,  she  came  to 
Boston  in  childhood  with  her  parents,  and 
received  her  education  in  its  public  schools. 
She  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  John  W.  and 
Susan  F.  (Jones)  Harvey,  natives  of  Liver- 
pool,  N.S. 

Her  father  was  born  July  9,  1812.  He  mar- 
ried May  24,  1842,  Susan  F.  Jones,  who  was 
born  Marcli  7,  1821.  In  1868  they  settled 
in  Brighton,  Mass.  Mr.  Harvey  tUed  October 
16,  1886,  and  his  wife  died  December  30,  1900. 
Mrs.  Harvey  was  a  member  of  the  Second 
Congregational  C'hurch  of  Brighton  and  of  the 
Relief  Corps  auxiliary  to  Francis  Washburn 
Post,  No.  92,  G.  A.  R.  She  was  identified 
with  the  woman  suffrage  cause,  and  was  the 
oldest  woman  voter  for  school  connnittee 
in  Brighton.  The  Woma7i's  Journal,  referring 
to  her  death,  said:  "The  community  has  lost 
one  of  its  most  respected  and  beloved  residents. 
Mrs.  Harvey's  illness  covered  a  period  of  about 
nine  weeks,  during  which  time  she  did  not  lose, 
through  her  suffering,  any  of  the  deep  and  lov- 
ing interest  which  she  had  always  taken  in  the 
lives  of  her  children,  friends,  or  the  outside 
workl  in  general.  She  was  a  woman  of  deep 
and  unquestioning  faith,  who  led  a  broad  and 
Christian  life,  of  which  her  children  and  grand- 
children may  well  be  proud.  She  shed  about 
her  an  influence  of  unselfishness  and  piety 
which  will  bear  fruit  in  the  years  to  come. 
The  Rev.  A.  A.  Berle,  D.D.,  who  conducted 
the  services  at  her  funeral,  spoke  of  the  old- 
time  belief  and  trust  which  characterized  her 
life  and  of  her  deep  anil  earnest  patriotism." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harvey  had  four  children,  three 
sons  and  one  daughter,  named  above.  The 
eldest  child,  James  W.,  was  a  soldier  of  the 
Civil  War.  Enlisting  August  5,  1862,  in  the 
Eleventh  Massachusetts  Battery,  he  served  until 


436 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


May  29,  1863,  when  his  term  of  enhstinent 
expired.  From  1863  to  1867  he  was  Adjutant 
of  the  Boston  Light  Infantry.  He  married 
Emma  C.  Cunningham,  of  Brooklyn,  N.Y., 
June  18,  1866,  ancl  settled  in  Faneuil,  Mass. 
In  1877,  aided  by  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Stevens,  at 
that  time  jiastor  of  tlie  Congregational  church, 
Brighton,  he  founded  a  Sunday-school  at  Fan- 
euil. It  proved  a  success,  and  a  chapel  was 
erected  in  1900.  James  Harvey  was  also  inter- 
ested in  the  public  schools  and  in  the  election 
of  worthy  members  to  the  school  board.  He 
was  president  of  the  Eleventh  Battery  Asso- 
ciation, chairman  of  the  Rei)ublican  Ward 
Connnittee  for  eleven  years,  and  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives 
1889-92.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  which 
occurred  August  6,  1897,  he  was  Commander 
of  Francis  Washburn  Post,  No.  92,  G.  A.  R., 
of  Brighton.  He  was  an  eloquent  speaker 
and  a  recognized  leader  in  the  church  and  in 
societies.  He  conducted  an  extensive  business 
on  Atlantic  Avenue,  Boston,  and  was  an  ex- 
pert in  steel  workings. 

Dorcas  Harvey,  the  only  daughter  of  her 
parents,  was  married  August  9,  1870,  to  Will- 
iam Henry  Lyman,  of  Brighton.  Mr.  Lyman 
served  throughout  the  Civil  War  in  Company 
H,  Sixteenth  Mas.sachusetts  Volunteers.  He 
is  a  member  of  Francis  Washburn  Post,  No.  92, 
G.  A.  R.,  of  Brighton. 

Mrs.  Lyman  is  interested  not  only  in  patri- 
otic work,  but  in  many  other  leading  move- 
ments of  the  day.  She  is  a  member  of  the 
Congregational  church,  Brighton,  and  has  been 
actively  associated  with  its  missionary  enter- 
prises. The  beautiful  chapel  in  Faneuil,  ded- 
icated in  1900  through  the  efforts  of  her  brother 
antl  others,  received  her  active  support,  and  she 
was  a  substitute  teacher  in  its  Sunday-school. 

She  is  an  active  member  of  the  King's  Daugh- 
ters, also  of  the  W'oman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union,  and  a  worker  in  the  Brighton 
and  AUston  \\'oman  Suffrage  League.  For  the 
past  ten  years  she  has  served  as  chairman  of 
the  Connnittee  of  Independent  Women  Voters 
of  Ward  25,  Boston,  a  position  requiring  a 
knowledge  of  political  conditions,  (juick  dis- 
cernment, and  executive  ability.  The  most 
prominent    citizens    of    the    Bhgiiton    district 


recognize  Mrs.  Lyman's  efficiency,  and  candi- 
dates favoring  honest  government  and  reform 
measures  have  often  owed  their  election  largely 
to  her  su])port. 

Mrs.  Lyman  united  with  Francis  Washburn 
Relief  Corps,  No.  79,  Brighton,  in  1887,  and, 
after  filling  every  other  office  in  the  corps, 
was  elected  president  three  successive  years — 
1892,  1893,  1894.  She  was  a  Department 
Aide  in  1893,  1894,  and  1899  and  a  National 
Aide  in  1895,  1898,  and  1902.  She  has  served 
as  a  delegate  in  National  Conventions  every 
year  but  one  since  1887.  As  a  member  of 
the  Department  Relief  and  other  important 
committees,  she  has  rendered  invaluable  ser- 
vice. In  1897  she  sent  twenty-five  dollars 
to  the  Ander.sonville  Prison  Board  of  the  Na- 
tional W.  R.  C,  and  was  the  first  contributor 
to  the  fund  for  preserving  that  historic  ground 
as  a  permanent  memorial. 

Mrs.  Lyman  was  specially  active  in  the  emer- 
gency work  for  the  boys  of  the  S]>anish- Ameri- 
can War,  and  through  the  entire  sununer  of 
1898  was  on  duty  as  one  of  the  Connnittee  of 
the  Volunteer  Aid  Association.  She  solicited 
money  and  needful  articles  for  the  soldiers 
at  the  front,  packed  supplies  for  the  hospital 
ship  (the  "Bay  State"),  and,  when  the  regi- 
ments returned  from  Cuba,  visited  every  week 
for  several  months  the  soldiers  in  the  hos])itals 
in  Boston.  She  has  also  secured  contributions 
for  the  troops  in  the  Phili])i)ines. 

After  serving  as  a  member  of  the  Dejiart- 
ment  Executive  Board  several  years  (one  year 
as  chairman),  she  was  elected  Department 
Junior  Vice-President  at  the  annual  State 
convention  held  in  Boston  in  1900.  A  brill- 
iant reception  was  tendered  her  by  Corps  No. 
79  and  Post  No.  92  of  Brighton.  Previous  to 
her  election  Post  No.  92,  of  Brighton,  hail  is- 
sued a  hearty  endorsement  of  her  candidacy, 
saying:  "We  of  this  post  know  Mrs.  Lyman's 
worth,  her  love  for  the  veterans,  her  intense 
loyalty  to  the  nation,  her  tireless  and  inde- 
fatigable energy  and  labor  for  the  Grand  Army 
of  tiie  Republic  as  well  as  for  the  Relief  Corps. 
Early  ami  late,  in  sunshine  antl  storm,  she  has 
laboretl  for  their  interests  as  much,  we  be- 
lieve, as  any  woman  in  the  department  has  for 
a  post  to  which  a  corps  is  auxiliary." 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


437 


Mrs.  Lyman  has  given  her  best  efforts  for 
Post  No.  92,  assisting  in  fairs  and  in  other  en- 
terprises. On  one  occasion  she  presented  the 
post  a  handsome  china  set  of  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  pieces  and  an  autograph  quilt  contain- 
ing four  hunched  and  sixty-eiglit  names, 
among  them  those  of  President  Harrison, 
ex- President  Cleveland,  prominent  military 
heroes,  Boston  merchants,  and  all  members 
of  Post  No.  92. 

During  her  year  as  Department  Junior 
Vice-President,  Mrs.  Lyman  attended  numer- 
ous patriotic  gatherings,  participating  in  corps 
meetings,  union  services  with  posts,  socials, 
and  campfires.  She  also  served  on  commit- 
tees, and  was  vice-chairman  of  the  Department 
W.  R.  C.  table  in  the  fair  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
A.ssociation  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  which  was 
held  in  Faneuil  Hall. 

At  the  annual  convention  in  1901  Mrs. 
Lyman  was  unanimously  elected  Department 
Senior  Vice-President.  As  reported  at  the 
annual  convention  in  1902,  held  in  the  Park 
Street  Church,  Boston,  she  visited  sixty-six 
corps  and  participated  in  over  one  hundred 
patriotic  gatherings  in  her  official  capacity 
during  the  year.  She  was  also  vice-president 
of  the  Department  W.  R.  C.  Fair  Committee 
for  the  week's  fair  held  in  November,  1901, 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston. 

At  the  last  annual  convention,  February  12, 
1902,  which  was  composed  of  delegates  repre- 
senting fourteen  thousand  women,  Mrs.  Lyman 
was  unanimously  elected  to  the  office  of  Depart- 
ment President.  She  conducted  a  very  suc- 
cessful administration,  and  was  popular  with 
the  posts  and  corps  throughout  the  State.  She 
represented  the  Department  on  two  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  different  occasions,  and 
travelled  many  thousands  of  miles.  Special 
efforts  were  made  by  her  to  increase  the  relief 
fund,  and  she  was  successful  in  this,  as  in  all 
her  work  for  the  cause. 

She  was  the  recipient  of  many  courtesies 
throughout  the  State  and  at  Washington,  D.C., 
where  she  attended  the  National  Convention, 
and  had  charge  of  the  delegation  from  Maaea- 
chusetts. 

She  is  an  earnest  worker  in  all  the  lines  of 
patriotism    and    active   in    the    plans   for    the 


National  Convention  to  be  held  in  Boston  in 
1904,  being  a  member  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee and  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Luncheon.  In  everything  she  undertakes  Mrs. 
Lyman  enters  upon  the  work  in  a  zealous  man- 
ner, and  has  accomplished  results  that  have 
won  for  her  the  respect  and  commemlation  of 
her  associates. 


MARIE  WARE  LAUGHTON  was  born 
in  Lewiston,  Me.,  at  the  home  of 
her  parents,  Warren  Preston  and 
Elizabeth  Foss  (Prentiss)  Laugh  ton. 
Her  paternal  grandparents  were  John  and 
Amata  (Greenleaf)  Laughton.  Another  John 
Laughton,  her  ancestor  of  an  earlier  genera- 
tion, was  a  minute-man  in  the  Revolution. 
Through  her  grandmother  Amata,  daughter  of 
Joshua  Greenleaf,  Miss  Laughton  traces  her 
ancestry  back  to  Edmund  Greenleaf  (believed  to 
have  been  of  Huguenot  stock),  who  settled 
in  Newbury,  Mass.,  in  1635.  Her  line,  like 
the  poet  John  Greenleaf  Whittier's,  continued 
through  Etlmund's  son  Stephen,  who  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Tristram  Coffin. 

Miss  Laughton's  maternal  grandparents  were 
Philo  and  Matilda  (Foss)  Prentiss.  Her  great- 
grandfather, Valentine  Prentiss,  served  as 
Sergeant  in  the  Revolutionary  army.  After 
the  war  he  removed  from  Woodbury,  Conn., 
to  China,  Me.  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of 
Valentine  Prentise,  who  joined  the  church  in 
Roxbury  in  1632. 

Marie  Ware  Laughton,  after  her  graduation 
from  the  Lewiston  High  School,  attended 
the  Normal  Practice  School  in  that  city,  from 
which  she  received  her  teacher'.?  diploma  in 
1881.  She  then  taught  for  six  years  in  the 
Lewiston  public  schools.  During  the  latter 
part  of  this  time  she  took  up  the  study  of  elo- 
cution. In  the  following  year  she  was  granted 
leave  of  absence  to  attend  tlie  Boston  School 
of  Oratory,  where  she  was  graduated  in  1888. 
She  has  studied  extensively  with  the  best  spe- 
cialists in  the  country. 

After  continuing  her  work  of  teaching  in 
Maine  for  several  years,  she  came  to  Boston 
to  teach  in  the  Boston  College  of  Oratory,  and 
in    1896  she    fomided    the  School   of    English 


438 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Speech  and  Expression,  of  which  she  is  prin- 
cipal. The  aim  of  this  school  is  to  give  in- 
struction in  higher  English  and  in  the  art  of 
expression.  Its  marked  success  proves  that 
public  speakers,  readers,  and  teachers  of  read-' 
ing  and  elocution  in  public  schools  and  col- 
leges appreciate  a  school  conducted  by  teachers 
who  present  sound  methods.  The  school  also 
meets  the  need  of  many  who  have  no  thought 
of  entering  a  profession,  but  who  realize  the 
value  of  training  for  the  development  of  power 
and  for  the  opening  up  of  new  and  enduring 
fields  of  culture. 

Miss  Laughton  has  been  identified  with  sev- 
eral clubs  and  with  the  Daughters  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  being  the  first  woman  in 
Massachusetts  to  hold  the  office  of  State  Vice- 
Regent  of  the  Society.  She  is  the  founder  and 
is  now  Regent  of  the  Committee  of  Safety 
Chapter,  D.  A.  R.,  of  Boston. 


EDNA  DEAN  PROCTOR.— It  is  an  in- 
teresting question  how  far  early  envi- 
ronments of  place  and  scene  affect  gift 
and  character;  but  with  a  sympathetic, 
receptive,  aesthetic  nature,  and  surroundings 
of  unusual  individuality  and  beauty,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  of  their  vivid  impression  and 
moulding  force. 

Edna  Dean  Proctor  is  of  unmixed  English 
ancestry.  Her  father,  John  Proctor,  a  na- 
tive of  Manchester,  Mass.  (Manchester-by-the- 
Sea),  was  a  descendant  of  John  Proctor  of 
England,  who  came  to  Ipswich,  Mass.,  in  1635, 
and  whoso  eldest  son,  John  Proctor,  of  Salem 
Village,  was  one  of  the  victims  in  August,  1692, 
of  the  Salem  witchcraft  delusion.  The  Good- 
hues,  the  Cogswells,  the  Appletons,  the  Choates, 
of  Essex  County,  were  allied  with  this  family. 
Her  mother,  Lucinda  Gould,  of  Henniker,  N.H., 
represented  the  Goulds  who  had  come  from 
Massachusetts  to  the  newer  settlement  and 
the  Prescotts  and  Hiltons  of  Hampton  and 
Exeter,  N.H.  The  Proctor  family  removed  from 
Manchester-by-the-Sea  to  Henniker,  and  chose 
their  home  u})on  a  hill  overlooking  the  Con- 
toocook  valley,  the  "pine-crowned  hill"  of  her 
poem,  "Contoocook  River."  The  wide  horizon 
of  this  noble  elevation,  her  birthplace  and  early 


home — embracing  Kearsarge,  Monadnock,  and 
the  outlying  ranges  of  the  White  Hills — the 
broad  forests,  and  the  beautiful  stream  flowing 
through  the  meadows,  made  a  grand  and  pictu- 
resque landscape,  which  is  reflected  again  and 
again  in  her  poems,  and  which  may  have  been 
an  inspiration  to  high  themes. 

With  the  exception  of  le.ss  than  a  year  at 
Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  her  schools  were 
those  of  her  native  village  and  of  Concord, 
N.H. ;  but  she  has  often  said  that  her  best  edu- 
cation was  had  in  reaiiing  with  her  mother. 
Several  years  of  teaching  in  New  Haven,  Conn., 
and  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  followed.  In  the  latter 
city  she  made  a  collection  of  extracts  from  the 
sermons  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beechei — a 
book  entitled  "Life  Thoughts" — which  was 
very  popular  at  home  and  abroad.  Meanwhile 
she  was  deeply  interested,  as  she  has  always 
been,  in  national  affairs.  Upon  the  day  of 
John  Brown's  execution  her  poem,  "The  Vir- 
ginia Scaffold,"  was  read  at  a  large  meeting  in 
New  York  City,  and  its  prophecy  in  the  stanza: 

"  They  may  hang  him  on  the  gibbet;  tliey  may  raise 

the  victor's  cry 
AVlien    they  see   him   darkly   swinging   lilce   a   speck 

against  the  sky; 
Ah  I  the  (lying  of  a  hero  that  the  right  may  win   its 

way 
Is  but  sowing  seed  for  harvest  in  a  warm  and  mellow 

May! 
Now  his  story  shall  be  whispered  by  the  firelight's 

evening  glow, 
And  in  fields  of  rice   and  cotton  when   the   hot   noon 

passe.i  slow, 
Till  his  name  shall  be  a  watchword   from  Missouri  to 

the  sea, 
And  his  planting   find  its  reaping   in  the   Birthday  of 

the  Free  I  " 

has  been  amply  fulfilled.  During  the  war  her 
poems,  "Who's  Ready?"  "Heroes,"  "The 
Mississippi,"  and  others,  were  marked  and  in- 
fluential. Her  first  small  volume  of  verse 
was  published  by  Hurd  &  Houghton  in  1867. 
Then  came  some  two  years  of  foreign  travel, 
an  outcome  of  which  was  "A  Russian  Journey." 
Of  this  book  Whittier  wrote:  "I  like  it  better 
than  '  Eothen.' "  Its  chapter  upon  Sebastopol  is 
said  to  have  caused  the  neglected  English  ceme- 
teries there  to  be  cared  for  as  their  brave  dead 
deserved.     Upon  the  completion  of  the  railway 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


439 


to  the  Pacific,  in  1S69,  Miss  Proctor  went  with 
friemls  to  California,  and  her  letters,  "From 
the  Narrows  to  the  Golden  Gate,"  in  the  Neiv 
York  Independent,  were  pronounced  by  many 
the  best  account  of  the  continental  journey. 
A  second  '  collection  of  her  poems  was  pub- 
lished by  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  in  1890, 
and  two  years  later  the  same  house  issued  her 
"Song  of  the  Ancient  People,"  which  was  in- 
spired by  the  "Hemenway  Southwestern  Ex- 
pedition." In  the  Columbian  year  of  1892  she 
wrote  the  poem,  "Columbia's  Banner,"  which 
was  read  and  recited  throughout  the  schools  of 
the  country  on  Columbus  Day;  and  in  Septem- 
ber of  that  year  her  song,  "Columbia's  Em- 
blem," celebrating  the  maize  as  our  national 
fioral  emblem,  appeared  in  the  Century  Maga- 
zine. This  .song  has  been  widely  read  and  sung. 
As  a  reviewer  said  of  it,  "It  has  gone  straight 
to  the  heart  of  the  American  people,  ...  a  song 
which  will  be  more  potent  than  law  to  give 
the  Intlian  corn  its  representative  place  in  the 
republic."  Most  of  the  year  1897  she  spent  in 
Mexico  afld  South  America.  In  1899  she  wrote 
the  poem,  "The  Hills  are  Home,"  for  the  first 
Olil  Home  Week  in  New  Hampshire,  and  in  1900 
published  her  New  Hampshire  verse  in  a  vol- 
ume entitled  "The  Mountain  Maid." 

Mi.ss  Proctor's  poetry  is  characterized  by 
strength  and  fervor,  by  lofty  thought  and 
melodious  numbers.  Though  so  patriotic  an 
American,  her  sympathies  enable  her  to  under- 
stand the  heart  of  other  races.  No  truer  ex- 
])ression  of  the  feeling  of  a  devout,  orthodox 
Russian  has  been  given  than  her  poem  "  Holy 
Russia,"  which  Longfellow  regrettetl  was  not 
written  early  enough  to  be  included  in  his 
"Russia"  ("Poems  of  Places"),  saying,  "It 
would  have  been  a  splendid  prelude  to  the 
volume."  Of  her  "El  Mahdi  to  the  Tribes 
of  the  Soudan"  the  late  Professor  Frederick 
W.  H.  Myers,  of  Cambridge,  England,  said,  "It 
is  .so  Oriental  I  can  hartUy  believe  it  was  writ- 
ten by  any  one  in  the  AVestern  worUl";  and  the 
late  James  Darmesteter,  professor  in  the  College 
of  France,  wrote  her  from  Constantinople,  ask- 
ing to  include  it  in  a  new  edition  of  his 
brochure  of  1885,  "  The  Mahdi."  Her  "  Song  of 
the  Ancient  People" — the  Pueblos  of  our  South- 
west—has   the   dignity  and   pathos  of   a  race 


that  beholds  all  it  revered  and  cherished  slip- 
ping away.  The  late  John  Fiske,  in  his  preface 
to  the  "Song,"  says  of  it:  "  As  a  rendering  of 
Moqui-Zuni  thought,  it  is  a  contribution  of 
great  and  permanent  value  to  American  litera- 
ture." Yet  her  sympathies  are  not  alone  for 
matters  of  race  and  nation,  but  are  warm  and 
loyal  in  home  and  social  life,  and  all  express  the 
power  and  charm  of  her  personality.  Appended 
are  two  of  her  poems. 

MOXADNOCK   IN   OCTOBER. 

Uprose  Monadiiock  in  tlie  northern  blue, 

A  glorious  minster  buUdcd  to  the  Lord! 

The  setting  sun  his  crimson  radiance  threw 

On  crest,  and  steep,  and  wood,  and  valley  sward, 

Blending  tlieir  myriad  hues  in  rich  accord, 

Till,  like  the  wall  of  heaven,  it  towered  to  view. 

Along  its  slope,  where  russet  ferns  were  strewn 

And  purple  heaths,  the  scarlet  maples  flamed, 

And  reddening  oaks  and  golden  birches  shone  — 

Resplendent  oriels  in  the  black  pines  framed, 

The  pines  that  climb  to  woo  the  winds  alone. 

And  down  its  cloisters  blew  the  evening  breeze, 

Through  courts  and  aisles  ablaze  with  autumn  bloom. 

Till  shrine  and  portal  thrilled  to  harmonies 

Now  soaring,  dying  now  in  glade  and  gloom. 

And  with  the  wind  was  heard  the  voice  of  streams  — 

Constant  their  Aves  and  Te  Deums  be  — 

Lone  Ashuelot  nuirmuring  down  the  lea, 

And  brooks  that  haste  where  shy  Contoocook  gleams 

Through  groves  and  mead<^ws,  broadening  to  the  sea. 

Then  lioly  twilight  fell  on  earth  and  air; 

Above  the  dome  the  stars  hung  faint  and  fair. 

And  the  vast  minster  hushed  its  shrines  in  prayer; 

While  all  the  lesser  heights  kejit  watch  and  ward 

About  Mouaduock,  builded  to  the  Lord! 

BORN  OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

She  called  me  a  moment  before, 
And  smiled,  as  I  entered  the  door, 

In  her  gentle  way  ; 
A  sigh,  a  droop  of  the  head, 
And  something  forever  had  fled. 

And  she  was  but  clay  ! 

Her  hand  was  yet  clasped  in  mine, 
And  bright,  in  the  golden  shine. 

Her  brown  hair  fell  ; 
But  the  marble  Psyche  there 
As  soon  would  have  heard  my  prayer, 

My  wild  farewell. 

'Twas  the  hush  of  an  autumn  noon, 
So  clear  that  the  waning  moon 
Was  a  ghost  in  the  skj- ; 


440 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Not  a  leaf  on  tlie  lindens  swayed, 
And  even  the  brook  in  the  glade 
Han,  noiseless,  by. 

\l'/i(if  had  gone  from  the  room, 
Leaving  the  sunshine  gloom, 

The  soft  air  chill? 
If  the  tiniest  bird  bad  llown, 
Its  flight  had  a  shadow  thrown 

On  lawn  and  rill. 

But  neither  a  sound  nor  sight 
Disturbed  the  calm  or  the  light 

Of  the  noontide  air  ; 
Yet  the  friend  I  loved  was  as  far 
As  a  ghostly  moon  or  star 

From  my  call  and  care. 

Dead,  with  her  hand  in  mine! 
Dead,  in  the  golden  shine 

Of  the  autumn  day! 
Dead,  and  no  note  in  heaven 
Nor  a  gleam  of  white  wings  given 

To  mark  her  wayl 

And  my  heart  went  up  in  the  cry, 
''  How  did  the  swift  soul  fly  ? 

What  life  inherit?" 
Then  the  wind  blew  sweet  and  was  gone, 
And  a  voice  said,  "  .So  is  one 

Born  of  the  Spirit.'''' 


DEBORAH  NICHOLS  MORTON,  Pre- 
ceptress of  Westbrook  Seminary,  Port- 
land, Me.,  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Bristol,  on  the  coast,  in  1857.  The 
daughter  of  Leander  and  Deborah  Rogers 
(Nichols)  Morton,  she  is  a  descendant  on  her 
father's  side  of  Captain  James  Morton,  of 
Muscongus,  who  is  mentioned  in  the  History 
of  Bristol  and  Bremen,  Me.,  as  one  who  took 
part  in  the  expedition  against  Quebec  under 
General  Wolfe  in  September,  1759,  he  being 
employed  as  pilot  on  a  transport. 

On  her  mother's  side  Miss  Morton  is  de- 
scended from  Lieutenant  Alexander  Nickels, 
who  commanded  Fort  Frederick  at  Pemaquid 
in  1756,  and  some  time  later  was  known  a-s  Cap- 
tain Nickels.  He  is  said  to  have  come  to  New 
England  with  his  wife  and  children  from  Lon- 
donderry, Ireland,  in  1721.  In  his  will,  dated  in 
January,  1758,  and  proved  on  October  2,  1758, 
he  "calls  himself  Alexander  Nickels,  of  New- 
castle in  the  county  of  York,  gentleman. 

Miss   Morton's   paternal   grandparents   were 


John  Morton  and  his  wife,  Anna  Bryant,  the 
former  son  of  James  Morton  above  mentioned, 
and  the  latter  belonging  to  the  Scituate  family 
of  Bryants. 

Thomas  and  Deborah  (Rogers)  Nichols, 
Miss  Morton's  maternal  grandparents,  were 
persons  of  importance  in  the  town  of  Bristol, 
where  they  lived.  They  were  married  in  1813. 
Their  daughter,  Deborah  R.  (Mrs.  Morton), 
named  for  her  mother  and  grandmother,  was 
born  in  1822.  Thomas  Nichols  was  a  son  of 
James  Nichols  l^y  his  wife,  Deborah  Bradford, 
who.se  name  is  .suggestive  of  early  colonial 
ancestry,  but  whose  lineage  has  not  been 
traced. 

Miss  Morton's  father,  Leander  Morton,  born 
in  Bristol  in  1814,  was  a  public-spirited  man, 
active  in  the  religious,  social,  and  political  affairs 
of  the  community.  Her  mother,  Mrs.  Deborah 
R.  Nichols  Morton,  born  in  1822,  was  a  woman 
of  strong  and  beneficent  influence. 

Mi.ss  Morton  was  graduated  from  W^estl)rook 
Seminary,  Dr.  James  P.  Weston  principal 
(now  deceased),  in  1879.  She  afterward  studied 
in  Lincoln  Academy  and  in  Oswego,  N.Y.  In 
1883  she  was  called  to  Westbrook  Seminary 
as  teacher  of  English,  and  the  following  year 
was  appointed  Preceptress  of  that  institution, 
which  position  she  has  since  held.  The  years 
1888  and  1889  she  s])ent  in  Europe,  continuing 
the  study  of  French  and  German,  and  upon 
her  return  to  the  seminary  was  made  the 
teacher  of  modern  languages.  One  who  knows 
her  well  thus  speaks  of  her:  "A  noble  woman, 
she  has  a  high  ideal  of  her  profession,  and  is 
a  devoted,  conscientious,  efficient  teacher. 
Sympathetic,  unaffected,  and  genial,  .she  wins 
the  affectionate  regard  of  all  who  know  her. 
From  the  combined  qualities  of  her  parents 
she  has  inherited  self-poise,  self-reliance,  integ- 
rity of  purpose,  and  a  calm,  clear  judgment. 
Her  ability  and  consecration  make  her  the 
prized  co-operator  with  the  conuiiittee  on  teach- 
ers in  the  earnest  efforts  to  make  Westbrook 
Seminary  a  blessing  to  all  its  pupils." 

Miss  Morton  is  well  known  in  Portland  and 
the  vicinity,  not  only  in  educational  affairs, 
but  also  as  a  woman  of  progressive  thought 
and  wide  and  liberal  interests.  She  is  an  active 
member   of   the   Woman's   Literary    Union   of 


CLARA   P.  BIGELOW 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


441 


Portlaml,   and  is  the  president   of  the  W.    S. 
German  Club  of  that  city. 


CLARA  PHILENA  BIGELOW  (Mrs. 
George  Brooks  Bigelovv),  in  maiden- 
hood Chira  Pliilena  Bean,  is  a  Bos- 
tonian  by  birth  anil  breeding.  The 
tlaugliter  of  Ivory  and  Hannah  M.  (Noble) 
Bean,  on  the  paternal  side  she  is  directly, 
though  remotely,  desceniled  from  an  old  Scot- 
tish clan,  anil  through  her  mother  is  connected 
with  the  Eastman  family,  to  which  the  mother 
of  Daniel  Webster  belonged. 

From  manuscript  recorils  in  the  possession 
of  Mrs.  Bigelow  it -is  apparent  that  she  is  a 
descendant  more  immediately,  on  the  paternal 
side,  of  John  Bean  (son  of  John  and  Lydia 
Sloper  Bean),  who  went  from  Gilmanton, 
N.H.,  to  Lewiston,  Me.,  and  thence  to  New 
Sharon,  Me.,  where  he  died  about  1828-30. 
His  wife  was  Betsey  Moody,  a  descendant  of 
an  old  New  England  family  in  a  collateral  line 
with  that  founded  by  AVilliam  Moody,  who 
came  from  England  to  Ipswich,  Mass.,  in 
1633,  and  settled  in  Newbury  in  1635.  (See 
Lancaster's  Genealogical  History  of  Gilmanton, 
N.H.)  John  and  Betsey  were  the  parents 
of  four  sons  and  three  daughters — Samuel, 
John,  Ivory,  Isaiah,  Hannah,  Lydia,  and 
Sarah. 

Ivory  Bean,  son  of  John  and  grandfather 
of  Mrs.  Bigelow,  was  born  in  Lewiston,  May  7, 
1791.  He  served  as  a  cai)tain  in  the  War  of 
1812.  He  married  in  New  Sharon  (as  shown 
by  the  town  clerk's  records),  December  29, 
1814,  Philena  Pitts  Savage,  of  Freeman,  Me. 
Their  children,  born  in  New  Sharon,  were: 
Orison,  Ivory  (born  June  2,  1818),  Rosanna 
Weymouth,  Loren,  Hiram  Pitts,  Philena, 
Thaxter  Whitney,  and  James  Loring.  The 
father.  Ivory,  died  in  New  Sharon  in  1842. 

Ivory  Bean,  second,  son  of  Ivory  and 
Philen;i,  married  Hannah  Matilda  Noble,  daugh- 
ter of  Samuel  and  Hannah  (I^astman)  Noble,  of 
Lisbon,  Me.  According  to  a  manuscript  vol- 
ume of  one  hundred  and  eleven  pages,  com- 
piled by  Mary  Eastman  Bridges,  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  dated  1894,  Hannah  Eastman's  line 
of  descent  was   as   follows:    Roger'   Eastman, 


born  1611  in  Wales,  came  to  America  in  ship 
"Confidence"  in  1638,  settled  in  Salisbury, 
Mass.,  where  he  died  in  1694.  SamueP  East- 
man, born  in  1657,  moved  to  Kingston,  Me., 
about  1720,  being  one  of  the  original  grantees 
of  that  town.  He  married  Elizabeth  Sever- 
ance in  1686;  married  in  1719,  for  second  wife, 
Sarah  Fifield,  who  died  in  1726.  Thomas' 
Eastman,  born  January  21,  1703,  lived  in 
Kingston,  married  in  1729  Abigail  French. 
Samuel,^  son  of  Thomas  and  Abigail,  born  in 
1730,  died  in  1799,  married  a  Miss  Hubbard. 
He  seems  to  have  lived  for  a  while  in  New 
Hampshire,  probably  in  Pittsfield;  but  about 
1761  he  removed  to  Maine.  He  built  the 
Togus  Bridge.  SamueP  Eastman,  born  in  1767, 
married  Sally  Stevens,  and  settled  in  Gardiner, 
Me.  They  were  the  parents  of  Hannah" 
(born  1806,  died  1863),  who  became  the  wife  of 
Samuel  Noble,  as  above  mentioned. 

The  education  of  Clara  P.  Bean  began  at  a 
private  school  in  Boston  known  as  the  "  Pho- 
netic School."  Later  she  attended  succes- 
sively the  Everett  School,  under  Master  Hyde, 
Professor  York's  boarding-school,  where  she 
was  a  student  for  two  years,  and  the  well- 
known  private  school  of  Mr.  Hooper  on  Bow- 
doin  Street,  Boston. 

She  (Clara  P.  Bean)  was  married  in  1869  to 
George  Brooks  Bigelow,  a  well-known  lawyer 
of  Boston.  Mr.  Bigelow  was  of  old  colonial 
stock,  being  a  lineal  descendant  of  John  Biglo, 
of  Watertown,  Mass.,  the  founder  of  the  Bige- 
low family  of  New  England.  Mr.  Bigelow  died 
July  7,  1901.  Of  this  marriage  there  were  no 
children. 

Mrs.  Bigelow  has  lived  and  travelled  abroad. 
While  in  Paris  she  entered  as  a  pupil  the  studio 
of  Monsieur  Perrault  (a  pupil  of  the  famous 
Bouguereau).  She  has  studied  water-colors 
under  Susan  Hale  (sister  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ed- 
ward E.  Hale)  and  others.  She  has  also  stud- 
ieil  modelling  in  clay  from  life  under  the  well- 
known  sculptor,  Henry  Kitson. 

Mrs.  Bigelow  is  a  member  of  many  clubs, 
among  them  New  England  \\'oman's  Club, 
Woman's  Club  House  Corporation  (of  which 
she  was  one  of  the  founders  and  is  at  present 
a  director),  the  National  Council  of  Women 
(life  member),  Boston  Business  League,  Fathers' 


442 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


and  Mothers'  Club,  Floral  Emblem  Society, 
Ladies'  Physiological  Institute,  Women's  Edu- 
cational and  Industrial  LTnion  (life  member), 
and  Phi  Eta  Sigma  (Emerson  College)  Oratory. 
She  is  also  a  member,  and  was  for  three  years 
secretary,  of  the  General  Washington  Memorial 
Association. 

After  the  death  of  her  husband  she  turned 
her  attention  in  another  line,  and  entered  the 
Emerson  College  of  Oratory  in  1901,  taking 
the  full  course,  and,  graduating  1904,  will 
continue  through  the  post-graduate,  1905.  She 
is  this  year  (1904)  a  student  at  the  Harvard 
Summer  School. 

Mrs.  Bigelow  is  a  woman  of  strong  character. 
She  is  well  kno^^'n  in  the  social  world.  Her 
sympathies  are  quick,  her  appreciation  very 
keen,  her  loyalty  never  failing,  her  charity 
unbounded.  e.  c. 


ELISABETH  SOPHIA  MERRITT 
GOSSE  was  born  in  Salem,  Mass.,  being 
the  daughter  of  Henry  and  Elisabeth 
(Hood)  Merritt.  Her  father,  Lieuten- 
ant Colonel  Henry  Merritt,  at  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  was  on  the  staff  of 
General  Joseph  Andrews,  in  connnand  at  Fort 
Warren,  later  going  to  the  front,  where,  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment,  the  Twenty-tiiird  Massa- 
chusetts, he  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  New- 
bern,  N.C. 

Mrs.  Gosse's  mother  was  the  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Jacob  Hood,  a  well-known  Congre- 
gational clergyman.  Mrs.  Gosse  is  descended 
from  Robert  Moulton,  an  Admiral  in  the  Brit- 
ish navy;  also  from  Governor  Bradstrect,  Roger 
Conant,  and  other  notables  of  colonial  days. 

It  is  a  curious  coincidence  tliat  her  great- 
great-grandfather.  Captain  Samuel  Flint,  killed 
in  the  battle  of  Saratoga  in  1777,  was  the  high- 
est officer  from  E.ssex  County  who  gave  his 
life  for  his  country  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion; and  the  same  is  true  of  her  father,  Colonel 
Merritt,  in  the  war  of  the  sixties.  Another 
ancestor,  Colonel  Philip  Gardner,  was  killed 
in  the  French  anil  Indian  wars,  in  colonial  days. 
It  is  said  that  no  woman  in  Massachusetts 
has  a  longer  record  of  military  ancestry  than 
Mrs.  Gosse. 


Elisabeth  S.  Merritt  (to  use  the  name  she 
bore  m  her  student  days)  was  educated  in  pub- 
lic and  private  schools  of  Salem,  the  Chelsea 
High  School,  Salem  Normal  School,  and  the 
Rockford  Woman's  College,  at  Rockford,  111. 
She  married  Mr.  Charles  Harrison  Gosse,  of  an 
old  Salem  family.  For  a  few  years  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gosse  resided  in  Salem,  but  later  removed 
to  Boston,  where  Mrs.  Gosse's  literary  ability 
soon  attracted  attention,  and  she  received  re- 
quests for  her  work  from  three  of  the  leading 
Boston  journals. 

In  1S8S  .she  went  to  Bar  Harbor  as  a  society 
correspondent  for  the  Tron.srn'pl  and  other 
Boston  papers.  The  excellence  of  her  work 
caused  it  to  be  copied  by  other  society  editors 
in  every  part  of  the  United  States.  She  was 
especially  fortunate  in  having  as  personal 
friends  Mrs.  William  Morris  Hunt,  the  first 
Mrs.  William  C.  Whitney,  and  Colonel  Elliott 
F.  Shepard,  who  had  been  a  close  friend  of 
her  father. 

Returning  to  Boston  in  the  fall  of  that  year, 
she  was  sent  to  Lenox  by  the  Boston  Herald, 
with  which  paper  she  has  since  been  promi- 
nently connected,  having  held  staff  positions 
in  five  different  departments,  giving  her  prob- 
ably a  more  varied  career  than  that  of  any 
other  newspaper  woman  in  New  England  and 
one  with  many  picturesque  experiences.  From 
the  society  department  of  the  Herald  she  passed 
into  the  department  of  special  writers,  where 
she  received  exceptional  training  in  political 
antl  editorial  work.  Later  the  special  and 
city  departments  of  the  Herald  were  consoli- 
datetl,  and  for  three  years  Mrs.  Gosse  gained 
invaluable  experience  in  reportorial  work.  Es- 
pecially notable  feats  in  this  line  accomplished 
by  her  were  the  reporting  of  the  great  costume 
ball  of  the  Boston  Artists'  Association,  given 
in  the  Art  Museum  several  years  ago,  on  which 
occasion  four  men  reporters  and  several  artists 
worked  under  her  direction;  the  reporting  of 
a  convention  in  Tremont  Temple,  for  which 
she  received  from  the  Herald  a  check  for  one 
hundred  and  two  dollars,  at  that  time  said  to 
be  the  largest  check  ever  paid  to  a  woman  jour- 
nalist in  New  England  for  a  single  week's  work, 
and  the  reporting  of  the  evolutions  of  the 
North  Atlantic  Squadron  off  the  coast  of  Maine, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF  NEW   ENGLAND 


443 


when  she  was  the  guest  of  Admiral  Gherardi 
and  the  only  passenger  allowed  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy  on  board  the  flagship  "Phil- 
adelphia." 

Mrs.  Gosse  has  travelled  hundreds  of  miles 
in  the  service  of  the  Herald,  accompanying 
President  Harrison,  President  Cleveland,  and 
the  late  Secretary  Blaine  upon  long  journeys. 
Upon  the  occasion  of  the  latter's  resignation 
from  the  Harrison  cabinet  she  went  to  Wash- 
ington, and,  returning  to  Boston  with  Secre- 
tary and  Mrs.  Blaine,  remained  with  them  at 
the  Brunswick  for  three  days,  while  awaiting 
the  returns  from  the  Minneapolis  convention, 
the  only  woman  in  a  small  army  of  represent- 
atives of  all  the  prominent  dailies  in  the  coun- 
try. She  was  present  when  Mr.  Blaine  re- 
ceived and  read  the  despatch  announcing  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Harrison  and  the  death- 
blow of  his  own  hopes.  "I  knew,"  she  .said 
at  the  time,  "  that  I  was  looking  on  while  his- 
tory was  being  made."  That  night  she  ac- 
companied Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blaine  to  Bar  Harbor. 
A  week  later  the  death  of  Emmons  Blaine,  in 
Chicago,  entailed  uppn  her  another  long  journey. 

Mrs.  Gosse  also  achieved  great  success  as 
a  special  correspondent,  her  work  always  being 
of  intense  interest.  Her  interviews  with  Cardi- 
nal Gibbons  were  copied  into  nearly  every 
Catholic  publication  in  the  country.  She  in- 
terviewed Presidents  Cleveland  and  Harri- 
son and  many  members  of  their  Cabinets. 

Especially  notable  service  was  rendered 
the  Herald  by  Mrs.  Gosse  when  she  carried 
the  news  of  the  death  of  James  Russell  Lowell 
from  Bar  Harbor  to  President  Eliot  at  his 
summer  residence  at  Seal  Harbor,  and  later 
that  of  George  William  Curtis.  In  each  in- 
stance she  rode  twenty-two  miles  at  midnight 
over  the  roads  of  Mount  Desert,  to  telegraph 
his  tributes  to  those  great  men  to  her  paper. 
During  one  Presidential  campaign  she  remained 
in  Maine  until  after  the  State  election,  report- 
ing the  speeches  of  many  prominent  political 
orators. 

Mrs.  Gosse  was  among  the  first  to  discern 
the  importance  and  phenomenal  development 
of  the  woman's  club  movement.  She  estab- 
lished the  department  "Among  the  W^omen's 
Clubs"  in  the  Sunday  Herald,  which  she  still 


conducts,  and  also  that  known  as  "Colonial 
and  Patriotic,"  a  record  of  the  happenings 
among  the  hererlitary  patriotic  societies. 

In  addition  to  her  work  for  the  Herald,  Mrs. 
Gosse  has  done  much  special  work  for  the 
New  York  Mail  and  Express  and  the  New 
York  Herald,  also  for  such  publications  as  the 
North  American  Review,  the  New  England  Mag- 
azine, Harper's  Bazar,  Wide  Awake,  and  I^ip- 
pincott's. 

Mrs.  Gosse  has  been  prominently  identified 
with  the  New  England  Woman's  Press  Asso- 
ciation from  the  beginning.  For  several  years 
she  was  chairman  of  the  programme  commit- 
tee, preparing  some  of  the  most  successful 
entertainments  in  the  history  of  the  club,  and 
she  was  its  president  in  1898.  L^pon  retiring 
from  the  presidency  she  was  made  honorary 
vice-president  for  life. 

She  was  founder  and  is  vice-presiilent  of 
the  Boston  W'oman's  Press  Club,  has  been  four 
times  elected  president  of  the  Boston  Business 
League,  and  is  also  president  for  life  of  the 
Boston  Floral  Emblem  Society.  She  has  been 
much  interested  in  reform  work,  being  a  promi- 
nent promoter  of  the  movement  to  secure  police 
matrons.  She  was  also  for  a  time  press  super- 
intendent of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  Deeply  inter- 
ested in  music  and  a  fine  musician  herself,  she 
has  been  an  active  worker  in  the  Easter  Music 
and  Flower  Mission  to  Hospitals. 

Mrs.  Gosse  has  been  an  enthusiastic  organ- 
izer of  women's  clubs,  .several  of  prominence 
in  various  parts  of  New  England  o,wing  their 
existence  to  her  efforts.  She  has  several  times 
as  a  delegate  attendetl  the  biennial  convention 
of  the  General  P'ederation  of  W'omen's  Clubs. 

The  family  of  Mrs.  Gosse  were  among  the 
leading  anti-slavery  leaders  in  Essex  County, 
and  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  John  Greenleaf 
W^hittier,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  many 
others  prominent  at  that  time.  It  was  well 
known  that  the  poet  Whittier,  although  a  fiery 
abolitionist,  deprecated  war.  On  one  occa- 
sion early  in  1861  he  escaped  from  Newbury- 
port  to  avoid  a  military  demonstration,  only 
to  meet  at  dinner,  at  the  friend's  home  in  the 
country  where  he  sought  refuge,  the  father 
of  Mrs.  Gosse,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Merritt,  in 
full   uniform.     The   two   became   fast   friends, 


444 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


and  Mr.  Whittier  was  a  sincere  mourner  be- 
cause of  the  tragic  death  of  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Merritt. 

■In  recent  years  Mrs.  Gosse  has  been  promi- 
nent in  the  list  of  woman  lecturers,  her  ser- 
vices being  especially  sought  by  clubs  and 
classes  in  current  events.  A  lecture  on  "The 
World  and  the  Newspaper"  and  various  ethi- 
cal and  educational  subjects  have  been  among 
her  successes. 

Mrs.  Gosse  is  a  sincere  home  lover,  and  en- 
joys most  of  all  her  cosey  home  in  Roxbury, 
where  she  is  surrounded  by  colonial  furniture, 
a  profusion  of  plants  and  flowers,  and  several 
interesting  household  pets. 


MARY  LYNCH  GILMAN,  a  Past 
Dejjartment  President  of  the  Wom- 
an's Relief  Corps  of  Massachusetts 
and  chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  National 
Convention  in  Boston,  1904,  was  born  in  Bos- 
ton at  the  North  End,  which  was  at  that  time 
a  pleasant  residential  section  of  the  city.  Her 
father,  William  Lynch,  was  a  man  of  liberal 
ideas,  active  in  public  affairs  and  successful 
in  accumulating  property. 

The  girlhood  days  of  Mary  Lynch  (Mrs. 
Gilman)  were  passed  in  the  vicinity  of  Copp's 
Hill  and  under  the  shadow  of  Christ  Church. 
She  was  graduated  from  the  old  Hancock 
School,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Hancock  School 
Alumni  Association.  Her  education  was  com- 
pleted at  a  private  institution  of  learning. 

In  1870  she  married  John  E.  Gilman,  who 
was  born  December  22,  1844,  in  South  Boston, 
and  has  always  been  a  resident  of  Boston. 
Mr.  Gilman  was  educated  in  the  primary  school 
on  East  Street  Place  and  the  Quincy  and  Eliot 
Grammar  Schools.  In  August,  1862,  he  en- 
listed in  Company  E,  Twelfth  Regiment,  Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers,  under  Colonel  Fletcher 
Webster,  and  went  South  to  fight  for  the  Union. 
He  was  engaged  in  a  number  of  battles,  the 
last  being  that  of  Gettysburg,  in  July,  1863, 
where  he  was  severely  woimded,  a  shell  striking 
his  right  arm  and  breaking  it  at  the  elbow. 
He  was  discharged  for  disability  on  the  28th 
of  the  following  October. 


Mr.  Gilman  held  different  positions  in  the 
State  House  from  1864  until  1883.  Since 
that  time  he  has  been  in  the  service  of  the 
city  of  Boston,  first  as  settlement  clerk  in  the 
institutions  department  and  since  April  1, 
1901,  as  commissioner  in  charge  of  the  soldiers' 
relief  department.  He  has  been  a  member 
of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  since  1868, 
and  is  a  Past  Commander  of  Thomas  G.  Ste- 
venson Post,  No.  26,  of  Roxbury.  He  served 
as  Inspector  of  the  Department  of  Massachu- 
setts, G.  A.  R.,  in  1895,  Junior  Vice-Commander 
in  1896,  Senior  Vice-Commander  in  1897,  dele- 
gate at  large  to  the  National  Encampment  in 
1898,  and  Department  Commander  in  1899,  his 
administration  being  one  of  the  most  successful 
in  the  history  of  the  organization. 

Mr.  Gilman  was  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Arrangements  and  of  other 
committees  for  the  National  Encampment  of 
1904.  He  takes  great  interest  in  all  the  efforts 
of  his  wife  in  the  work  of  women's  organiza- 
tions, and  they  have  travelled  extensively 
together  in  all  parts  of  the  State  and  to  na- 
tional gatherings  in  representing  the  work 
of  the  Grand  Army  and  Woman's  Relief  Corps. 

As  an  eloquent  speaker  his  services  are  in 
great  demand,  and  he  has  often  adtlressed  pub- 
lic and  social  gatherings  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps,  to  which  organization  he  is  sincerely  de- 
voted. 

At  the  thirty-eighth  National  Encampment 
of  the  G.  A.  R.,  held  in  Boston,  August  15-20, 
1904,  he  was  appointed  Adjutant-general  by 
the  newly  elected  Commander-in-chief,  General 
Wilmon  W.  Blackmar. 

Mrs.  Gilman  united  with  Thomas  G.  Ste- 
venson Corps,  No.  63,  of  Roxbury,  in  1886.  As 
Special  Aide  to  Mrs.  Eva  T.  Cook,  of  Glouces- 
ter, Department  President,  she  performed 
important  duties  at  the  National  Convention 
in  Louisville,  Ky.,  having  charge  of  the  Ma.ssa- 
chusetts  headquarters  at  the  Gait  House. 
She  held  successively  the  offices  of  Depart- 
ment Inspector,  chairman  of  the  Executive 
Board,  Department  Junior  Vice-President,  and 
Senior  Vice-President,  and  in  1900  was  unani- 
mously elected  Department  President.  In  that 
capacity  she  had  charge  of  the  Massachusetts 
delegation  on  the  trip  to  the  National  Con- 


MARY    h.  OILMAN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


445 


vention  in  Chicago,  and  made  many  friends 
among  the  delegations  from  the  Western  States 
by  her  able  management  and  courteous  man- 
ners. One  of  the  pleasing  features  of  her  ad- 
ministration was  a  dinner  given  in  Faneuil 
Hall  to  the  ex-Prisoners  of  War  Association, 
which  was  a  brilliant  affair. 

Throughout  the  year  her  official  work  was 
conducted  in  an  earnest,  dignified,  and  gracious 
manner,  manifesting  her  imselfish  devotion 
to  the  cause.  She  was  the  recipient  of  many 
courtesies  from  G.  A.  R.  posts,  and  she  retired 
from  the  presidency  with  the  respect  of  all 
officers  an(l  her  associates. 

During  her  term  the  relief  expenditures 
in  Massachusetts  amounted  to  nearly  twenty 
thousantl  dollars,  and  over  a  thou.sand  dol- 
lars atkiitional  were  expended  for  Memorial 
Day  work  in  the  South,  Antlersonville  Prison 
property,  aid  for  veterans  who  suffered  in 
the  Galveston  (Tex.)  disaster,  and  in  other 
relief  outside  the  regular  work  in  this  State. 

In  her  annual  address,  presented  to  the 
Twenty-second  Annual  Convention,  heUl  in 
Boston  in  February,  1901,  she  said:  "Through- 
out the  year  I  have  constantly  borne  in  mind 
the  honor  and  the  responsibility  confided  in 
me,  and  it  has  been  ever  my  aim  so  to  perform 
the  duties  of  my  office  as  to  deserve  your 
approbation.  You  will  be  gratified  to  know 
that  by  reason  of  greatest  membership  and 
most  generous  dispensation  of  relief  the  dawn 
of  the  twentieth  century  finds  us  still  occupy- 
ing that  proud  and  enviable  position,  the 
banner  department  of  the  Woman's  Relief 
Corps." 

As  a  warm  friend  to  the  army  nurses,  she 
referred  to  their  society  in  Massachusetts  as 
follows:  "This  worthy  and  unique  association 
appeals  with  peculiar  force  to  the  sympathy 
and  friendship  of  the  members  of  our  order. 
...  1  charge  you  to  let  no  army  nurse  lack  the 
comforts  of  life  while  a  dollar  remains  in  the 
treasuries  of  the  corps  of  this  department." 

Appointed  and  installed  as  Department 
Counselor  at  the  close  of  this  convention,  she 
rendered  excellent  service  during  the  admin- 
istration of  Mrs.  Evans,  her  successor. 

Mrs.  Gilman  has  been  a  National  Aide,  a 
member   of   committees   at   National   Conven- 


tions, and  at  the  convention  in  Washington, 
D.C.,  in  1902,  was  elected  chairman  of  the 
National  Executive  Board. 

As  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  Arrangements  for  the  National  Conven- 
tion of  1904  in  Boston,  she  devoted  the 
summer  to  the  work  of  preparation  for  this 
gathering  of  women,  representing  a  mem- 
bership of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
A  friend,  referring  to  her  qualifications  for 
office,  recently  wrote :  "  Mrs.  Gilman  is  a  woman 
of  fine  executive  ability  and  fearless  integrity, 
patriotic,  benevolent,  tactful,  and  broad- 
minded,  in  every  way  a  suitable  leader  for  so 
great  an  undertaking."  She  is  a  member 
of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  the  Soldiers' 
Home  in  Massachusetts.  She  is  a  woman 
of  musical  accomplishments,  a  pleasing  con- 
versationalist, and,  as  a  speaker  at  public 
gatherings,  is  always  listened  to  with  interest. 

Mrs.  Gilman  was  invited  by  Mrs.  Alice  M. 
Goddard,  chairman  of  the  Entertainment  Com- 
mittee, to  preside  at  the  great  camp-fire  of  the 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  held  in  Mechanics'  Build- 
ing on  the  evening  of  August  18,  1904.  There 
were  more  than  ten  thousand  people  present 
on  the  occasion  of  this  memorable  gathering, 
which  was  honored  by  the  presence  of  national 
and  State  officials.  Mrs.  Oilman's  gracious 
manner  in  presiding  added  to  the  interest  of 
this  important  event  in  the  programme  of  En- 
campment Week  in  Boston. 

Associated  with  Mrs.  Gilman  in  her  work  for 
the  National  Convention  was  Mrs.  Clara  H.  B. 
Evans,  of  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  under  whose  ad- 
ministration as  Department  President  in  1903 
the  preliminary  plans  were  inaugurated.  Mrs. 
Evans,  after  conducting  a  successful  year's 
work  and  proving  herself  an  able  leader,  travel- 
ling twenty-five  thousand  miles  in  the  perform- 
ance of  her  duties,  was  chosen  chairman  of  the 
General  Committee  for  the  National  Convention. 

Having  had  charge  of  the  delegation  to  Cali- 
fornia the  year  previous,  she  was  well  fitted  for 
the  duties  of  her  position. 

Among  the  visitors  to  Boston  during  National 
Encampment  Week  were  many  thousand  women 
from  all  sections  of  the  country,  and  those  from 
the  West  and  South  received  a  royal  welcome 
from  the  patriotic  women  of  New  England. 


446 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gilman  reside  in  Roxbury. 
They  have  two  sons,  John  E.  Gilman,  Jr.,  and 
William  L.  T.,  both  graduates  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity and  engage*!  in  the  profession  of  law 
in  Boston.  The  elder  son  is  this  year  Afl jut- 
ant  of  the  Massachusetts  Division  of  the  Sons 
of  Veterans. 


ylNNIE    STEVENS   PERKINS    was  born 

L\  in  Salem,  Mass.,  April  12,  1868,  the 
JL  \^  daughter  of  Charles  Kimball  and  Mary 
E.  (Batchelder)  Stevens.  When  she 
was  a  year  old,  the  family  removed  from  Salem 
to  Somerville,  and  in  that  city  Miss  Stevens 
spent  the  greater  part  of  her  school  flays.  She 
speaks  with  sincere  appreciation  of  the  helpful 
and  stimulating  influences  of  her  Prescott 
School  life,  which  was  spent  wholly  unrler  the 
inspiring  principaLship  of  Gordon  A.  Southworth, 
now  supervisor  of  schools  in  Somerville.  She 
also  attended  the  high  school  of  that  city, 
completing  half  of  the  college  course.  In  June, 
1884,  the  family  removed  to  Lynnfield,  from 
which  town  Miss  Stevens  attended  the  Salem 
Normal  School,  completing  the  course  in  two 
years  and  graduating  in  June,  1887,  being  the 
poet  of  her  class.  The  following  year,  at  the 
triennial  gathering  of  the  alumni  of  the  school, 
she  was  invited  to  write  and  read  the  poem. 

Miss  Stevens  began  to  write  verse  at  the 
age  of  eight.  Her  first  published  work  appeared 
in  the  Radiator,  the  Somerville  High  School 
paper,  in  1882.  She  was  a  member  of  its 
editorial  staff.  Her  early  work,  both  stories 
and  verse,  was  published  in  the  Salem  Ga- 
zette, Watchman,  Golden  Rule,  the  Stiver  Cross, 
the  Conlrihvtor,  and  other  periodicals. 

A  sketch  of  this  writer,  under  her  maiden 
name,  appears,  with  a  selection  from  her  writ- 
ings, in  "Essex  County  Poets."  Sidney  Perley, 
Esq.,  of  Salem,  the  publisher  of  this  work,  .says 
of  her:  "Her  work  is  always  meritorious,  and 
she  is  well  worthy  of  the  niche  we  have  given 
her  in  this  volume,  although  the  youngest  of 
the  poets  on  our  list." 

"Thoughts  of  Peace,"  a  dainty  little  book 
of  verse,  and  "Appointed  Paths,"  a  story  for 
girls,  have  been  published  by  James  H.  Earle, 
of  Boston.     These  were  pleasantly  reviewed  by 


the  Congregationalist  and  other  papers.  She 
has  also  written  many  poems  for  public  occasions 
in  her  town,  her  poem  written  and  read  on  the 
occasion  of  the  dedicating  of  the  new  Town 
Hall  being  published  in  the  History  of  Lynn- 
field.  A  poem  written  in  honor  of  the  naming 
of  the  Daniel  Townsend  Chapter  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution,  Lyim,  was  read  by  her 
at  the  exercises  in  the  old  Town  Hall  of  old 
"Lynn  End"  and  afterward,  by  request,  at 
an  afternoon  meeting  of  the  D.  A.  R.  at  their 
headcjuarters  in  Boston.  At  the  Old  Home 
Day  exercises  of  Lynnfield,  held  at  Suntaug 
Lake  in  August,  1903,  she  also  read  a  poem 
written  for  the  occasion. 

Miss  Stevens  was  married  November  28, 
1889,  to  Mr.  John  Winslow  Perkins,  of  L}'nn- 
field,  and  went  to  live  in  the  pretty  cottage 
built  for  the  young  couple  on  the  Perkins 
farm,  which  has  been  in  the  family  since  1700, 
this  being  the  date  of  the  erection  of  the  home- 
stead. Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perkins  have  one  child, 
a  boy  of  ten  years,  who  has  been  given  the 
family  name,  John. 

Mrs.  Perkins  taught  in  the  public  school 
for  a  short  time  previous  to  her  marriage,  and 
has  had  many  private  pupils,  in  whom  she  has 
felt  great  interest,  for  she  is  very  fond  of  young 
people,  and  finds  nothing  more  delightful  than 
the  task  of  helping  them  to  develop  the  powers 
with  which  they  are  individually  endowed. 
The  work  of  the  teachers  of  our  public  schools 
is  an  especial  study,  and  Mrs.  Perkins  is  always 
enthusiastic  in  her  appreciation  of  all  that  is 
being  done  for  the  home  through  the  school. 
As  editor  of  the  department  of  "The  Home 
and  the  School,"  in  the  Suburban,  Boston, 
Mrs.  Perkins  is  having  an  opportunity  for  foster- 
ing the  much-desired  co-operation  of  parents 
and  teachers. 

She  was  for  a  considerable  time  connected 
with  the  Daily  Ereniiuj  Item,  Lynn,  as  cor- 
respondent from  her  town,  sustaining  very 
pleasant  relations  with  that  well-known  paper, 
as  also,  in  the  same  capacity,  with  the  Citizen 
and  Banner,  Wakefield,  and  has  been  for  a 
number  of  years  doing  regular  work  for  the 
Normal  Instructor,  New  York,  contributing 
exercises,  verse,  reports,  articles,  and  songs. 
Primary  Plans,   the  new  periodical  published 


3H'     j 


ANNIE   S.  PERKINS 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


447 


by  the  same  house,  uses  much  of  her  work,  and 
the  editor  has  recently  given  into  her  charge 
the  page  of  music,  which  appears  more  or  less 
regularly,  and  to  which  she  contributes  origi- 
nal rote  and  motion  songs. 

A  quatrain  which  appeared  some  time  ago 
in  the  Teachers'  World  with  other  verses,  has 
been  used  as  a  memory  gem  in  many  schools, 
and  has  proven  to  be  a  favorite  with  hundreds 
of  little  pupils.  Mrs.  Perkins  has  heard  many 
pleasant  words  regarding  it.     It  reatls : — 

When  the  beautiful  stars  peep  out  one  by  one, 

.\s  I  look  far  up  and  away, 
How  sweet  to  be  able  to  whisper  to  God, 

"I've  made  some  one  happy  to-day!" 

Her  work  for  the  Subiirban  has  brought 
this  writer  into  considerable  local  prominence, 
the  series  of  illustrated  articles  on  "The  Pipe 
Organ  in  Suburban  Homes"  having  attractetl 
much  favorable  notice.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perkins 
are  enthusiastic  camera  workers,  especially 
delighting  in  interior  work,  which  takes  so 
nmch  time  and  care,  but  is  so  much  appreciated. 
The  Suhitrhan  has  used  a  considerable  amount 
of  their  work  in  this  line.  In  fact,  for  the 
Suburban  Mrs.  Perkins  is  at  present  doing 
niiicli  of  her  literary  work.  Besides  the  illus- 
trated work  her  stories  and  songs  appear  from 
lime  to  time  in  that  periodical. 

Stories  for  the  chiklren's  page  of  Youth's 
Companion,  Our  Little  Ones,  the  Well-spring, 
and  other  periodicals,  have  recently  appeared. 
Through  Mrs.  Bemis,  editor  of  the  Normal 
Instructor,  New  York,  Mrs.  Perkins  was  some 
time  ago  put  into  touch  with  Dr.  Mary  Wootl 
Allen,  of  the  Americaii  Mother,  to  which  maga- 
zine she  is  now  a  contributor  of  sketches, 
juvenile  stories,  and  articles  on  the  training 
of  children  from  the  mother-teacher  point 
of  view. 

Mrs.  Perkins  is  a  member  of  the  New  England 
Woman's  Press  A,ssociation,  and  of  the  Kosmos 
Club  of  Wakefield. 

She  expresses  sincere  appreciation  of  the 
inspiration  of  the  work  of  Professor  S.  Henry 
Hadley,  supervisor  of  music  of  Somerville, 
and  Dr.  Daniel  B.  Hagar,  of  Salem  Normal 
School,  with  regard  to  the  fostermg  of  her 
musical  tastes.     Professor   George   F.  Wilson, 


supervisor  of  music  in  Wakefield  and  Beverly 
schools,  uses  verse  written  by  Mrs.  Perkins 
for  his  songs  for  different  grades,  requesting 
it  as  neeiled. 

As  a  member  of  the  Congregational  Church 
of  Lynnfield  Centre,  Mrs.  Perkins  finds  oppor- 
tunity for  religious  work,  having  a  class  of 
young  ladies  in  the  Bible  school  and  serving 
as  clerk  of  the  church,  besides  assisting  in  the 
music  on  Sundays. 

Mrs.  Perkins  wishes  to  pay  a  tribute  to  the 
ever-helpful  influence  of  one  of  the  sweetest 
mothers  in  the  world  and  a  hu.sband  who  de- 
lights in  and  fosters  any  good  woi-k  she  may 
do  for  the  home,  and  others  as  well. 


E  JOSEPHINE  COLLINS  BEEMAN, 
teacher  of  elocution  and  public  reader, 
,  was  born  in  Cambritlgeport  (a  part  of 
Cambridge),  Mass.,  November  17, 
LS74,  being  the  youngest  of  the  four  children 
of  P.  D.  Collins  and  his  wife,  Anna  (Murray) 
Collins.  On  the  maternal  side  she  is  a  de- 
scendant of  John  and  Mary  Murray,  farmers, 
of  Canton,  Mass.,  the  latter  of  whom  was 
noted  in  that  locality  as  an  herb  doctor,  being 
very  successful  in  healing  the  sick.  One  of  her 
remedies  is  still  in  use. 

Mrs.  Beeman  obtained  her  education  in  the 
public  schools  of  Cambridge  and  Hyde  Park, 
Mass.  While  still  in  school  she  studied  dress- 
making, which  she  began  to  teach  at  the  age 
of  sixteen.  Possessing  strong  artistic  instincts, 
she  was  not  contented  to  remain  at  this  occu- 
pation, but  in  1893-94  taught  a  public  school 
in  Western  Massachusetts,  having  previously 
become  a  student  at  the  New  England  Con- 
servatory of  Music.  Later,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  she  entered  the  Emerson  School  of  Oratory. 
Graduating  with  honors  from  that  institution 
after  the  usual  course,  she  accepted  a  position 
there  as  teacher  of  music,  physical  culture,  and 
elocution,  which  .she  held  for  several  years. 
She  has  since  introduced  physical  culture  and 
oratory  into  the  public  schools  in  the  vicinity 
of  Boston,  devoting  a  great  part  of  her  time 
to  the  instruction  of  teachers  in  this  work, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  school  authorities. 
Her  labors  in  this  direction  have  also  included 


448 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF  NEW   ENGLAND 


Dr.  Sargent's  Normal  School  in  Harvard 
Square,  Cambridge,  and  the  Dorchester  Club. 

Mrs.  Becnian  is  fond  of  outdoor  sports,  such 
as  rowing,  swimming,  bicycling,  horseback- 
riding  and  golf. 

Her  husband,  Jerome  Van  Ness  Beeman,  to 
whom,  as  E.  Josephine  Collins,  she  was  united 
September  25,  1900,  is  a  descendant  of  the 
early  Dutch  settlers  of  New  York,  in  which 
State  he  was  born  and  brought  up. 

In  the  winter  of  1903-1904  Mrs.  Beeman 
resumed  her  classes  (for  some  time  suspended) 
among  the  school  teachers  in  the  vicinity  of 
Boston,  and  is  carrying  on  this  work  at  present. 
She  has  also  from  time  to  time  written  articles 
for  various  papers,  including  the  Dorchester 
Beacon  and  the  Boston  Transcript.  She  is  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Ruskin  Club  and 
the  Emerson  Alumni  Association.  She  is  well 
read,  and  has  improved  her  education  and 
broadened  the  scope  of  her  knowledge  by  travel, 
having  visited  a  number  of  the  largest  cities 
and  .seen  the  principal  rivers  and  mountains 
of  this  country  and  Canada. 


LUCRETIA  HASTINGS  WETHERELL, 
a  member  of  the  Department  Relief 
__J  Committee  of  the  W.  R.  C,  was  born 
in  Newton,  Mass.,  and  was  educateil 
in  the  public  schools  of  that  town.  Her  par- 
ents were  Samuel  Beal  Cheney  and  Julia  Ann 
Maria  Cheney.  Her  father  died  when  she  was 
but  eight  years  old. 

Her  maternal  grandfather,  General  Ebenezer 
Cheney,  was  born  May  22,  1759.  The  records 
in  vol.  iii.,  ''  Massachusetts  Soldiens  and  Sailors 
of  the  Revolutionary  War,"  show  that  early  in 
1778  he  was  for  two  months  a  private  in  Cap- 
tain Abraham  Peirce's  company.  Colonel  Eleazer 
Brooks's  regiment  of  guards,  at  Cambridge;  also 
in  Captain  Joseph  Fuller's  (Second  Newton) 
company.  Colonel  Thatcher's  regiment;  marched 
to  Cambridge,  September  2,  1778,  to  guard 
British  troops;  service,  three  days;  also  in  1778 
a  private  in  Cajitain  Edward  Fiillcr's  comjwny, 
in  the  regiment  commanded  by  Colonel  \\  iiliam 
Mcintosh.  In  1779,  as  stated  in  the  Cheney 
Genealogy,  he  was  in  Captain  Samuel  Healy's 
company,    Colonel    John    Jacobs's    (Light    In- 


fantry) regiment;  enlisted  September  22,  dis- 
charged November  21;  service,  two  months,  six 
days,  travel  included,  at  Rhode  Island.  On 
June  10,  1805,  Governor  Caleb  Strong  appointed 
Ebenezer  Cheney,  Esq.,  Brigadier-general  of 
the  First  Brigade  in  the  Third  Division  of  the 
militia  of  this  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 
General  Cheney  was  a  Representative  to  the 
General  Court  from  1808  to  1817.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  committee  of  that  body  which 
produced  the  remonstrance  against  the  Em- 
bargo Act  in  1808,  and  it  is  thought  that  he 
may  have  written  the  document.  He  was  a 
delegate  to  the  Constitutional  Revision  Con- 
vention in  1820.  He  was  very  active  in  the 
incorporation  of  the  South  Burial-ground  in 
Newton  in  1802  and  in  the  erection  of  the  new 
meeting-house  in  1803-1805.  He  died  February 
27,  1853. 

In  1886  the  subject  of  this  sketch  (then  Lu- 
cretia  Hastings  Cheney)  was  married  to  Alonzo 
B.  Wetherell,  a  steel  manufacturer  and  an  acting 
Lieutenant  in  the  Forty-fourth  Mas.sachusetts 
Regiment.  He  was  a  prominent  member  of 
the  Masonic  order.  His  father,  Jacob  B.  Weth- 
erell, was  connected  with  the  firm  of  Grover  & 
Baker,  manufacturers  of  the  well-known  .sewing 
machines  of  that  name,  as  superintendent,  from 
the  first  establishment  of  the  firm  to  the  time 
of  his  death. 

Mrs.  Wetherell  has  always  been  interested  in 
church,  charitable,  and  patriotic  work.  In 
the  early  ])art  of  the  Civil  War  she  helped 
in  sending  supplies  to  the  soldiers  at  the 
front. 

She  joined  the  Warren  Avenue  Baptist 
Church  of  Boston,  but  transferred  her  member- 
shi])  to  the  Tremont  Temple  church,  where  she 
was  for  many  years  actively  ide'ntihed  with  all 
its  branches  of  work.  She  is  now  a  helper  in 
the  social  and  charitable  enterprises  of  the 
church  of  the  same  denomination  at  Field's 
Corner,  Dorchester,  where  she  is  a  resident. 

Mrs.  Wetherell  is  a  life  member  of  the  Home 
for  Aged  Couples  of  Ro.xbury  and  dee|Jy  inter- 
ested in  its  success;  is  a  member  of  the  Charity 
Club,  whicii  comprises  .some  of  the  best  known 
workers  in  philanthropy  throughout  Mas.sachu- 
setts;  also  a  member  of  Keystone  Chapter,  Order 
of   the  Eastern  Star,  of  Boston,   and  of   the 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


449 


Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home 
in  Massachusetts. 

In  1891  Mrs.  Wetherell  l)ecanie  a  member  of 
the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  uniting  with  Benja- 
min Stone,  Jr.,  Corps,  No.  68,  auxiliary  to  Post 
No.  68,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Dorchester.  She"  has  held 
various  positions  of  honor  in  the  corps,  and 
was  its  President  in  1899.  She  attended  the 
National  Convention  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  as  a 
delegate  in  1895  and  the  convention  at  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  in  1902.  She  has  travelled  ex- 
tensively in  the  South  and  West,  having  made 
six  trips  to  Colorado  and  vLsited  many  South- 
ern battle-fields.  She  has  performed  faithful 
service  as  Department  and  National  Aide  in 
the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  has  been  a 
liberal  contributor  to  its  various  funds.  For 
several  years  she  has  been  a  member  of  the 
Department  Relief  Committee,  a  position  re- 
quiring a  thorough  knowledge  of  relief  methods 
and  a  love  for  the  cause,  and  one  which  Mrs. 
Wetherell  is  admirably  adapted  to  fill,  being 
systematic,  kind-hearted,  and  a  woman  of  ex- 
cellent judgment.  She  was  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  Arrangements  for 
the  National  Convention  held  in  Boston  in 
August,  1904,  and  of  other  committees. 


LUE  STUART  WADS  WORTH  was  born 
in  Springfield,  Cal.,  July  21,  1857, 
^  (laughter  of  Samuel  H.  and  Marga- 
ret P.  (Turner)  Stuart.  Her  parents 
moved  to  Boston  in  1869,  and  she  received 
her  education  in  the  schools  of  that  city.  As 
Lue  Stuart,  she  was  married  April  30,  1881, 
to  Captain  Edward  B.  Wadsworth,  of  Con- 
necticut. 

Mrs.  Wadsworth  is  a  descendant  of  seven 
Revolutionary  soldiers,  and  through  their  ser- 
vices is  an  active  member  of  John  Atlams 
Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, and  an  associate  member  of  Paul  Jones 
Chapter  in  the  same  organization. 

Being  greatly  interested  in  patriotic  work, 
she  joined  Dahlgren  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
No.  20,  of  South  Boston,  in  1887,  and  since 
that  time  has  been  one  of  the  most  active 
workers  in  the  order.  She  served  as  Presi- 
dent   of   Corps    No.    20   three   years,  and    as 


its  Patriotic  Instructor  for  ten  years.  She  was 
the  first  Patriotic  Instructor  to  place  flags  in 
the  Boston  schools;  and,  through  her  efforts, 
flags,  copies  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, and  oleographs  of  the  origin  and  history 
of  the  stars  anil  stripes  have  been  placed  in 
all  South  Boston  schools,  both  public  and 
parochial. 

In  1903  she  was  National  Patriotic  Instruc- 
tor of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  by  her 
efforts  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  appropriation 
of  six  hundred  dollars  for  the  promotion  of 
patriotic  education  in  the  schools  of  the 
South. 

Inheriting  the  patriotic  blood  of  her  ancestors, 
.she  is  constantly  striving  to  create  an  increased 
devotion  to  flag  and  country  among  the  younger 
generation.  She  is  a  ready  speaker,  and  her 
services  are  in  constant  ilemand  at  patriotic 
gatherings.  Mrs.  Wadsworth  is  a  charter  mem- 
ber of  the  George  Washington  Memorial  Asso- 
ciation, a  life  patron  of  the  National  Council 
of  Women  of  the  United  States,  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  National  Education  Association  of 
the  United  States,  Patriotic  Councillor  of  the 
Massachusetts  Floral  Emblem  Society,  also  a 
member  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  the 
Soldiers'  Home  and  the  Order  of  the  Eastern 
Star,  Rathbone  Sisters,  and  Odd  Ladies. 

She  has  been  a  prominent  club  woman 
for  many  years,  holding  memborshi])  in  the 
Woman's  Charity  Club,  Mattapanock  Woman's 
Club,  Pansy  Club,  and  .several  others. 


CAROLINE    ASENATH     BEMIS,    ma- 
tron  of    the    Herbert    Hall    Asylum, 
founded  by  her  husband.  Dr.  Merrick 
Bemis,  in  W'orcester,  Mass.,  has  been 
officially    associated    with    philanthropic    work 
in  that  city  for  half  a  century. 

Born  in  Brookfield,  Mass.,  March  11,  1832, 
she  is  a  tlaughter  of  the  late  Henry  Gillmore, 
M.D.,  and  Caroline  Rice  Gillmore,  of  Brook- 
field,  and  on  the  maternal  side  grand-tlaughter 
of  Peter  and  Caroline  Rice. 

She  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  and 
also  at  a  private  school  in  her  native  town. 
The  ceremony  which  united  her  (Caroline  A. 
Gillmore)  in  marriage  with  Dr.  Merrick  Bemis, 


450 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


a  native  of  Sturbridge,  took  place  on  January 
1,  1856.  Dr.  Bemis  at  that  time  was  superinten- 
dent of  the  State  Lunatic  Hospital  at  Worces- 
ter, where  he  had  previously  been  assistant  to 
Dr.  Chandler.  Retiring  from  the  State  Hospital 
in  1872,  after  nearly  twenty-five  years'  ser- 
vice, he  founded  a  private  ho.spital,  Herbert 
Hall  Asylum,  named  for  George  Herbert,  the 
English  divine  and  poet.  It  is  for  mentally 
diseased  patients. 

Although  now  (1903)  in  his  eighty-third 
year,  Dr.  Bemis  is  in  full  possession  of  all  his 
faculties.  He  is  the  manager  of  the  hospital 
and  an  interested  worker  in  public  affairs  in 
Worcester,  being  always  ready  to  advance 
every  good  cause. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  Mrs.  Bemis  was  the 
efficient  matron  of  the  Stafe  Lunatic  Hospital 
at  Worcester.  In  her  early  labors  she  received 
the  friendly  council  of  the  distinguished  philan- 
thropist, Dorothea  L.  Dix.  Mrs.  Bemis  con- 
tinues her  active  duties  as  matron  at  Herbert 
Hall,  tlispensing  comfort  and  happiness  to 
all  with  whom  she  associates.  Cheerfulness 
is  one  of  her  principles,  and  combined  with 
an  unselfish  spirit  has  made  her  life  work  emi- 
nently successful.  During  extended  travels 
abroad  some  years  since,  she  visited  hospitals 
and  other  institutions,  adding  to  the  value 
of  her  experience  by  study  of  foreign  methods. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Bemis  have  one  son.  Dr.  John 
Merrick  Bemis.  He  was  born  February  14, 
1860,  and  is  now  assistant  physician  at  the 
Herbert  Hall  Asylum. 


A  UGUSTA  MERRILL  HUNT,  the  first 
/\  president  of  the  Portland  branch  of 
J^  \^  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  is  a  native  of  Portland,  Me., 
being  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  late  George 
Simonton  and  Ellen  (Merrill)  Barstow,  of  that 
city,  and  until  her  marriage  known  as  Augusta 
M.  Barstow.  In  1863  she  became  the  wife  of 
George  S.  Hunt,  a  leading  merchant  of  Port- 
land. 

For  many  years  Mrs.  Hunt  and  two  of  her 
sisters,  Mrs.  Susan  E.  Bragdon  and  Mrs.  G.  B. 
McGregor,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  their 
mother,  have  been  prominently  identified  with 


educational  and  philanthropic  work.  Mrs. 
Bragdon  was  the  first  president  of  the  Woman's 
Literary  Union  and  a  devoted  worker  in  the 
Portland  Fraternity.  Mrs.  McGregor  is  the 
founder  and  promoter  of  the  Maine  Home  for 
Friendless  Boys.  Mrs.  Hunt  retained  the  office 
of  president  of  the  Portland  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  for  fifteen  years.  Under 
her  direction  the  Coffee  House  and  Friendly 
Inn,  the  Flower  and  Diet  Missions,  Day  Nur- 
sery, and  Free  Kindergartens  were  adopted  as 
branches  of  the  work  of  this  organization;  and 
the  office  of  police  matron  was  also  established, 
Portland  being  the  first  city  to  recognize  the 
importance  of  having  a  woman  to  care  for  the 
unfortunate  of  her  own  sex.  In  the  National 
Christian  Temperance  Union  Mrs.  Hunt  has 
been  the  superintendent  of  several  departments. 
In  1884  she  was  chosen  by  the  Governor  of  the 
State  to  co-operate  with  a  Legislative  Commit- 
tee in  the  interests  of  the  boys  at  the  State 
Reform  School.  Here  her  womanly  tact  and 
kindness,  combined  with  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  school,  made  her  advice  and  services  val- 
uable to  the  institution,  and  she  was  indirectly 
the  means  of  bringing  about  some  needed  im- 
provements that  proved  of  great  benefit  to  the 
boys.  On  the  death  of  her  mother,  Mrs.  Ellen 
M.  Barstow;  in  1873,  Mrs.  Hunt  succeeded  her 
on  the  board  of  management  of  the  Home  for 
Agetl  Women,  and  for  the  ))ast  sixteen  years 
has  been  the  honored  president  of  this  well- 
known  society.  She  has  been  prominently 
connected  with  woman's  suffrage  organiza- 
tions, and  at  present  is  Maine  superintendent 
of  franchise  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union.  For  ten  years  she  was  the 
president  of  the  Portlanil  W^oman's  Council, 
auxiliary  to  the  National  Council,  which  con- 
sists of  eighteen  affiliated  societies  having  a 
membership  of  several  thousand-,  lender  her 
leadership  the  Council  was  instrumental  in 
having  a  law  pas.sed  which  gives  to  a  mother 
an  equal  right  with  the  father  in  the  care  and 
guanlianship  of  minor  children,  and  also  a  law 
which  i)ermits  the  election  of  women  to  the 
school  board. 

Mrs.  Hunt  is  well  known  at  the  State  Capitol 
by  her  appeals  to  the  Legislature  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  cottage  system  at  the  Reform 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


451 


School  for  Boys,  also  for  addresses  in  the  inter- 
est of  a  reformatory  prison  for  women  and  in 
the  cause  of  equal  suffrage.  Her  presentation 
of  these  subjects  has  been  remarkable  for  fore- 
sight and  sound  reason,  with  an  earnestness  and 
womanly  grace  which  appealed  to  both  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  her  hearers.  Though  ac- 
tively itlentified  with  so  many  public  interests 
in  her  native  city  and  State,  she  has  always 
consistently  maintained  that  a  woman's  first 
duty  was  to  her  home,  and  she  has  never  alloweil 
anything  to  interfere  with  her  family  and  social 
relations.  The  generous  hospitality  of  Mrs. 
Hunt  and  of  her  husband,  in  his  lifetime,  has 
long  made  her  home  a  centre  of  attraction  to 
kinsfolk,  friends,  and  distinguished  guests 
Mr.  Hunt  died  in  1S96.  Their  two  sons  are 
living,  one  in  Portland,  the  other  in  Minne- 
apolis. 


LELIA  FRANCES  BASSETT  ROCK- 
WOOD,  Department  Patriotic  Instruc- 
J  tor  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  of 
Massachusetts,  was*born  November  4, 
1843,  in  Little  Falls,  N.J.  She  is  descended  on 
her  father's  side  from  William  Bassett,  who 
came  to  Plymouth  in  the  second  forefather  ship, 
the  "Fortune,"  in  1621.  Joseph  Bassett,  her 
great-grandfather,  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier. 
(His  record  can  be  found  in  "  Massachasetts 
Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion," vol.  i.,  p.  760,  Captain  John  Callender's 
Company.) 

Nathaniel  Bowman  Brown  Bassett,  her  father, 
was  born  October  19,  1814,  in  Plymouth,  Vt., 
and  died  July  10,  1866,  in  Milford,  Mass.  He 
was  a  teacher  in  Albany  and  .several  other 
places  in  New  York  and  in  New  Jersey,  but 
failing  health  compelled  him  to  give  up  the 
profession  which  he  had  followed  with  success 
for  many  years. 

Mrs.  Rockwood's  mother,  Caroline  Fisher 
Ba.ssett,  daughter  of  Benjamin  Fisher,  was  born 
in  West  Fairlee,  Vt.,  and  died  in  Milford,  Mass., 
July  29,  1899.  She  was  descended  from  An- 
thony Fi.sher,  an  Engli.sh  Puritan,  who  settled 
in  Dedham,  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  in 
1637. 

Lelia  Frances  Bassett  (Mrs.  Rockwood)  at- 


tended the  public  schools  of  Milford  until  she 
reached  the  age  of  fourteen,  and  subsequently 
for  several  years  pursued  a  regular  cour.se  of 
study  under  the  instruction  of  her  father,  who 
was  then  a  confirmed  invalid.  She  began  to 
teach  in  Milfonl  when  she  was  eighteen  years 
of  age,  and  continued  in  this  work  until  June, 
1876.  The  school  committee  in  their  report 
for  that  year  referred  to  her  as  follows :  "  We 
have  few  changes  to  report.  One  of  them  is 
the  resignation  of  Miss  Lelia  F.  Bassett.  For 
years  she  taught  the  primary  school  in  the 
upper  room  of  the  old  Town  House.  Under 
her  care  it  grew  to  be  a  model  .school,  excelling 
in  gooil  order  and  in  rapid  advance  of  the 
pujMls  in  study.  She  possessed  superior  gifts 
as  a  teacher,  and  in  her  resignation  the  town 
has  met  a  loss  not  easy  to  repair.  But  what 
is  our  loss  is  another's  gain.  As  Mrs.  Rock- 
wood  she  carries  with  her  the  good  wishes  of 
hundreds  of  parents  who  had  learned  to  es- 
teem her  as  the  kind  and  judicious  teacher  of 
their  children." 

Samuel  Rockwood,  to  whom  Miss  Bassett 
was  married  July  2,  1876,  was  a  native  of  Mil- 
ford, Mass.,  being  a  son  of  Deacon  Peter  and 
Sabra  (Parnell)  Rockwood.  He  died  in  Milford, 
April  6,  1S97. 

Mrs.  Rockwood  joined  the  Pine  Street  Bap- 
tist Church  on  July  3,  1864.  She  has  been  a 
teacher  in  the  Sunday-school  continuously  to 
the  present  time.  She  is  active  and  helpful  in 
all  branches  of  the  work  of  the  church.  She 
servetl  for  several  years  as  president  of  the 
Woman's  Circle,  and  also  as  president  of  the 
Woman's  Missionary  Society.  Chosen  clerk  of 
the  church  on  July  3,  1885,  she  has  performed 
her  duties  in  that  capacity  so  satisfactorily 
that  she  continues  in  the  office,  her  faithfulness 
and  ability  being  recognized  by  all  the  members. 
During  all  the  years  she  has  held  this  position 
she  has  ofhcially  re])resente(l  the  church  at  con- 
ventions, councils,  and  other  meetings.  She 
is  one  of  the  original  members  and  has  been  a 
director  in  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  to  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  which  was  organ- 
ized in  1888.  She  worked  untiringly  for  its 
success  for  fourteen  years,  serving  as  treasurer 
eleven  years.  Other  duties  compelled  her  to 
resign  from  official   work   in   this   association, 


452 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


but  she  retains  her  membership  and  continues 
her  interest. 

The  Milford  Improvement  Society  elected  her 
a  director  when  first  organized.  The  Quinshi- 
paug  Woman's  Club,  of  Milford,  Hopedale,  and 
Mendon,  was  organized  June  8,  1897,  and  Mrs. 
Rockwood  was  elected  treasurer,  serving  also 
two  years  as  a  director.  When  the  social  service 
department  of  the  club  was  started,  in  1899, 
she  was  one  of  the  committee  of  five  appointed 
to  have  charge  of  it.  During  the  two  years  .she 
served  on  this  committee  the  stamp  savings 
system  was  introduced  into  some  of  the  schools, 
meeting  with  great  success.  This  is  one  of 
Mrs.  Rockwood 's  pet  schemes,  as  she  believes 
in  developing  habits  of  thrift  among  the  children 
of  the  public  schools  by  encouraging  them  to 
save  their  ))ennies. 

Having  literary  ability,  she  has  prepared 
papers  for  the  Woman's  Club  and  other  socie- 
eties.  She  is  thoroughly  patriotic,  and  takes 
a  deep  interest  in  all  matters  relating  to  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  As  a  member 
of  Major  E.  F.  Fletcher  Relief  Corps,  No.  72, 
of  Milford,  she  has  done  excellent  work  in  vari- 
ous offices  and  on  committee!^.  Wlien  presi- 
dent of  the  corps,  in  1899-1900,  she  conducted 
the  work  in  a  pleasing  and  efficient  manner, 
representing  it  .so  creditably  on  public  occa- 
.sions  that  higher  honors  were  conferred  upon 
her.  The  Department  Convention  of  Massa- 
chusetts has  at  several  of  its  sessions  elected  her 
a  delegate  to  National  Conventions.  ,  While 
serving  in  this  capacity  she  has  visited  Western 
and  Southern  cities,  her  interest  in  patriotic 
work  extending  throughout  the  Union. 

As  Assistant  Inspector  she  -showed  such  a 
knowledge  of  her  duties  and  capability  of  im- 
parting instruction  that  she  was  appointed 
Department  Inspector  in  1901  by  Mrs.  Maria 
W.  Going,  Department  President.  Her  report 
at  the  next  annual  convention  covered  fifteen 
printed  pages,  one  paragraph  of  which  shows 
the  variety  of  work  accomplished:  "It  has  been 
my  privilege  to  visit  many  of  our  corps  per- 
sonally, and  everywhere  I  have  found  the  same 
spirit  of  charity,  loyalty,  and  helpfulness  among 
my  co-workers,  and  have  been  cordially  re- 
ceived by  them  at  all  times;  and,  whether 
standing  with  them  on  the  top  of  'Old  Grey- 


lock'  Mountain  or  on  the  sandy  beach  of  Prov- 
incetown,  I  have  felt,  as  never  before,  that  the 
future  good  of  our  country  was  assured  by 
reason  of  the  noble,  earnest  women  who  com- 
prise our  membership. 

"I  have  attended  all  the  Council  meetings, 
been  present  at  four  County  Associations  meet- 
ings, instructed  eight  corps,  attended  eighteen 
exemplifications  and  social  days  combined,  was 
present  at  the  institution  of  the  corps  in  Web- 
ster, inspected  twelve  corps,  installed  the  officers 
of  six  corps,  was  a  delegate  to  the  National 
Convention  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  have  written 
six  hundred  ninety-eight  letters,  and  have  at- 
tended to  various  other  matters  pertaining  to 
my  oflRce.  I  also  repre.sented  the  Department 
at  the  Barnstable  County  Association  at  Sand- 
wich." Mrs.  Rockwood  journeyed  to  Califor- 
nia with  the  official  party  of  the  Department  of 
Massachusetts,  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
and  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  served  as  a 
delegate  at  the  convention  in  San  Francisco. 
She  made  an  extended  tour  in  the  State,  and 
was  the  recipient  of  many  courtesies  from 
friends. 

At  the  convention  held  in  Boston  February 
11  and  12,  1892,  Mrs.  Rockwood  was  chosen  a 
member  of  the  Department  ExeGlitive  Board. 
She  has  continued  her  visits  to  corps,  partici- 
pating also  in  Grand  Army  gatherings,  public 
meetings,  and  receptions.  Her  remarks  on 
these  occasions  are  always  interesting,  and  their 
effect  is  aided  by  her  pleasing  manner.  At  the 
annual  convention,  February,  190.3  (having 
previously  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  the 
office  of  Junior  Vice-President),  she  accepted 
an  appointment  as  Department  Patriotic  In- 
structor, conferred  by  Mrs.  Clara  H.  B.  Evans, 
Department  President.  Mrs.  Rockwood  is  a 
National  Aiile  in  the  W.  R.  C.  She  is  now 
doing  active  work  in  preparing  for  the  National 
Eiicnmpment  of  tlic  G.  A.  R.  and  National 
Convention  of  the  W.  R.  C.  in  Boston  in  August 
of  this  year  (1904),  being  chairman  of  the 
Auditing  Connnittee  and  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  Reception  Committee, 
and  Floral  Committee. 

Mrs.  Rockwood  anticipates  joining  a  chapter 
in  the  D.  A.  R.  and  the  Colonial  Dames,  to  each 
of  which  organizations  she  is  eligible. 


NINA    K.  DAKLINGTONE   AND    DAUGHTERS 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


453 


NINA  KELTON  DARLINGTONE,  the 
author  and  originator  of  a  system  of 
musical  training  and  instruction  copy- 
righted under  the  title  of  "  Kindergar- 
ten Music-Building;  the  S'cience  of  Music,  Art, 
and  Education." 

To  picture  for  the  public  the  essentially 
selfless  toil  and  privations  of  an  originator  and 
philanthropist  in  any  work  is  hardly  possible: 
only  those  who  have  passed  through  the  strug- 
gle know  the  cost.  A  glance  at  the  system 
of  education,  "Kindergarten  Music-Building; 
the  Science  of  Music,  Art,  and  Education," 
gives  but  a  faint  idea  of  its  vastness  and  the 
painstaking  labor  that  gave  it  birth. 

Nina  K.  Darlingtone,  though  originally  from 
Philadelphia,  is  descended  through  her  mater- 
nal grandfather  from  New  Englantl  colonists. 
Tracing  her  ancestry,  we  find  a  long  line  coura- 
geously braving  hardships,  leaving  their  native 
land,  becoming  pioneers  in  a  new  country  for 
conscience'  sake,  fighting  in  the  early  wars, 
holding  responsible  offices,  conducting  public 
affairs,  and  fearlessly  tlevoting  themselves 
to  humanity's  needs. 

On  the  maternal  side  we  find  Thomas  Miner, 
who  came  to  this  country  about  1630.  He 
joined  the  church  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  in 
1632,  married  Grace  Palmer  in  1634,  and  later 
removed  to  Stonington,  Conn.,  where  he  ended 
his  days.  His  diary  shows  him  to  have  held 
almost  every  office  within  the  gift  of  his  fellow- 
town.smen.  His  notes  began  with  the  day  of 
the  week,  day  of  the  year,  year  of  our  Lord,  and 
year  of  creation,  not  forgetting  the  mention  of 
leap-year.  This  diary  seems  to  have  been  a 
public  ilocument,  hence  the  more  valuable.  A 
descendant  of  one  of  his  twelve  children  was 
Governor  W.  T.  Miner,  of  Connecticut  (1855- 
57).  Captain  John  Miner,  sou  of  Thomas  and 
a  personal  friend  of  Governor  Winthrop,  was 
skilletl  in  the  Intlian  dialects,  and  served  as  in- 
terpreter. He  was  for  many  years  Town  Clerk 
of  Wootlbury,  Conn.  His  daughter  Grace 
married  Samuel  Grant,  Jr.,  of  Windsor,  Conn., 
in  1688,  and  thus  became  an  ancestress  of 
Ulysses  S.  Grant,  President  of  the  United 
States. 

Charles  Miner,  the  historian  of  Wyoming  and 
a  great-grandfather   of   Nina   K.   Darlingtone, 


was  son  of  Soth  and  Ann  (Charlton)  Miner  and 
a  lineal  descendant  of  Thomas,  the  immigrant. 
Born  in  Norwich,  C(jnn.,  in  1780,  he  migrated 
to  Pennsylvania  in  1799,  and  two  or  three  years 
later  settled  in  Wilkesbarre.  He  served  in  the 
State  Legislature  in  1807  and  1808,  and  he  in- 
troduced many  bills  that  are  now  on  the  statute 
books  of  that  State.  During  the  younger  Presi- 
dent Atlams's  administration  he  was  in  Con- 
gress with  Daniel  Webster,  Henry  Clay,  and 
other  noted  statesmen,  personal  letters  from 
each  of  whom  to  Mr.  Miner  are  still  in  the  family. 
The  Hon.  Charles  Miner  was  a  strong  anti- 
slavery  man.  In  January,  1829,  he  made  an 
eloquent  speech  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  presented  the  first  bill  advocating 
measures  to  bring  about  the  gradual  abolition 
of  slaveiy  in  the  District  of  Cohnnbia.  At 
the  conclusion  of  his  speech,  as  narrated  in 
later  tlays  by  one  of  the  family,  Mr.  W'ebster 
followed  him  into  the  lobby,  and,  throwing 
his  arms  around  him,  said,  "Mr.  Miner,  you 
have  kindled  a  fire  that  will  burn  from  Maine 
to  Georgia." 

Mr.  Miner's  thought  was  ever  for  the  good  of 
the  community.  He  was  a  zealous  promoter 
of  public  improvements,  as  railways  and  canals. 
He  introduced  anthracite  into  many  homes, 
and,  in  company  with  two  other  gentlemen, 
was  the  first  to  ship  this  hard  coal  of  Wyoming, 
which  hatl  been  thought  of  little  value,  down 
the  Lehigh  River  to  Philadelphia. 

Many  amusing  and  curious  stories  are  told  of 
the  introiluction  of  "these  black  stones,"  as  the 
people  calkxl  them.  Once  they  were  incredu- 
lous about  their  merit  as  fuel.  On  one  occa- 
sion several  men  had  worked  for  hours  to  make 
the  coal  burn,  and,  finally  deciding  that  the 
task  was  impossible,  had  closed  the  stove  iloor 
and  gone  out  to  dinner,  incensed  at  the  waste 
of  time  and  labor.  What  was  their  amaze- 
ment on  returning  to  find  a  Ijrilliant  fire  burn- 
ing and  the  room  as  warm  as  a  day  in  summer! 

Charles  Miner's  father,  Seth  Miner,  was  on 
General  Jed  Huntington's  staff  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary W^ar. 

The  old  Miner  homestead,  on  the  plains  near 
Wilkesbarre,  Pa.,  has  been  standing  for  about 
a  century,  and  is  still  in  possession  of  the 
family. 


454 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


It  is  said  that  one  of  the  progenitors  of  the 
family  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  knighted  on  the 
field  of  battle  for  his  valiant  deeds;  and  because 
of  his  owning  great  tracts  of  land,  including 
mines  of  value,  his  name  became  Sir  Thomas 
the  Miner.  It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  his 
descendants  to-day  are  possessors  of  mines  in 
the  coal  district  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  left 
to  them  by  Charles  Miner,  whose  legal  papers 
read  that  coal  should  be  granted  to  his  heirs 
and  their  descendants  free  of  cost  forever. 

Inrlirectly,  Nina  K.  Darlingtone  is  related  to 
Priscilla  Mullins  and  John  Alden,  this  fact  em- 
phasizing the  New  England  connection. 

Ancestors  of  hers  noted  for  sterling  worth, 
brave  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  and  suffering 
persecution  for  conscience'  sake,  are  found  in 
the  Lewis  family,  the  direct  line  of  the  ma- 
ternal grandfather,  which  originated  in  Wales. 
Henry  Lewis,  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
PViends,  came  to  this  country  in  1682,  his 
father,  Evan  Lewis,  accompanying  him,  and 
settled  in  Philadelphia.  The  interests  of  Welsh 
immigrants  were  committed  to  his  care  by 
William  Penn,  his  personal  friend,  who  ap- 
pointed him  one  of  three  to  decide  all  questions 
in  place  of  the  court.  He  purchased  vast  tracts 
of  land,  and  owned  both  a  town  house  and  a 
country  manor.  In  the  seventh  generation,  in 
direct  line,  was  Nina  K.  Darlingtone's  maternal 
grandfather,  the  Hon.  Joseph  J.  Lewis,  an  emi- 
nent lawyer,  interested  in  all  educational  mat- 
ters, who  was  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue 
under  Abraham  Lincoln  and  a  valued  personal 
friend  of  the  President,  by  whom  important 
questions  were  often  referred  to  his  clear,  un- 
biassed judgment.  His  grand-daughter  treas- 
ures, among  other  recollections  of  him,  this, 
that  was  told  to  her  in  her  girlhood:  He  had 
been  invited  to  join  the  family  party  to  attend 
the  theatre  on  the  night  of  the  President's 
assassination,  but,  unable  to  be  present,  was 
spared  the  shock  of  witnessing  the  fatal  deetl, 
to  be  of  service  to  the  family  in  their  hour  of 
need.  His  son,  the  late  Charlton  T.  Lewis, 
LL.D.  (recently  deceased),  editor  of  Harper's 
"Book  of  Facts"  and  author  of  the  Latin  dic- 
tionary said  officially  to  be  used  as  the  standard 
in  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Universities,  England, 
was  poet  of  his  class  in  graduating  from  Yale 


College;  and  later  two  sons  of  Charlton  T.  Lewis 
each  received  the  same  compliment  at  gradua- 
tion. Graceanna  Lewis,  a  well-known  scientist, 
an  authority  on  ornithology,  is  a  member  of  this 
branch  of  the  family." 

Joseph  J.  Lewis's  mother,  Alice  Jackson,  was 
a  noted  mathematician  of  her  day.  Still  in  the 
possession  of  a  descendant  of  the  family  is  the 
estate  in  Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  which 
it  is  said  was  seen  in  a  vision  by  the  original 
owner,  the  Jackson  immigrant,  before  he  left 
his  old  home  in  Ireland  to  found  a  new  one  in 
a  land  where  he  could  worship  God,  unmolested, 
in  the  way  that  he  felt  was  right  and  true. 

Nina  K.  Darlingtone's  father,  Charles  Thorn- 
ton Murphy,  a  resident  of  Philadelphia,  is  a  great 
lover  of  music  and  art,  a  composer  of  ability, 
and  a  natural  artist.  His  setting  of  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes's  battle  hymn,  "  God  bless  our 
Flag,"  fitly  illustrates  his  musical  quality.  His 
father,  John  H.  Murphy,  fearing,  with  old-time 
prejudice,  that  he  would  devote  his  life  to 
music,  sent  him  to  sea  for  five  years;  but, 
though  separated  from  his  beloved  instrument, 
his  musical  nature  held  its  own.  The  father's 
influence,  however,  was  great  enough  afterward 
to  induce  him  to  adopt  a  business  career.  In 
his  wife,  Alice  C.  Lewis,  he  found  a  willing  sym- 
pathizer and  ready  listener,  and  thus  was  woven 
into  the  home  life  their  own  interpretation  of 
music  for  the  very  love  of  it. 

Mr.  Murphy's  mother,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Saunderson,  was  a  descendant  of  Robert 
Carter,  of  "Corotoman,"  I^ancaster  County,  Va., 
known  as  "King  Carter,"  who  was  born  about 
1663,  son  of  John  and  Sarah  (Ludlow)  Carter; 
the  royal  descent  of  "King  Carter,"  and  there- 
fore of  his  posterity,  with  a  long  list  of  illus- 
trious progenitors,  among  them  Charlemagne 
and  the  Emperor  -Frederick  Barbarossa,  is  of 
undisputed  authenticity  (see  "Ancestry  of  Ben- 
jamin Harrison,  President  of  the  United  States, 
1889-93,"  with  included  chart,  by  Charles  P. 
Keith). 

Into  this  musical  and  intellectual  atmosphere 
came  the  first-born  of  eight  children,  the  child 
Nina,  named  for  a  song  and  destined  to  bless 
all  good  inclination  and  help  others  to  trust 
holy  heart  impulses.  As  usual  with  those 
whose  abilities  are  of  an  unusual  order  and 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


455 


beyond  what  the  world  cognizes,  she  suffered 
from  uncongenial  environment;  but,  though  this 
blighted  outward  expression,  it  did  not  tleter 
the  child's  inner  growth,  even  as  the  careless 
crushing  of  a  flower  does  not  hinder  the  ema- 
nating of  the  perfume.  As  the  eldest  of  eight 
children,  she  was  ever  the  mother's  helper  and 
confidant,  sharing  in  the  interest  of  the  home 
and  little  ones.  When  only  three  years  old 
she  saved  her  smaller  sister  from  falling  from 
a  high  window,  holding  on  to  the  child's  foot 
and  crying  out  until  some  one  came  to  her  aid. 
At  the  age  of  ten  years  she  entered  the  conserv- 
atory of  music  at  Philadelphia,  and  for  two 
or  three  broken  years  at  school  enjoyed  the  ad- 
vantages of  musical  education.  After  two  years 
of  boarding-school  life  ,slie  was  graduated  the 
first  in  her  class,  though  she  had  been  a  member 
of  it  for  music  study  for  the  last  six  months 
only.  At  home  in  Philadelphia  two  years  of 
excellent  drill  under  a  well-known  master. 
Professor  Henri  Schneider,  completed  her  musi- 
cal training.  This  shows  conclusively  that  per- 
severance in  the  natural  development  of  the 
musical  nature,  belonging,  as  it  does,  to  the 
deeper,  or  spiritual,  is  ever  of  more  value  than 
mere  intellectual  training. 

At  fourteen  she  began  to  teach  music  to  a 
cousin,  and  also  to  her  brothers  and  sisters,  the 
cousin  being  older  than  herself.  Thus  we  see 
her  at  an  early  age  beginning  life's  duties  se- 
riously, earnestly,  ever  with  a  fixetl  determina- 
tion to  overcome  the  evil  of  ignorance  with  true 
understanding,  and  holding  to  the  quiet,  inner 
meditation  in  lieu  of  formal  instruction  from 
without.  She  thus  discovered  that  this  study 
alone  fits  one  to  give  out  the  true  substance 
worthy  the  distribution  to  others.  This  did 
not  hinder  her  from  entering  into  all  the  games 
of  childhood  with  ready  zest,  settling  disputes 
with  an  ab.solute  justice  that  allowed  no  ques- 
tion of  ulterior  motive  or  of  partiality.  Lovetl 
and  trusted  by  her  associates,  she  grew  into 
intimate  and  lasting  friendships,  upon  which 
she  leaned  for  the  aid  and  sympathy  most  es- 
sential to  a  loving,  confiding  nature. 

In  her  first  teaching  of  young  children  she 
realized  strongly  their  need  of  a  natural  system ; 
and  oftentimes  a  music  lesson  was  given  the 
little   student   on   the   vine-covered   porch   or 


under  the  garden  trees,  the  piano  being  sought 
after  the  problems  in  hand  had  been  solved  to 
the  satisfaction  of  teacher  and  pupil.  She 
waited,  hoping  that  some  one  else  would  bring 
out  such  a  system  as  she  herself  was  unwittingly 
in  process  of  unfo'ding.  As  life's  experience 
deepened,  further  insight  was  gained  into  these 
matters;  and  within  three  years  after  her  mar- 
riage, which  occurred  in  the  spring  of  1892, 
the  birth  of  her  first  child,  Linda  Frederika 
(December,  1894),  brought  the  experience  and 
joys  of  motherhood.  Her  life  was  further  en- 
riched by  a  second  daughter,  Aylsa  Winona 
Lewis,  born  in  January,  1896.  Three  years  of 
invalidism  gave  her  opportunity  for  quiet 
thought  and  earnest  pondering  on  many  things. 

The  lack  of  a  general  musical  atmosphere  was 
apparent,  and  the  need  of  such  for  the  budding 
thought  made  her  long  to  gather  the  little  ones 
about  her  and  create  at  least  some  intelligent 
love  for  the  beauty  of  art  and  the  ability  to 
grasp  inner  meanings  of  harmony  so  success- 
fully hitlden  from  the  ignoramus  in  the  tone 
world. 

Many  unanswered  questions  had  pursuetl  her 
from  her  early  years,  questions  which  her  elders 
could  not  answer.  She  had  soon  observeil  that 
the  child  nurtured  under  its  mother's  influence 
was  the  one  to  achieve  in  the  world's  history 
of  great  deeds;  also  that  the  child  of  genius 
was  permitted  to  unfold  in  the  first  attempts 
at  expression  without  interference  from  out- 
side. U'hat  was  the  cause  back  of  these  effects? 
She  knew  that  The  Creator  who  had  createtl 
all  things  good  could  not  fail  to  give  humanity 
a  remetly  for  every  ill.  The  God  of  Love  could 
not  omit  that  which  would  heal  every  broken 
life  and  heart,  but  why  the  necessity  of  pass- 
ing through  neeiUess  agony  to  learn  lessons 
easily  taught?  Surely  there  must  be  a  preven- 
tative of  such  perversion  of  the  natural  in  an 
educational  system  that  would  allow  the  child 
to  find  himself  wholesomely  in  the  kingdom 
of  the  Eternal  King,  under  whose  laws  he 
might  unfoUl  and  expand  naturally,  growing 
daily  in  brightness  and  beauty  within  until  the 
full  time  of  expression,  when,  like  the  bud 
opening  into  flower,  the  well-balanced  child 
would  enter  a  serene  manhood  or  womanhood, 
growing   healthfully  because  his  true  instincts 


456 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


had  been  nourished  and  strengthened,  not 
thwarted  nor  suppressed  until  reaction  and  per- 
version had  occurred.  Such  questions  were 
stirring  the  active  thought  of  the  founder  of 
the  "Science  of  Music  and  Education"  for 
fifteen  years,  unanswered  and  unsolved  by  any 
system  in  existence.  "  Are  not  all  hearts  seek- 
ing for  the  same  remedy?"  she  argued,  and 
in  the  wholeness  of  her  searching  prayer 
the  answer  was  reflected.  In  a  single  night 
the  light  dawned,  her  health  was  restored,  the 
discovery  made!  The  truth  of  the  natural 
law  of  unfoldment  and  its  relation  to  the  child 
was  revealed.  God's  gift  to  little  children  was 
no  longer  a  dream,  but  a  present  reality.  To 
take  the  message  at  once  to  the  little  ones 
became  her  greatest  neetl. 

Like  a  pioneer  teacher  of  old,  Pestalozzi, 
who  gave  forth  the  first  expression  of  his  new 
idea  to  a  class  of  children  in  an  Ursuline  con- 
vent, so  Nina  K.  Darlingtone,  in  the  spring  of 
1896,  though  of  the  Protestant  faith,  was  called 
to  teach  the  nuns  in  a  convent,  who  had  charge 
of  the  musical  department  in  their  school. 
Her  re-entrance  into  active  teaching  found  her 
engaged  with  these  anrl  other  pupils,  who  sought 
from  her  chiefly  ideas  of  interpretation.  As  a 
teacher  and  worker  for  children,  as  well  as  for 
those  desiring  to  teach,  the  more  mature  woman, 
with  the  two  little  ones  of  her  own,  had  lost 
none  of  the  qualities  which  naturally  reach  the 
childlike  in  heart  and  which  children  naturally 
love.  Nevertheless,  when  urged  to  teach 
children  at  this  period,  she  refusetl,  feeling 
the  instruction  of  beginners  to  be  the  most 
difficult  problem  of  all,  and  one  which  she  was 
not  yet  ready  to  solve.  On  continued  solicita- 
tion, however,  she  consented  to  take  the  little 
ones  in  a  class  and  teach  them  in  a  body  the 
things  in  music  they  would  not  ordinarily 
learn,  and  which  she  had  for  years  imparted  in 
private  teaching.  Her  interest  in  this  work 
grew  rapidly;  and,  as  the  great  educational  idea 
grew  upon  her,  as  means  of  making  matters 
comprehensible  to  the  children,  games  were  in- 
vented, songs  written,  and  thus  the  new  method 
spontaneously  expressed  itself. 

l^nlike  other  systems,  "Kindergarten  Music- 
building"  is  not  the  expression  of  a  gradual 
growth   of    thought,    resulting   from   years   of 


practical  teaching  only.  It  is  really  a  discov- 
ery, the  result  of  the  author's  life  experience. 
Thus  the  deep-sighted  philosophy  of  this  clear 
and  simple  system  came  from  an  intense  de- 
sire to  present  the  real  essence  of  music  and 
education  to  the  child  in  its  spiritual  signifi- 
cance, as  well  as  to  help  little  hands  and  eyes 
antl  ears  to  grasp  the  ordinarily  stupid  and 
confused  beginnings  of  so  complex  a  subject 
as  music. 

The  secret  of  the  true  environment  for  the 
age  of  childhood  is  revealed,  and  as  in  the  case 
of  the  same  natural  law  in  relation  to  the  seed, 
which  never  changes  while  carried  to  the  four 
corners  of  the  world  as  long  as  it  is  in  the  air, 
but,  once  placed  in  the  essential  environment 
of  soft,  moist  earth,  and  given  the  proper  nour- 
ishment, rewards  the  labor  of  the  planter  by 
a  pleasing  sign  of  growth,  so  it  is  with  the  little 
child,  and  so  should  his  mental  and  musical 
development  be  regarded. 

Absorbed  in  this  work  and  in  the  love  of  it 
for  its  own  sake,  she  was  unconscious  of  at- 
tracting attention  from  the  outside  world,  till 
one  day  a  teacher  of  nmsic  asked  to  be  taught 
her  system  of  instructing  children.  A  second 
and  third,  followetl  by  many  more  requests  of 
this  nature,  were  made  before  she  awoke  to  the 
fact  that  she  was  starting  a  new  era  in  music- 
teaching,  and  that  the  world  wanted  her  ideas. 
Her  thought  had  pierced  the  profundities  of 
musical  symbolism  and  grappled  successfully 
with  technical  difficulties.  She  had  looked  at 
the  art  from  its  mental  side,  and  had  reduced 
all  to  the  child's  comprehension  in  natural 
terms ;  for  she  began  at  once  what  has  ever  been 
her  principle — to  develop  the  individuality  of 
the  student  or  teacher  and  to  advocate  no 
copying  of  mere  words. 

In  the  winter  of  1898,  upon  the  solicitation  of 
the  Froebel  Preparatory  School  and  the  New 
England  Conservatory  of  Music,  Boston,  Nina 
K.  Darlingtone  was  prevailed  upon  to  leave  her 
home  in  Philadelphia  and  establish  her  work  in 
Boston,  where  she  now  resides. 

To  the  many  hundreds  of  teachers  who  have 
studied  this  system  directly  from  her  or  through 
correspondence,  she  has  given  much  time  and 
patient  love,  resulting  in  enduring  good.  It  is 
customary  to  hear  these  students  state  that 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


457 


the  gaining  of  the  work  is  a  "direct  answer  to 
earnest  prayer"  or  "the  true  education  found 
for  the  first  time  after  a  life's  search."  Thus 
this  system  has  gone  to  all  parts  of  the  civilized 
globe,  and  has  representatives  in  every  State 
and  in  all  the  principal  cities  of  our  country. 

From  the  tiniest  tots  of  three  or  four  years, 
who  learn  their  first  lessons  in  "Kindergarten 
Music-Building"  in  the  simplest  form,  to  the 
adult  who  is  still  a  child  in  heart,  it  is  the  nat- 
ural system  of  education  and  nmsic  for  all. 
This  teaching  has  ever  dwelt  latent  in  the 
mother-heart,  but  remained  undiscovered  for 
the  world  until  the  present  day.  But  to  learn 
it  one  nmst  be  willing  to  become  as  a  little 
child,  even  as  such  a  change  is  also  essential 
in  ortler  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

In  189S  an  organization  was  founded  in  Bo.s- 
ton  which  will  represent  the  work  for  future 
generations.  The  membership  during  the  first 
year  numbered  over  three  hundred,  including 
some  of  the  ablest  men  and  women  in  this 
country  and  Europe.  Among  them  may  be 
found  judges,  musicians,  composers,  and  lead- 
ing educators,  as  well  as  the  teachers  of  the 
System. 

Helen  H.  McLe.\n. 


SARAH  ANNIE  PERKINS  was  born 
at  Lewiston,  Me.,  October  1,  1842, 
the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Gideon  and 
Mary  (Dunham)  Perkins.  Her  father 
was  one  of  the  early  ministers  of  the  Free 
Baptist  denomination.  To  unusual  mental 
grasp  antl  deep  spiritual  insight  he  added 
ardent  convictions  that  leil  him  to  give  valiant 
.service  to  the  temperance  and  anti-slavery 
reforms  of  his  day;  anil  the  thrilling  experi- 
ences of  tho.se  historic  years,  together  with 
a  most  careful  Christian  training,  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  lives  of  his  children. 

Sarah  received  her  education  in  the  Lewis- 
ton  schools  and  in  the  Maine  State  Seminary, 
now  Bates  College,  located  in  the  same  town. 
She  entered  the  seminary  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen, was  graduated  at  seventeen,  and  at 
once  took  up  the  duties  of  a  teacher,  having 
been  a.ssigned  even  thus  early  in  her  life  to 
the  responsible  position  of  preceptress  in  the 


Limerick  (Me.)  Academy.  Before  leaving 
.school  she  had  become  a  member  of  the  Lewis- 
ton  Main  Street  Free  Baptist  Church,  of  which 
her  parents  aijd  three  brothers  were  also 
members. 

The  second  year  after  graduation  she  a.ssumed 
charge  of  the  Dexter  (Me.)  High  School, 
but,  being  honored  not  long  after  by  a  call 
to  return  to  her  Alma  Mater,  .she  accepted  it, 
ami  was  installed  as  instructor  in  F'rench, 
Latin,  and  other  branches,  a  position  which 
she  filled  satisfactorily  for  .six  years.  She 
then  resigned  to  accept  a  similar  one  in  a 
private  school  for  girls  in  Boston.  Two 
years  later  she  entered  the  Lothrop  Publishing 
House  as  editor  of  book  manuscripts.  In  this 
congenial  work  an  honorable  and  pleasant 
career  was  opening  before  her,  when  the  death 
of  her  eldest  brother,  in  1873,  changed  her 
p'lans  for  life.  At  his  recjuest  she  unselfishly 
relin((uished  the  task  for  which  she  had  proved 
herself  to  be  so  well  fitted,  and,  taking  his 
orphan  children  into  her  care,  for  nearly 
ten  years  she  devoted  herself  to  their  nurture 
and  training,  at  the  same  time  ministering 
to   the  needs  of  her  aged  parents. 

It  was  only  when  these  duties  had  been 
fulfilled  that  Miss  Perkins  permitted  her  taste 
for  literary  work  to  a.ssert  itself  once  more. 
She  accepted  a  position  on  the  editorial  staff 
of  the  Morning  Star — the  official  organ  of 
the  Free  Baptist  denomination,  published  in 
Boston — maintaining  her  connection  with 
this  periodical  for  seven  years.  She  was 
then  transferred  to  the  more  difficult  position 
of  editor  of  the  three  juvenile  papers  of  the 
denomination — Our  Diiyxpring,  for  young  peo- 
ple; The  Myrtle,  for  children;  and  Our  Myrtle 
Buds,  for  the  little  tots.  The  first  antl  last 
were  originated  by  her,  and  all  three  were 
under  her  sole  management,  their  success  fully 
attesting  the  tact  and  versatility,  little  short 
of  genius,  that  are  absolutely  necessary  to  an 
editor  of  children's  papers. 

These  periodicals  were,  in  truth,  the  heralds 
of  the  great  movement  among  young  people 
that  was  soon  to  sweep  with  such  beneficent 
results  over  the  church  life  of  all  denomiiuitions; 
and  Miss  Perkins  was  speedily  called  upon 
to  assume  the  great  but  inspiring  responsibilities 


458 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  a  pioneer  in  this  world-wide  movement  by 
organizing  and  directing  the  young  people's 
work  of  her  denomination,  the  first  young 
people's  society  of  any  denomination  being 
organized  in  a  Free  Baptist  church. 

The  six  years  that  followed  proved  that 
she  had  inherited  her  father's  capacity  to 
serve  a  great  cause  with  boundless  energy 
and  enthusiasm.  Into  this  brief  period  was 
crowded  a  phenomenal  amount  of  labor; 
for  to  the  duties  of  editorshiji  there  was  added 
the  exacting  work  of  a  general  secretary, 
which  included  travelling,  arranging  for  and 
addressing  conventions,  organizing  new  so- 
cieties, and  carrying  on  a  vast  amount  of 
correspondence.  It  was  in  the  days  before 
the  word  "strenuous"  hatl  attained  to  its 
present  hard-worketl  prominence,  but  her  life 
at  this  time  amply  merited  the  term.  It 
was  also  somewhat  unusual  for  a  woman  to 
wield  great  influence  from  the  platform,  but 
as  a  speaker  Miss  Perkins  possessed  the  rare 
combination  of  magnetism,  grace,  and  sym- 
pathy that  were  their  own  best  justification. 

She  was  greatly  beloved  and  loyally  fol- 
loweil  by  the  host  of  young  people  whom 
she  had  organized  into  a  splendid  working 
force,  but  the  long-continued  strain  of  the 
combined  duties  of  secretary  and  .editor  finally 
made  a  vacation  of  at  least  a  year  imperative. 
Before  the  year  was  over,  however,  she  re- 
ceived an  unexpected  and  flattering  invitation 
to  become  preceptress  of  the  New  Englanil 
Conservatory  of  Music,  located  in  Boston. 
This  position  she  retained  for  six  years,  until 
the  removal  of  the  Conservatory,  in  1902, 
to  its  present  building  on  Huntington  Avenue 
of  the  same  city.  A  change  in  the  school 
management  altered  her  ilutics  somewhat, 
but  she  is  still  connected  with  the  Conserv- 
atory (1904),  and  retains  her  official  title. 
During  the  year  1903  she  again  evinced  her 
versatility  by  making  a  systematic  catalogue 
of  the  rare  musical  scores  and  other  valuable 
volumes  of  the  Conservatory  Library. 

Her  work  at  the  Conservatory,  although 
directed  in  a  somewhat  different  channel, 
has  been  logically  a  continuation  of  her  life 
of  service  for  young  people.  The  organization 
of  the  Conservatory  Young  Women's  Christian 


Association,  which  has  brought  the  school 
into  affiliation  with  the  great  Christian  student 
movement  among  the  colleges,  was  due  entirely 
to  her  influence,  and  she  has  continued  quietly 
active  in  its  behalf.  Her  general  culture, 
her  wide  experience,  her  intuitive  symjiathy, 
and  her  rich  endowment  of  idealism  have 
admirably  fitted  her  to  be  the  friend  and  coun- 
sellor of  young  women,  and  no  girl  has  ever 
appealed  to  her  in  vain  for  advice,  or  comfort, 
or  "mothering."  The  young  in  heart  are 
always  beloved,  and  this  tribute  of  love  has 
followed  her  wherever  she  has  gone.  The 
fragrance  of  such  a  life  as  hers  is  like  that 
of  the  alabaster  box  of  precious  ointment — 
which  has  ever  been  the  symbol  of  unselfish 
service  and  devotion. 

Elizabeth  C.  Northup. 


MARY  STONE  BURNHAM.— It  has 
been  well  said :  "  It  is  as  difficult  to 
write  a  faithful  biography  as  to  paint 
a  true  portrait.  The  artist  gives 
form,  line,  color,  and  a  phase  of  life  and  ex- 
pression. The  biographer  gives  country,  line- 
age, personal  appearance,  deeds;  but  the  better 
part  of  life,  the  incentive,  is  as  hard  to  catch, 
as  delicate  to  transcribe,  as  the  soul  is  to  im- 
prison on  canvas."  The  incentive  in  the  life  of 
Mrs.  Burnham,  it  may  well  be  said,  is  a  deep- 
rooted  generosity,  which  has  prompted  her  to 
carry  out  the  principle  she  has  adopted,  "Let 
me  share  my  portion  with  others." 

Mary  Stone  Burnham  (born  Stone)  is  a  native 
of  Maine.  Her  earlj^  years  were  passed  at  the 
home  of  her  parents  in  South  Paris,  that 
State.  She  was  educated  for  a  teacher  at  the 
Farmington  State  Normal  School,  and  before 
her  marriage  to  Josiah  Burnham,  of  Portland, 
was  successfully  engaged  in  the  duties  of  her 
])rofession.  Interest  in  school  work  and  ability 
to  discover  the  best  methods  of  meeting  the 
needs  of  pupils  caused  her  to  be  a  tower  of 
strength  when  the  work  of  schoolroom  decora- 
tion was  begun  in  Porthmd. 

Early  in  January,  1897,  an  informal  tea  was 
given  by  Mrs.  George  C.  Frye  to  the  commit- 
tee on  this  work,  club  presidents,  and  associate 
members,  at  which  time  suggestions  as  to  ways 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


459 


and  means  were  presentetl.  A  fortnight  later 
an  appeal  was  made  to  the  citizens  of  Port- 
land through  the  colunms  of  her  papers  to  assist 
in  this  good  work.  The  co-operation  of  the 
school  board  was  secured,  and  a  committee  of 
nine,  chosen  from  the  Woman's  Literary  Union, 
with  Mrs.  Burnham  as  its  chairman,  began 
work. 

So  great  was  their  energy  that  in  May  of  the 
same  year  Reception  Hall,  City  Building,  was 
thrown  open  to  the  public  for  the  inspection  of 
the  pictures  and  casts,  more  than  seventy  in 
number,  which  were  to  be  presented  to  the 
public  schools.  At  these  presentation  exer- 
cises Superintendent  Lord  presided,  the  Hon. 
J.  W.  Symonds  delivered  an  admirable  address, 
and  Mrs.  Burnham  gave  an  accurate  and  in- 
teresting history  of  the  work  dolie  by  the  com- 
mittee. She  said:  "Our  aim  has  not  been  the 
purchase  of  pictures  just  because  they  are  pict- 
ures, but  pictures  with  a  purpose  and  of  ac- 
knowledged merit.  All  pictures  are  not  suit- 
able. The  fact  of  its  being  a  masterpiece  does 
not  make  it  appropriate  for  the  school-room. 
A  Madonna  teaches  a  higher  ideal  of  woman- 
hood than  a  Bacchante,  though  both  may  be 
on  the  same  artistic  plane." 

In  conclusion,  she  pre.sented,  on  behalf  of  the 
Woman's  Literary  Union,  this  entire  collection 
to  the  schools  of  Portland.  Mayor  Randall  ac- 
cepted the  gift  in  behalf  of  the  school  commit- 
tee and  city  government.  For  the  first  time 
the  citizens  of  Portland  realized  in  some  degree 
the  magnitude  and  desirability  of  the  work. 

Mrs.  Burnham  remained  chairman  of  this 
committee  for  two  years.  Upon  her  resigna- 
tion she  was  made  an  honorary  member.  As 
such,  she  yet  put  her  shoulder  to  the  wheel 
and  assumed  full  care  of  this  work  in  the  North 
School.  She  has  left  no  stone  unturned  to 
advance  the  progress  of  the  project.  She  has 
solicited  subscriptions,  aroused  interest  in  un- 
expected quarters,  written  and  delivereil  lect- 
ures, and  has  personally  presented  some  work 
of  art  to  every  school  building  in  the  city.  In 
her  kindly  rounds  of  duty  she  has  been  quick 
to  notice  opportunities  for  better  arrangement 
and  grouping,  and  the  adoption  of  her  sugges- 
tions has  resulted  in  many  improvements. 

Mrs.  Burnham  was  also  a  pioneer  in  the  club 


movement  in  Maine,  having  been  a  member  of 
the  Travellers'  Club  ever  since  its  formation  in 
1882.  In  this  club  she  has  held  various  offices. 
She  was  the  third  president  of  the  Woman's 
Literary  Union  of  Portland,  auditor  of  the 
State  FVderation,  and  she  served  on  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Invalids'  Home. 

In  many  quiet,  unobtrusive  ways  she  shares 
her  privileges,  her  possessions,  and  her  time 
with  others.  Mrs.  Burnham  has  a  great  ca- 
pacity for  winning  friends,  and  in  her  charming 
home  she  exercises  a  gracious  hospitality.  She 
has  always  been  a  student  of  the  best  books, 
and  has  had  the  advantage  of  foreign  travel. 


ELLEN  MARIA  STONE,  missionary 
teacher,  was  born  in  Roxbury,  Mass., 
July  24,  1846,  daughter  of  Benjamin  F. 
and  Lucy  (Waterman)  Stone.  Miss 
Stone  comes  of  sturdy  New  England  stock, 
being  descended  from  ancestors,  on  both  sides, 
who  were  willing  to  serve  their  country  and 
their  God  with  all  their  being,  not  hesitating 
to  risk  their  lives,  if  neetl  be,  in  the  defence 
of  the  principles  of  their  government  or  of 
their  religion. 

On  her  father's  side  she  claims  descent  from 
Gregory  Stone,  who,  with  his  wife  Lydia,  came 
from  Suffolk  County,  England,  about  1636, 
and  settled  in  Cambridge,  Mass.  His  brother 
Simon  had  preceded  him  to  this  country, 
settling  in  Watertown.  Gregory  Stone  was 
a  member  of  the  Colonial  Legion,  and  his  name 
appears  in  volume  one  of  the  Provincial 
Records. 

Miss  Stone's  great-grandfather  on  the  pa- 
ternal side,  Eliphalet  Stone,  of  Marlbor- 
ough, N.H.,  was  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
that  town,  taking  a  prominent  part  in  public 
affairs.  He  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
His  son  Shubael,  Miss  Stone's  grandfather, 
enlisted  in  the  same  regiment  toward  the 
close  of  the  war.  The  latter  also  served  in 
the  War  of  1812,  as  captain  of  a  company  which 
he  recruited.  Miss  Stone's  mother,  who  is 
now  in  her  ninety-secontl  year,  distinctly  re- 
members re-unions  of  this  company,  with  dinner 
served  on  the  lawn  at  the  homestead  in  Mail- 
borough,  in  which  town  she  lived  as  a  bride. 


460 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


The  wife  of  Shubael  Stone  was  Polly  Rogers, 
of  an  old  New  England  family.  Miss  Stone 
also  claims  descent,  through  her  maternal 
grandmother,  Lucy  Waterman  Barker,  from 
the  doughty  Pilgrim  warrior,  Captain  Myles 
Standish. 

Benjamin  Franklin  Stone,  father  of  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  inherited  the  military 
tastes  of  his  family.  During  his  early  man- 
hood he  was  connected  with  the  militia  of 
New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  being  a 
member  of  the  Norfolk  Guard,  afterward 
known  as  the  Roxbury  City  Guard,  during 
his  residence  in  that  town.  The  sole  surviving 
niemlKT  of  the  Marlixirougii  family  of  tiiirteen 
children  is  Mrs.  Julia  R.  Towne,  of  Evanston, 
111. 

Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  Miss 
Stone's  two  eldest  brothers,  true  to  the  tra- 
ditions of  their  family,  enlisted,  ami  served 
three  years  each,  the  eldest,  George  Franklin, 
in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  second, 
Edwin  Cornelius,  in  the  navy,  where  he  was 
assigned  to  the  frigate  "Minnesota,"  and  was 
on  her  when  she  had  her  narrow  escape  from 
destruction  by  the  enemy's  i-am,  the  "  Merri- 
mac,"  before  the  "Monitor"  appeared  upon  the 
scene.  After  completing  his  term  of  service 
in  the  navy,  this  second  brother  enlisted  in 
the  army,  responding  to  the  call  for  three 
months'  men. 

The  brave  father  hardly  lield  his  patriotic 
soul  in  leash  in  deference  to  the  importmiities 
of  his  wife  that  he  remain  with  her  and  their 
three  youngest  children,  until  the  government 
issued  a  call  for  nine  months'  men,  when  he 
could  be  held  back  no  longer.  He  enlisted 
in  Company  K,  Forty-third  Massachusetts 
Infantry,  and  saw  service  at  Newbern  and 
Little  Washington,  N.C.  His  daughter  cher- 
ishes as  one  of  her  choicest  treasures  the  little 
volume  of  the  New  Testament  and  Psalms 
which  she  saw  presented  to  her  father,  together 
with  all  his  comrades  of  the  regiment,  by  their 
Chaplain,  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Manning,  D.D., 
pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  at 
a  farewell  service  held  in  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church,  Chelsea,  before  their  departure 
for  the  seat  of  war.  It  was  Corporal  Stone's 
custom  to  carry  this  book  in  his  breast-pocket. 


and  after  he  had  been  honorably  discharged 
from  the  service,  and  was  once  more  in  the 
midst  of  his  family,  he  told  the  story  of  his 
deliverance  from  deadly  peril  in  battle,  and 
showed  his  Testament  with  its  cover  torn  and 
twisted  by  the  spent  minie-ball,  which  had  been 
arrested  by  it.  A  brave,  fearless  man  was  he, 
prompt  to  respond  to  every  call  of  duty,  and 
fully  persuaded  that  man  is  immune  from 
harm  as  long  as  God  has  need  of  him.  The 
father  and  his  two  sons  returned  home  upon 
the  expiration  of  their  term  of  service,  uninjured. 

Ellen  Maria  Stone  was  educated  in  the  elemen- 
tary branches  in  Roxbury  schools,  and  after 
1S6()  in  the  grannnar  and  higii  schools  of  Chelsea. 
After  graduating  from  the  latter,  she  taught 
.school  for  a  while  in  Chelsea  (1866-67).  From 
1(S67  to  1878  she  was  on  the  editorial  staff  of 
the  Congref/ationalist.  Deeply  imbued  with 
religious  feeling,  she  sought  earnestly  to  pro- 
mote the  kingdom  of  God,  taking  especial 
interest  in  foreign  missions,  to  which  work 
she  ultimately  felt  herself  called.  This  con- 
viction with  her  meant  action.  Making  known 
her  desires,  and  being  found  well  fitted  for  the 
work  by  reason  of  her  earnestness  and  energy, 
educational  qualifications,  and  religious  de- 
votion, she  was  appointed  in  1878,  by  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions,  as  missionary  to  Bulgaria,  for  which 
country  she  sailed  after  an  affecting  leave- 
taking  of  her  many  friends  and  well-wishers. 
The  circumstances  in  connection  with  her 
capture  b\'  brigands,  September  3,  1901,  on  a 
mountain  road  in  Macedonia,  and  her  subse- 
quent detention  by  them  for  nearly  six  months, 
pending  the  payment  of  her  ransom,  it  will  be 
remembered,  were  given  wide  newspaper  pub- 
licity, and,  as  narrated  by  herself,  may  be 
found  in  MrClure's  Magazine,  May-October, 
1902.  The  following  estimate  of  her  work 
and  character  is  quoted  from  an  article  written 
by  her  personal  friend,  Mrs.  Otis  Atwood,  of 
Chelsea,  while  Miss  Stone  was  still  a  prisoner 
among  the  brigands: — 

"We  met  in  the  early  sixties,  as  schoolmates 
in  the  Shurtleff  Grammar  School,  then,  and 
for  many  years  after,  under  the  leadership  of 
Miss  Elizabeth  G.  Hoyt.  How  large  a  part 
this  teacher  had  in  the  formation  of  the  noble 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


461 


character  of  her  pupil  cannot  be  estimated, 
but  Miss  Stone  herself  has  often  referred  to 
the  principles  of  truth,  so  firmly  instilled  by 
this  faithful  teacher,  as  the  groundwork  of  all  her 
her  future  usefulness.  .  .  . 

"As  a  school-girl,  Ellen  Stone  was  a  leader. 
She  had  but  one  rival  in  the  honor  for  the 
'first  seat'  as  the  head  of  the  class,  when  the 
monthly  adding  of  the  'credits'  by  the  pupils 
them.selves  assigned  positions.  A  favorite  be- 
cause of  her  many  lovable  ((ualities,  all  rejoiced 
in  her  honors.  These  were  the  days  of  the 
Civil  War,  when  patriotism  ran  high;  and 
well  miglit  she,  whose  father  and  two  brothers 
were  at  the  front,  lead  her  schoolmates  in  de- 
votion and  loyalty  to  her  country's  flag.  The 
day  for  her  graduation  was  at  hand.  Ex- 
aminations had  been  passed  with  high  per 
cent.,  and  her  part  in  the  literary  exercises 
was  to  declaim  a  patriotic  poem  by  Elizabeth 
Browning: — 

'Dead!  both  my  boys! 
One  of  them  shot  by  the  sea  in  the  East, 
One  of  them  shot  in  the  West  by  the  sea. 

Dead!  both  my  boys! 
If  in  keeping  the  feast 
You  want  a  great  song  for  your  Italy  free, 
Let  none  look  at  me !  Let  none  look  at  me ! ' 

And  then  welled  up  the  great  heart  of  that 
Italian  mother  in  such  expressions  of  patriotism, 
beyond  her  grief,  that  none  could  read  and  not 
be  stirred  to  the  heart's  depths.  Ellen  felt 
that  the  lofty  thoughts  were  beyond  her  power 
to  portray,  but  she  accepted  the  trust;  and 
those  who  heard  her  voice  ring  out  over  the 
multitude  which  filleil  the  old  City  Hall  to  the 
doors,  can  never  forget  the  inspiration  to  loyalty 
in  their  own  country's  cause,  received  from  the 
young  declaimer. 

"  Her  course  through  the  high  school  was 
marked  by  the  same  devotion  to  duty,  the 
same  high  ideals;  yet  so  unassuming,  so  be- 
loved by  all,  she  never  seemed  to  realize  that 
she  was  a  marked  scholar,  the  pride  of  her 
teachers  and  of  the  visiting  school-board. 

"Immediately  upon  her  graduation  she  was 
installed  as  one  of  the  teachers,  iloing  faithful 
work,  until  called  to  another  position  of  honor 
and  trust,  as  one  of  the  assistant  editors  of  the 


Congregntionalist,  with  especial  charge  of  the 
church  news,  children's  department,  poetry, 
and  the  missionary  department.  This  edu- 
cation doubtless  had  much  to  do  with  her 
future  leading,  for  it  was  not  till  long  afterward, 
when  she  had  really  had  her  call  to  mission- 
ary work,  and  offered  her  services  to  the  Board, 
that  she  knew  her  praying  mother  had  con- 
secrated her  to  this  work  at  her  birth,  and  again 
at  her  baptism. 

"We  have  been  told  by  her  brother  that 
she  inherited  the  missionary  spirit  from  both 
father  and  mother,  but  that  her  special  'call' 
came  through  a  sermon  [ireached  by  the  late 
Dr.  Alden,  her  friend.  Miss  Susan  B.  Higgins, 
being  led  to  the  same  wOrk  by  the  same  sermon. 
"During  these  days  of  girlhooti  and  young 
womanhooil  her  spiritual  life  had  kept  pace 
with  the  intellectual.  Sitting  under  the  teach- 
ing of  her  beloved  pastor.  Dr.  Albert  Plumb, 
she  gave  her  heart  wholly  and  unreservedly 
to  the  Saviour.  'I  shall  never  forget  the 
moment,'  she  told  the  writer,  one  evening  in 
the  vestry  of  the  dear  old  church,  '  when  His 
voice  called,  and  I  answered.  We  were  singing 
'  Just  as  I  am  without  one  plea,  but  that  Thy 
blood  was  shed  for  me,'  and  with  my  whole 
heart  I  cried,  '0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come.' 

"  Up  to  that  time  she  had  lived  like  many 
another  young  life,  doing  'the  duty  nearest,' 
yet  with  no  definite  aim  for  a  life-work.  'As 
if  he  knew  my  need,'  she  told  a  friend,  '  Dr. 
Plumb  preached  a  sermon  right  to  my  soul, 
from  the  text,  "  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt 
not  excel." '  Henceforward  to  serve  Christ  and 
to  lead  souls  into  His  kingdom  was  her  one 
undeviating  purpose." 

Some  years  of  earnest  Christian  work  in  the 
church  and  Sunday-school  followed,  years  of 
happy  memory  to  tho.se  who  were  privileged 
to  be  her  ])Ui)ils.  "Not  only  little  children, 
but  young  men  and  maidens  felt  the  irresistil)le 
power  of  Christ  that  shone  from  her  face,  voice, 
and  personality;  and  her  pastor,  Dr.  Addison 
P.  Foster  (successor  of  Dr.  Plumb),  found  in 
her  a  valuable  helpmeet  in  guiding  and  instruct- 
ing young  Christians  who  asked  admission  to 
the  church  during  a  powerful  revival  under 
his  ministry.  ...  It  was  a  marvel  that  out  of 
her  busy  life  she  found  so  much  time  to  visit 


462 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  sick,  the  disheartened,  the  suffering  and 
bereaved — ^an  angel  of  mercy,  indeed,  in  many 
a  home.  No  wonder  that  her  'call'  brought 
(.lismay  and  gric>f  to  many  hearts." 

In  September,  1878,  two  farewell  meetings 
were  held,  which  were  notable  events:  the 
first,  in  the  Walimt  Street  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  was  for  Miss  Higgins,  who  had  been 
appointed  by  the  Methodist  Board,  to  Yoko- 
hama, Japan;  the  second  was  for  Miss  Stone, 
in  her  home  church,  the  First  Congregational. 

"  A  young  pastor  (the  Rev.  Jutlson  Tits- 
worth)  had  just  been  installed  as  pastor  of 
the  First  Church.  The  impressive  services 
seemed  to  him  God's  special  benediction  upon 
his  ministry;  and"  when,  during  Mi,ss  Stone's 
farewell  words  to  her  own  people,  she  reached 
forth  her  hand  and  called  her  young  sister  to 
herself  to  give  her  the  right  hand  of  fellowship, 
as  together  they  promised  to  give  their  lives 
to  the  saving  of  souls,  there  was  scarcely  a 
dry  eye  in  the  church.  The  pastor  arose, 
stantling  with  bowetl  head.  As  he  afterward 
said:  'I  felt  that  I  stood  on  holy  ground. 
I  knew  .something  how  Moses  felt  when  in  the 
presence  of  the  burning  bush.  I  knew  that 
God  was  there.' 

"  Within  a  few  days  both  had  started  for 
their  appointed  fields,  one  toward  the  East 
and  one  to  the  West.  As  we  count  time,  Miss 
Higgins's  earthly  service  was  short,  for  in  eight 
months  she  had  entered  into  her  heavenly 
home;  but  in  the  sight  of  the  Father  her 
work  still  goes  on  in  her  influence,  which  lives 
in  hundreds  of  hearts  to-day.  And,  if  we  can 
judge  by  results,  her  mantle  must  have  fallen 
on  Miss  Stone,  for  an  added  spirituality  and 
fervor  entered  into  her  life,  resulting  in  many 
ingatherings  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  .  .  . 

"On  reaching  Samokov,  Bulgaria,  to  which 
place  Miss  Stone  was  a.ssigned,  she  entered 
upon  her  duties  in  the  Boarding-school  for 
Girls,  as  assistant  to  Miss  E.  T.  Maltbie,  teach- 
ing English  branches,  while  learning  the  new 
and  difficult  language. 

"  It  seemed  to  the  writer  an  incredibly  short 
time  when  word  came, '  Mi.ss  Stone  has  conducted 
her  first  prayer-meeting  in  Bulgaria.'  We 
soon  learned  that  Bulgarian  hearts  were  as 
susceptible   to   the   power   of  Christ   in   one's 


life,  as  Americans,  and  that  her  influence  was 
most  truly  telling  for  His  name.  The  same 
lovable  traits  of  character  so  potent  in  America 
won  the  hearts  of  her  young  pupils,  enabling 
her  to  lead  them  to  their  Saviour,  as,  with 
the  other  devoted  missionaries  of  the  station, 
she  had  her  part  in  a  most  gratifying  revival, 
that  followed  not  many  months  after  her  coming 
to  Bulgaria. 

"After  becoming  familiar  with  the  language, 
her  field  of  usefulness  widened,  as  the  Board 
then  appointed  her  superintendent  of  the 
'Bible  women,'  who  taught  in  the  towns  and 
villages  of  the  country,  that  younger  children 
(than  the  pupils  at  the  boarding-school)  and 
their  mothers  should  be  reached.  These  were 
native  Bible  women,  converts  to  the  Christian 
faith,  and  were  in  many  cases  gratluates  from 
the  school,  who  desired  to  prove  the  reality 
of  their  conversion  in  service.  Their  duty 
was  to  gather  the  children  of  the  village  into 
a  school  (held  perhaps  in  one  of  the  rooms  of 
some  humble  home),  to  teach  the  common 
studies  and  the  Bible,  also  to  hold  a  Sunday- 
school  for  the  children,  prayer-meetings  with 
the  mothers,  as  well  as  to  perform  many  pas- 
toral duties." 

As  these  workers  were  appointed  by  and 
were  under  the  instruction  and  guidance  of 
Miss  Stone,  she  visited  them  at  regular  in- 
tervals. Said  Mrs.  Atwood:  "It  is  from  other 
than  Miss  Stone's  pen  that  we  learn  of  the 
delight  at  her  coming,  the  joy  of  the  children 
who  own  her  as  'Avmtie  Stone,'  and  the  great 
honor  they  count  as  theirs  when  she  can  be 
the  guest  at  their  homes.  As  Bulgaria  is  a 
country  of  'magnificent  distances,'  these  visits 
necessitate  many  tours  over  the  mountains 
and  plains,  at  the  cost  of  great  fatigue  and 
dangers.  But  our  friend  '  counts  it  all  gain,'  as 
she  has  noted  from  year  to  year  the  glorious 
results,  in  the  change  from  gross  superstition, 
persecution,  and  ignorance,  to  the  character 
of  faithful,  earnest  followers  of  the  'meek  and 
lowly  Jesus.' " 

When  Miss  Stone  entered  into  this  larger 
work,  her  home  was  at  Philippopolis,  but  in 
1898,  the  increase  in  her  work,  and  the  call  from 
Macedonia,  "Come  over  and  help  us,"  caused 
the  Board  to  assign  her  to  Salonica,  the  ancient 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


463 


Thessalonica  of  the  time  of  Saint  Paul.  Here, 
associated  with  Dr.  House  and  Messrs.  Baird 
and  Haskell  and  their  families,  she  carried 
on  a  noble  work  in  that  city,  which  in- 
cluded many  conversions  among  the  sailors 
from  the  British  fleet,  anchored  for  a  time  in 
Salonica  Harbor.  Miss  Stone  hatl  heroically 
endured  the  heat  of  a  Salonican  summer,  with 
the  exception  of  one  trip  to  Samokov,  and  had 
been  to  Bansko  for  a  three  weeks'  training- 
school  with  her  Bible  women,  when  on  return- 
ing thence,  with  an  unusually  large  company  of 
workers,  she  was  seized  by  brigands.  Her  cap- 
tivity and  final  release  on  payment  of  a  large 
ransom,  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  are 
matters  familiar  to  the  reading  public.  Since 
her  return  home,  some  part  of  her  time  has 
been  given  to  lecturing  on  missionary  subjects, 
including  her  own  personal  experience  in  the 
missionary  field.  She  is  at  present  living 
quietly  in  Clielsea,  Mass.,  devoting  all  her 
time  to  her  aged  mother. 


1IZABETH  A.  TURNER,  Past  National 
President  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps 
J  and  chairman  of  the  board  of  directors 
of  the  Ander.sonville  Prison  property, 
is  known  throughout  the  country  as  a  leader 
in  patriotic  work.  Her  paternal  grandfather, 
John  Thompson,  was  in  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  and  later  was  in  the  army  stationed  at 
Valley  Forge.  Her  parents  were  Charles  and 
Betsey  Thompson,  of  Windsor,  Conn.,  and  until 
her  marriage  she  was  known  as  Lizabeth  A. 
Thomp.son.  She  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  her  native  town,  now  Windsor  Hills. 

In  1857  she  was  married  to  Y.  F.  L.  Turner, 
of  Georgia.  Mr.  Turner  died  three  years  later, 
and  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  old  cemetery  at 
P(,rtland,  Me. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  Mrs. 
Turner  was  a  resident  of  Boston.  She  packed 
the  first  box  of  supplies  forwarded  from  that 
city  to  the  soldiers  at  the  front,  and  in  1863  she 
was  a  constant  visitor  to  the  hospital  in  Pem- 
berton  Square,  where  the  wounded  sent  from 
the  battle-fiekls  of  the  South  received  the 
kindest  care. 

On  the  17th  of  March,  1880,  Mrs.  Turner  was 


admitted  to  membership  in  Major-General 
H.  G.  Berry  Relief  Corps,  of  Maiden,  and  was 
initiated  by  Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker,  with 
whom  she  was  subsequently  associated  as  one 
of  the  pioneers  of  the  National  Woman's  Relief 
Corps.  Mrs.  Turner  held  various  offices  in  the 
corps  at  Maiden,  and  was  its  President  two 
years.  At  the  annual  convention  of  the  De- 
partment of  Massachusetts,  W.  R.  C,  in  1883, 
she  was  elected  to  the  office  of  Conductor.  She 
was  Jvmior  Mce-President  in  1884  and  1885  and 
Senior  \' ice-President  in  1886-87.  In  1888  she 
declined  to  accept  the  honor  of  Department 
President,  but  consented  to  .serve  as  chairman 
of  the  Executive  Board.  In  1892,  after  three 
years  in  this  office,  she  was  appointed  Counsellor 
by  Mrs.  Mary  G.  Deane,  Department  President. 

Mrs.  Turner  has  addressed  numerous  posts, 
corps,  conventions,  and  other  patriotic  gather- 
ings in  all  parts  of  the  State.  She  is'  especially 
popular  as  an  installing  officer  and  as  a  member 
of  committees  where  executive  ability  is  re- 
quired. 

In  1883,  when  the  National  Woman's  Relief 
Corps  was  organized  at  the  National  Encamp- 
ment of  the  Grand  Army  in  Denver,  Col.,  Mrs. 
Turner,  who  rendered  invaluable  service  in 
securing  the  adoption  of  the  Massachusetts 
work  and  ritual,  was  elected  National  Treasurer. 
She  was  re-elected  seven  years  in  succession, 
during  which  time  she  managed  the  finances 
with  great  ability.  She  was  elected  chairman 
of  the  National  Executive  Board  in  1889  and 
National  Senior  Vice-President  in  1890,  when 
the  convention  was  held  in  Tremont  Temple, 
Boston. 

She  was  treasurer  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  Arrangements  for  this  convention  and  chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Accommodations. 

In  1891  Mrs.  Turner  was  invited  to  be  a  can- 
didate for  the  office  of  National  President,  but 
declined.  She  consentetl,  however,  in  1895,  and 
was  unanimou.sly  elected  that  year  at  the  con- 
vention in  Louisville,  Ky.  She  established 
headquarters  at  29  Temple  Place,  Boston.  The 
work  of  her  administration  met  with  universal 
approval.  In  the  address  which  she  presented 
to  the  annual  convention  at  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
over  which  she  presided  in  1896,  referring  to 
patriotic    teaching,  she  said:   ''This   is  one  of 


464 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  fundamental  laws  of  our  order.  In  fact, 
it  is  one  of  the  strongest  planks  in  the 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  platform.  Our  success- 
ful work  along  that  line  for  the  last  four  years 
has  been  even  greater  than  the  most  enthusi- 
astic workers  ever  anticipated." 

She  made  an  extended  Southern  tour  during 
her  year  as  National  President,  visiting  the 
colored  corps,  and  also  going  to  Andersonville, 
in  order  to  find  out  something  definite  about 
the  place  and  its  surroundings. 

It  being  decided  at  this  convention  to  assume 
control  of  the  Andersonville  Prison  property, 
a  board  of  directors  was  chosen,  of  which  Mrs. 
Turner  was  elected  chairman.  Two  years  later, 
in  reporting  the  work  accomplished,  Mrs.  Turner 
said:  "We  now  own  all  the  stockade  as  well  as 
all  the  earthworks  and  forts  surrounding  it. 
Suitable  gates  have  been  erected  in  all  places 
needed  except  at  the  main  entrance.  A  wide 
driveway  has  been  cut  around  the  grounds,  just 
inside  the  fence,  and  wide  gates  erected  at  the 
north-east  corner,  that  open  out  to  a  plantation 
road  leading  to  the  National  Cemetery,  one 
quarter  of  a  mile  away,  where  our  heroes  lie 
buried.  Two  bridges  have  been  built  over  the 
creek,  so  that  now  one  can  drive  the  entire  cir- 
cuit of  our  land,  two  and  three-fifths  miles. 

"The  forts  all  remain  intact,  and  are  covered 
with  a  growth  of  fine  forest  trees.  .  .  .  We  have 
built  a  nine-room  house,  at  a  cost  of  over  seven- 
teen hundred  dollars,  and  put  up  a  wire  fence 
with  gates,  at  a  cost  of  five  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  dollars;  planted  the  prison  pen  with  Ber- 
muda grass  roots  at  an  expense  of  one  hundred 
and  seventeen  dollars;  paid  out  in  small  sums, 
for  extra  help,  tools,  and  sundries,  about  five 
hundred  more;  also  paid  salary  of  care-taker 
for  seven  months,  and  built  two  bridges." 

After  referring  to  the  presentation  of  a  flag- 
pole worth  one  hundred  and  forty  dollars  by 
Colony  Corps  and  C'omrades  of  Fitzgerald,  Ga., 
the  gift  of  a  flag  from  the  Ex-prisoners  of  War 
Association  of  Comiecticut,  the  furnishing  in 
oak  of  the  guest  chamber  at  the  cottage  by 
members  of  corps  in  Massachusetts,  and  a  do- 
nation of  one  hvmdred  dollars  raised  through 
the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Emma  R.  Wallace,  of  Illi- 
nois, a  member  of  the  board,  Mrs.  Turner  stated 
that  not  one    cent   had   been   taken  from   the 


national  treasury  for  all  the  work  accomplished 
at  Andersonville.  She  recommended  that  one 
thousand  dollars  be  donated  from  the  general 
fun<l  and  placed  in  the  Andersonville  Prison 
Fund  for  the  use  of  the  board  in  completing 
the  work  mentioned  in  the  report.  Previous 
to  the  adoption  of  this  recommendation,  all 
the  work  had  been  conducted  by  voluntary 
contribution. 

Mrs.  Turner  entered  into  this  work  with  great 
enthusiasm.  In  her  report  at  the  convention 
in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  September,  1901,  she 
said:  "Within  the  last  two  years  over  two  hun- 
dred pecan  trees  have  been  set  out,  and  they 
are  growing  finely.  The  pecan  industry  of 
Georgia  will  be  a  close  rival  to  the  orange  trade 
of  Florida  and,  I  believe,  with  better  results, 
as  we  have  no  fear  of  frosts.  I  firmly  believe 
the  place  can  be  made  more  than  self-supporting 
by  planting  the  ground  with  pecan  trees.  Ohio 
and  Massachusetts  will  this  fall  put  up  hand- 
some monuments  of  granite  inside  the  stockade 
grounds,  in  honor  of  their  loyal  sons  who  died  as 
prisoners  of  war.  Pennsylvania  has  made  an 
appropriation  for  a  monument,  and  other  States 
are  agitating  the  matter. 

"The  most  important  work  of  the  past  year 
has  been  the  erection  of  the  pavilion  over  Provi- 
dence Spring  and  its  dedication." 

In  addition  to  her  efforts  for  the  improvements 
at  Andersonville,  Mrs.  Turner  performed  the 
duties  of  National  Counsellor  from  September, 
1900,  to  September,  1901. 

The  movement  in  behalf  of  a  Soldiers'  Home 
in  Massachusetts  enlisted  her  sympathies,  and 
she  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  bazaar  held 
for  that  object  in  Mechanics'  Building,  Boston, 
in  December,  1881.  One  of  the  attractions  of 
the  bazaar  was  a  military  album,  containing 
autographs  of  President  Lincoln  and  the  orig- 
inal war  Cabinet,  besides  the  signatures  of 
prominent  generals  and  other  leaders  in  the 
civil  conflict  and  in  the  Revolution.  It  netted 
one  thousand  dollars  to  the  fund,  and  is  now 
treasured  in  the  library  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of 
Massachu,setts.  The  autographs  were  collected 
and  arranged  by  Mrs.  Turner. 

She  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Ladies' 
Aid  Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home,  auxil- 
iary to  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  is  a  regu- 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


465 


lar  contributor  to  the  home,  which  she  often 
visits.  She  has  served  continuously  in  some 
official  capacity — as  chairman  of  large  com- 
mittees for  fairs,  Memorial  Day  and  other 
special  work,  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Di- 
rectors, and  as  one  of  the  Mce-Presidents.  A 
room  bearing  her  name  has  been  furnished  by 
the  Department  of  Massachusetts,  W.  R.  C, 
and  contains  her  portrait.  Abraham  Lincoln 
Corps  of  Charlestown,  of  which  she  has  been  a 
member  the  past  eleven  years,  has  placed  her 
picture  in  Department  headquarters,  Boylston 
Building,  Boston.  Contribution.s  of  money  for 
the  portrait  were  sent  this  corps  by  friends  and 
corps  throughout  the  State. 

Mr.s.  Turner  is  a  model  financier,  and  her 
.services  as  treasurer  of  large  charitable  enter- 
prises are  in  great  demand. 

She  is  deeply  interested  in  all  the  posts  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  has  many 
frienils  among  the  comrades  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  for  they  appreciate  her  grantl  work  in 
their  behalf.  In  her  collection  of  valuable  gifts 
are  a  framed  testimonial  from  Major-general 
H.  G.  Berry  Post,  No.  40,  of  Maiden,  Mass.,  a 
costly  badge  and  framed  testimonial  from  Atl- 
miral  Foote  Post,  of  New  Haven,  Conn.,  given 
her  in  acknowledgment  of  gavels  presented  them 
by  her,  which  were  made  of  wood  from  Anderson- 
ville  Prison  and  from  the  tree  untler  which 
General  Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox.  The 
gift  to  the  Maiden  post  was  accompanieil  by 
the  re(|uest  that  it  should  be  i)resente(l  to  the 
Maiden  City  Library  when  the  post  should  cease 
to  exist. 

Mrs.  Turner  was  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  National 
Convention  in  Boston,  Augu.st  15-20,  1904, 
chairman  of  the  Badge  Committee,  also  chair- 
man of  the  Accommodation  Committee  ant! 
a  member  of  other  conmiittees. 

Her  recommendation  that  one  thousand 
dollars  be  appropriated  annually  for  the  per- 
petual care  of  the  historic  grounds  at  Ander- 
■sonviile  was  adopted  at  this  convention. 

Although  not  a  near  kin.swoman  of  any  soldier 
of  the  Civil  War,  she  has  given  her  best  efforts 
to  the  cause  represented  by  the  Union  veteran, 
and  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  loyal 
women  of  the  Relief  Corps. 


HELENA  HIGGINBOTHAM.— Among 
the  authors  who  have  recently  made 
their  bow  to  the  public,  and  who 
have  met  with  instant  appreciation, 
is  Helena  Iligginbothani,  of  Springfield,  Mass. 
She  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1874,  but  came 
as  a  tiny  chikl  to  Massachusetts,  since  which 
time  her  home  has  been  in  Huntington  and 
Springfield. 

Her  father,  John  Francis  Higginbotham, 
was  born  and  reared  in  Manchester,  England; 
while  her  mother,  Helen  Hazelhurst  Higgin- 
botham, was  of  Spanish  origin. 

After  a  three  years'  cour.se  at  the  Spring- 
field High  School,  MLss  Higginbotham,  who 
from  childhood  had  .shown  much  talent  for 
sketching,  took  the  two  years'  course  in  draw- 
ing at  the  Cowles  Art  School,  Boston,  later 
attending  the  Art  Students'  League  in  New 
York.  Nature  has  endowed  Miss  Higgin- 
botham generously  with  mental  and  physical 
gifts.  When  a  little  girl  she  sketched  with 
ease,  and  in  occasional  fits  of  petulance  ea.sed 
her  injured  feelings  by  making  quick  carica- 
tures of  tho.se  who  had  offended  her.  These 
were  .so  clever  that  the  subjects,  instead  of 
feeling  re.sentful,  were  lost  in  admiration.  It 
was  as  easy  for  her  to  use  her  pen  as  her  cray- 
ons; and,  though  too  shy  for  a  long  time  to 
offer  her  literary  work,  she  gradually  began 
contributing  to  newspapers  and  magazines. 
In  Septemlx'r,  1902,  Lee  &  Shepard  published 
her  book,  "Rover's  Story,"  which  she  had  il- 
lustrated herself.  She  has  another  volume 
in  progress,  and  intends  to  make  literature 
her  profession.  Some  of  the  articles  contributed 
by  her  to  magazines  are  not  what  might  be 
considered  of  a  literary  nature,  most  of  them 
being  on  mechanical  subjects,  such  as  wiring 
hou.ses  for  electric  bells  and  for  lighting  gas 
by  an  electrical  current.  In  electrical  engi- 
neering she  takes  a  great  interest,  and  her  arti- 
cles on  this  subject  are  ba.sed  upon  personal 
experience.  She  .says  in  regard  to  it :  "  Having 
wired  nine  houses,  and  after  keeping  them  in 
repair  without  the  aid  of  an  electrician,  I  have 
found  the  occujiation  far  more  interesting  than 
literature,  even  if  one  does  have  to  climb  lad- 
ders to  fasten  insulators  above  the  second- 
story   windows,    to   attach   the   outside   wires, 


466 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF  NEW   ENGLAND 


or  go  down  cellar  among  the  cobwebs  to  make 
'  grounds,'  set  up  batteries,  and  all  the  rest 
incidental  to  the  l)usiiiess." 

Miss  Higginbotham  is  intensely  fond  of 
chiklren  and  animals,  and  in  all  she  writes 
there  is  a  wholesome,  happy  flavor.  Bright 
and  vivacious  in  manner  and  of  a  gracious 
personality,  she  makes  an  instant  and  favor- 
able impression  upon  those  with  whom  she 
comes  into  contact,  who  preserve  pleasing 
recollections  of  her  apt  and  interesting  con- 
versation. 


FANNY  TITUS  HAZEN,  President  of 
the  Massachusetts  Army  Nurse  Asso- 
ciation, is  a  native  of  Vershire,  Vt. 
She  was  born  May  9,  1840,  being  the 
eldest  of  eleven  children  of  Simeon  Bacon 
and  Eliza  Jane  (Morris)  Titus.  Her  parents 
are  now  living  at  her  home  in  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  her  father  being  eighty-five  years  old 
and  her  mother  eighty-four.  Mrs.  Hazen's 
paternal  granilfather  was  Joseph  Titus,  born 
in  Royalston,  Mass.,  son  of  Lenox  Titus,  of 
Royalston,  who  marched  to  the  relief  of  Ben- 
nington during  the  Revolution.  Her  maternal 
grandfather,  William  Morris,  was  clerk  of  the 
military  company  which  marched  from  the 
town  of  Woodstock,  Conn.,  on  the  Lexington 
alarm,  April,  1775.  He  served  in  this  capacity 
only  ten  days.  Appointed  on  March  7,  1778, 
Second  Lieutenant  in  Captain  Daniel  Til- 
den's  company,  he  served  as  Quartermaster  in 
Colonel  Sanuiel  McLellan's  regiment,  which 
enlisted  for  one  year's  service  from  March, 
1778.  The  official  record  says:  this  regiment 
"appears  to  have  enlisted  in  Tyler's  brigade 
under  Sullivan  in  Rhode  Island,  August — 
September,   1778." 

Fanny  Titus  attended  school  when  three 
years  of  age,  walking  a  mile  to  the  school- 
house  and  never  missing  a  session  during  the 
term.  She  had  already  been  taught  the 
alphabet  by  her  grandmother  Titus,  and  could 
spell  words  with  two  syllables.  When  five 
years  old  she  studied  with  great  interest 
Peter  Parley's  geography.  She  frequently 
accompanied  her  father  in  his  journeyings 
of    many    miles    through    the    Vermont    hills. 


At  the  age  of  seven  she  often  drove  seven 
miles  to  the  mill  with  a  load  of  wheat,  waited 
until  it  was  ground,  and  then  took  it  home. 
In  the  spelling  matches  which  were  popular 
in  those  days  she  "spelled  down"  the  entire 
school,  although  the  youngest  contestant. 
Before  she  was  seven  she  was  taught  to  spin, 
and  was  well  drilled  in  all  branches  of  do- 
mestic work.  Just  before  she  was  thirteen 
she  travelled  alone  to  the  home  of  her  grand- 
mother Morris  in  Lawrence,  Mass.,  going  by 
stage. 

While  living  at  her  grandmother's  in  Law- 
rence she  attended  the  Oliver  Grammar  School, 
always,  before  starting  for  school  at  eight 
o'clock,  washing  the  breakfast  dishes  for 
forty  boarders.  This  task  she  performed 
daily  for  more  than  a  year.  By  invitation 
of  the  school  conmiittee  of  her  native  town 
she  then  returned  thither  and  taught  until 
she  was  eighteen.  As  a  teacher  she  was  very 
successful,  introducing  the  advanced  methods 
she  had  learned  in  Lawrence.  Going  again 
to  Lawrence  in  1858,  she  found  employment 
in  one  of  the  large  mills,  reserving  one  even- 
ing each  week  for  herself  and  one  for  the 
church.  She  was  interested  in  the  Free 
Baptist  church  of  that  city,  of  which  she 
became  a  member  at  the  age  of  seventeen, 
being  baptized  in  the  Merrimack  River.  The 
work  in  the  mill  was  not  so  congenial  to  her 
as  teaching,  but  its  financial  results  were 
better.  Leaving  the  mill  on  account  of  an 
accident,  she  remainetl  in  Lawrence  antl  took 
up  dressmaking,  being  thus  engaged  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Civil  War. 

Her  eldest  brother,  James  M.  Titus,  enlisted 
in  1861  in  t^ie  Fourth  Vermont  Regiment, 
was  wounded  at  Gettysburg,  July,  1863,  antl 
in  the  same  year  died  of  disease  at  W^arren 
Station,  Va.  In  November,  1863,  two  younger 
brothers,  Morris  P.,  eighteen  years  old,  and 
Joseph  L.,  .seventeen,  having  enlisted  in  the 
Fourth  Vermont,  Fanny  returned  to  the 
old  home  in  Vershire  to  spend  Thanksgiving 
with  them  and  to  say  farewell.  They  left 
the  next  day  for  the  front.  Morris  was  taken 
prisoner  at  Cold  Harbor  and  sent  to  Anderson- 
ville,  and  was  exchanged  in  the  fall  of  1864. 
He    died    in    December,    1900.      Joseph    was 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


467 


wounded  in  the  head  at  the  battle  of  Cold 
Harbor,  Va.,  1864,  and  died  the  following  Feb- 
ruary in  a  field  hospital,  after  returning  to 
duty  from  a  furlough  home. 

Yearning  to  be  helpful  to  her  country  in 
its  time  of  peril,  Fanny  Titus  offered  her 
services  to  the  Sanitary  and  also  to  the  Chris- 
tian Commission,  but  the  officials  of  both 
replied,  "You  are  too  young."  And  so  said 
Dr.  Hayward,  of  Boston,  adding,  "It  would 
be  of  no  use  to  send  you:  Miss  Dix  would  send 
you  right  back."  She  secured  letters  of 
reference  from  the  Rev.  George  H.  Hepworth, 
pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  Boston, 
and  from  Dr.  Steadman  and  Dr.  Willard, 
of  Boston,  and  the  last  of  March,  1864,  went 
to  Washington.  Her  first  call  was  at  the 
office  of  Surgeon-general  Hammond,  who  said 
it  would  be  useless  for  her  to  see  Miss  Dix, 
but  gave  her  some  encouragement,  how- 
ever, by  promising  his  endorsement  if  any 
surgeon  in  charge  of  a  hospital  would  give 
her  a  position.  This  would  place  her  on 
record  as  a  regularly  enrolled  army  nurse. 
Dr.  Bliss,  of  the  Armory  Square  Hospital, 
shortly  promised  to  give  her  the  care  of  a 
ward  as  soon  as  the  new  barracks  were  built. 
While  waiting  for  this  appointment,  she  im- 
proved the  time  by  visiting  hospitals.  She 
also  .sought  a  conference  with  Miss  Dix,  and, 
being  kindly  received,  spoke  of  her  brothers 
— the  eldest  of  whom  had  given  his  life  for 
his  country,  the  other  two  being  then  with 
the  Vermont  brigade  in  V^irginia — and  of 
her  desire  to  care  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers.  After  listening  to  her  story  and 
reatling  her  letters.  Miss  Dix  asked  her  several 
questions,  one  being  in  regard  to  the  amount 
of  baggage  she  had  brought  from  home.  She 
replied,  "A  large  and  a  small  valise."  Miss 
Dix  commended  her  good  sense  in  taking  so 
little,  and  added:  "Child,  I  shall  not  say  no, 
though  it  is  entirely  against my  rules  to  take 
any  one  so  young.  I  believe  your  heart  is 
in  the  work,  and  that  I  can  trust  you.  I 
shall  send  my  ambulance  to-morrow  morning 
to  take  you  to  Columbian  Hospital,  there 
to  remain  in  quarters  till  I  send  you  to  Annapolis. 
In  the  meantime  you  will  be  under  the  train- 
ing of  Miss  Burghardt.     I  have  so  instructed 


Major  Crosby."  Columbian  Hospital  was 
on  Fourteenth  Street,  Washington,  and  was 
in  charge  of  Dr.  Thomas  R.  Crosby.  Shortly 
after.  Miss  Burghardt  having  been  granted  a 
furlough  for  rest,  she  was  placetl  in  temporary 
care  of  her  ward,  the  surgeon  of  which  was  Dr. 
F.  H.  Marsh,  of  Michigan.  By  request  of  Dr. 
Crosby  she  was  retained  at  the  Columbian  Hos- 
pital, and  upon  the  return  of  Miss  Burghardt 
was  assigned  to  Ward  Two,  where  she  remained 
until  June  27,  1865,  when  the  hospital  was 
closed. 

Her  experiences  while  in  charge  of  this 
ward  have  been  recorded  by  Mrs.  Hazen 
in  the  history  of  "Our  Army  Nurses."  She 
thus  refers  to  the  summer  of  1864:  "The 
hospital  was  filled  in  May  with  wounded 
from  the  Wilderne.ss.  Then  came  the  battle 
at  Spottsylvania  and  June  1  the  battle  of  Cold 
Harbor.  From  the  latter  battle-field  my 
youngest  brother  was  brought  to  my  ward. 
At  the  first  I  was  so  rejoiced  to  see  him  alive 
I  did  not  feel  sorry  that  he  had  been  wounded. 
After  each  arrival  from  the  front  all  who 
could  be  moved  were  transferred  to  hospitals 
more  remote,  to  make  room  for  the  next 
arrivals  from  the  battle-fields,  until  at  last 
the  wards  were  filled  with  very  badly  wounded 
men,  some  soon  crossing  to  the  other  shore, 
others  lingering  for  months,  suffering  untold 
agonies  ere  the  longed-for  rest  came.  Still 
others  lived  to  carry  through  life  crippled 
bodies.  Many  were  the  letters  written  for 
tho.se  unable  to  write  to  tlie  dear  father,  mother, 
brother,  sister,  or  sweetheart,  and  many  the 
letters  received  with  thanks  from  the  absent 
friends. 

"  During  June,  July,  August,  and  September 
our  heads,  hands,  and  hearts  were  taxed  to 
the  utmost.  .  .  .  There  were  many  deaths, 
each  one,  as  the  last  hours  came,  saying: 
'Oh,  please.  Miss  Titus,  stay  with  me.  It 
will  be  but  a  short  time.  You  seem  so  like 
a  sister.'  So  hour  after  hour  I  watched  the 
life-light  flicker  and  tlie  of  many  noble  men 
whose  lives  were  a  sacrifice  for  their  country.  .  .  . 
Later  we  had  our  bright  ilays,  too,  when  wit 
and  song  prevailed,  and  occasionally  had  time 
to  make  (as  the  boys  said)  'pies  and  other 
things  like  what  we  hatl  at  home.'     The  boys 


468 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


would  bring  the  tables  from  the  rooms,  placing 
them  end  to  end  through  the  hall,  making 
a  long  table,  where  all  the  men  able  to  leave 
their   beds   sat   down    to   a   home-like   meal." 

Mrs.  Hazen  relates  the  case  of  Sergeant 
Eli  Hudson,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  wounded 
in  the  knee  in  the  spring  of  1865.  He  was 
a  mere  boy,  but  had  served  over  four  years, 
and  had  for  several  months  been  a  patient 
in  her  ward.  The  surgeons  hail  held  several 
consultations,  l)ut  he  was  failing  rapidly, 
his  disease  being  hemorrhage  of  the  stomach. 
When  the  verdict  was  given  that  he  could 
live  but  a  few  flays,  Mrs.  Hazen  asked  per- 
mission to  give  him  what  he  wanted  to  eat 
while  he  lived;  and  the  doctor  surrendered 
the  entire  charge  of  him  to  her  care.  She 
says :  "  I  at  once  removed  the  bandages,  as 
he  complained  that  they  were  uncomfortable. 
As  soon  as  the  patients  were  all  cared  for, 
I  went  to  a  market-garden  and  bought  a 
head  of  cabbage.  He  had  often  said  he 
wanted  something  green.  When  the  cabbage 
was  cooked,  I  carried  him  some  with  cider 
vinegar.  He  ate  all  on  the  plate,  asked  for 
more,  which  was  brought,  and  still  a  third 
and  fourth  plate,  till  he  had  eaten  the  whole 
cabbage.  From  that  dinner  in  May  he  began 
to  improve,  and  on  the  14th  of  June  I  startefl 
with  Sergeant  Hudson  on  a  stretcher  for  his 
home."     He  recovered,   but  had  a  stiff  knee. 

At  this  time  the  demand  for  lemons,  jellies, 
farina,  and  other  delicacies  was  so  great  through- 
out all  the  hos|)itals  that  the  Sanitary  and 
Christian  Connnissions'  supplies  were  ex- 
hausted. Mrs.  Hazen,  remembering  that  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Hepworth  had  said  to  her,  "If  you 
ever  need  hospital  suiiplies,  let  Mrs.  l^ird, 
chairman  of  the  Aid  Society,  know  what  is 
needed,  and  we  will  .send  direct  to  you," 
sent  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Bird.  This  appeal  was 
received  in  Boston  Saturday  evening-  and 
read  in  Dr.  Hejjworth's  church  the  next  day. 
Before  night  three  large  boxes  were  filled  and 
started  for  Wa,shington.  They  contained 
three  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  supplies. 
Mrs.  Hazen  received  them  with  delight,  dis- 
tributing them  not  only  to  the  boys  in  her 
own  ward,  but  to  all  the  wards  of  Columbian 
Hospital.     She    says:    "The    Aid  Society   also 


.sent  beautiful  flannel  shirts,  socks,  towels, 
and  everything  to  fit  out  all  my  boys  when 
able  to  return  to  the  front.  The  girls?  in  the 
Everett  School,  Boston,  sent  two  barrels  of 
books  through  one  of  the  teachers,  Mrs.  Emma 
F'.  W.  Titus,  many  of  them  new  publications, 
purchased  expressly  for  the  soldiers." 

Miss  Dix  visited  the  hospital  every  month, 
and  called  all  tlie  nurses  to  meet  her  in  the 
matron's  room.  Mrs.  Hazen  pays  the  follow- 
ing loving  tribute  to  her  memory:  "She  always 
came  for  me,  saying:  'Child,  go  quickly  as 
possible.  Tell  the  nurses  I  wish  to  see  them 
without  delay.'  She  was  kind  and  thought- 
ful for  all,  but  very  strict  in  enforcing  all  her 
rules  and  regulations.  She  never  wasted  a 
minute,  and  had  no  patience  with  those  who 
were  slow.  I  shall  ever  remember  Miss  Dix 
with  the  warmest  love  and  gratitude,  and 
with  the  greatest  reverence  decorate  her  grave 
in  Mount  Auburn  every  Memorial  Day." 

After  returning  from  Washington  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  being  prevented  on  account 
of  poor  health  from  going  South  to  teach, 
Miss  Titus  accepted  a  position  in  the  grammar 
school  in  North  Chelsea,  now  known  as  Re- 
vere, Mass.  Caleb  Richardson  was  the  prin- 
cipal of  this  school. 

It  was  while  accompanying  Sergeant  Hud- 
son to  his  home,  in  June,  1865,  as  above  noted, 
that  Miss  Titus  first  met  her  future  husband, 
Charles  Richard  Hazen,  a  native  of  Hartford, 
Vt.  The  wedding  took  place  August  5,  1866, 
at  her  home  in  Vershire,  in  the  same  room 
in  which  she  was  born.  Mr.  Hazen  enlisted 
in  the  Nineteenth  Massachusetts  Infantry, 
and  served  till  April,  1864,  when  he  was  hon- 
orably discharged.  He  was  a  military  courier 
connected  with  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission,  his  line  of  official  duty  being 
from  Washington,  D.C.,  to  Harrisburg,  Pa. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hazen  lived  in  North  An- 
dover,  Mass.,  for  two  years  after  their  marriage 
and  in  Lawrence  the  next  four  years.  The 
health  of  Mr.  Hazen  was  impaired  by  his  army 
service,  and  by  the  atlvice  of  a  physician 
he  followed  the  occupation  of  farming  for 
four  years  in  Chelmsford,  Mass.,  where  they 
bought  the  "Robbins  Hill  farm,"  the  highest 
elevation  of   land   in   that  part  of   the  State. 


REPRESENTATIVE  WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


469 


This  propt'-  y  they  afterward  sold.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1879,  Mr.  Hazen,  being  physically 
unal:)le  to  continue  farm  work,  engaged  in 
the  provision  business  in  Cambridgeport. 
His  invalitlism  continuing  and  serious  financial 
losses  following  the  removal  to  Cambridge, 
Mrs.  Hazen  opened  a  dressmaking  establish- 
ment, and,  as  usual  in  her  undertakings,  met 
with  success.  Dr.  Turner,  city  physician  of 
Cambridge  at  this  time,  had  been  a  ward 
surgeon  in  the  Columbian  Hospital  at  Wash- 
ington, and  knew  Mrs.  Hazen's  capabilities 
as  a  business  woman.  Through  the  influence 
of  William  H.  Eveleth,  superintendent  of 
grounds  at  Harvard  College,  she  was  given 
entire  charge  of  Divinity  Hall,  library  and 
grounds.  This  position  she  held  for  nine  years. 
She  then  purchased  a  spacious  and  pleasant  es- 
tate on  Oxford  Street,  near  the  college  build- 
ings, in  Cambridge,  which  has  been  their  home 
for  the  past  fourteen  years.  She  says,  "  I  laiil 
the  foundation  of  my  home  by  work  before  day- 
light and  by  toiling  hours  after  sundown." 

Four  children  have  been  born  to  Mr.  ami 
Mrs.  Hazen,  and  two  are  now  living,  namely: 
Alma  M.,  born  May  12,  1868,  in  North  An- 
dover;  and  E.  Roscoe,  born  June  5,  1878, 
in  Chelmsford.  Alma  M.  married  October 
1,  1884,  Mr.  J.  Ernest  Conant,  of  West  Somer- 
ville,  and  lives  in  that  city.  Ernest  Willard, 
born  in  August,  1872,  in  Lawrence,  died 
before  he  was  two  years  old,  the  result  of  an 
accident;  and  Elbert  Titus,  born  July  6,  1874, 
in  Chelmsford,  died  May  9,  1881. 

Charles  Beck  Relief  Corps,  auxiliary  to  Post 
No.  56,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Cambridge,  was  instituted 
in  July,  1879,  and  by  invitation  of  Conunander 
Stone  of  the  post  Mrs.  Hazen  joinetl  the  corps 
at  the  next  meeting.  She  has  held  office 
therein  continuously  with  the  exception  of 
one  year.  She  was  elected  president,  but 
declined  to  accept  the  jjosition.  For  the  past 
fourteen  years  she  has  been  Chaplain,  being 
the  unanimous  choice  of  the  members.  Her 
efficient  work  is  appreciated  by  Post  56,  as 
well  as  the  corps.  She  attended  the  annual 
convention  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps  of 
Massachusetts  at  East  Boston  in  1880,  the 
first  State  convention  held  after  the  formation 
of    the    department.     She    has    often    partici- 


pated in  subsecjuent  conventions,  and  has 
served  as  Department  Aide.  In  1886  she 
journeyed  to  California  with  the  official  party, 
representing  the  Departments  of  Massachu- 
setts, W.  R.  C,  and  in  1893  was  a  delegate  to 
Indianapolis.  She  has  also  attended  other 
National  Conventions. 

In  1896  the  Massachusetts  Army  Nurse 
As.sociation  was  formed  at  department  heiul- 
quarters,  W.  R.  C,  Boylston  Building,  Boston, 
Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  and  other  army  nurses 
participating.  Mrs.  Hazen  was  electetl  Presi- 
dent, and  has  been  annually  re-elected.  Its 
business  meetings  are  held  every  month  at 
Grand  Army  headquarters,  State  House;  and 
public  meetings  of  great  interest  are  occasion- 
ally held.  The  Army  Nurse  Fair,  under  the 
management  of  Mrs.  Hazen  and  her  associates, 
which  was  held  in  Boston,  November,  1900, 
netted  a  liberal  sum  to  their  treasury.  A 
grantl  relief  work  is  being  conductetl  by  this 
association,  and  its  reunions  are  second  only 
in  interest  to  those  held  by  the  "boys,"  to 
whom  they  once  ministered  on  battle-fields 
and  in  hospitals.  A  record  of  army  nurses 
and  material  of  value  regarding  their  services 
has  been  collected  by  the  association. 

Mrs.  Hazen  is  a  member  of  the  Cambridge 
Equal  Suffrage  League  and  (with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  year)  has  voted  for  school  com- 
mittee ever  since  that  privilege  was  granted 
to  women.  She  is  also  a  member  of  the 
Daughters  of  \'ermont.  She  is  serving  her 
thinl  year  as  Chaplain  of  Bunker  Hill  Chapter, 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution. 

Her  life  has  been  a  busy  and  useful  one. 
Difficulties  she  has  surmounted  with  a  loyal, 
courageous  spirit,  knowing  no  such  word  as 
fail,  especially  when  a  good  cause  has  appealed 
to  her  for  help.  Needless  to  say  of  one  so 
friendly  and  faithful,  she  has  many  friends, 
tender  and  true. 


ELIZABETH  BLODGETT  FOSTER  was 
born  at  Belfast,  Me.,  October  25,  1862. 
Her   father,   Samuel   Augustus    Blodg- 
ett,    was     interested    in    ship-building, 
the  principal  industry  of  his  time  in  that  old 
seaport    town.     Mrs.    Elizabeth   Bean    Blodg- 


470 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


ett,  her  mother,  was  a  genuine  New  England 
woman,  much  devoted  to  her  family.  She 
was  of  Scottish  descent. 

Mrs.  Foster  was  etlucated  at  the  French 
convent  of  Villa  Marie,  Montreal,  and  was 
graduated  there  with  honor  in  1882,  delivering 
the  valedictory  in  French.  She  was  the  winner 
of  the  silver  medal  offered  by  the  Marquis  of 
Lome  as  Governor-general  of  Canada,  and 
at  a  reception  tendered  him  and  his  wife,  the 
Princess  Louise,  daughter  of  Queen  Victoria, 
had  the  honor  of  presentation.  She  also  re- 
ceived a  gold  medal,  called  the  Countess  de 
Borgia  medal,  for  French  conversation. 

In  1884  she  was  united  in  marriage  to  Dr. 
Barzillai  B.  Foster,  a  native  of  Unity,  Me.,  and 
a  graduate  of  the  Maine  Medical  School,  con- 
nected with  Bowdoin  College.  The  home  of 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Foster  is  in  Portland,  Me.  They 
have  three  sons. 

Mrs.  Foster  has  refined  literary  tastes,  and 
possesses  a  library  of  choice  books.  She  is 
a  member  of  the  Woman's  Literary  Union,  of 
Portland,  and  president  of  the  Faneuil  Club, 
and  is  much  interested  in  the  charitable  work 
of  the  city. 


EMILY      LOUISE      CLARK,     National 
Chaplain  of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps, 
was   born   April    24,    1832,    in    Becket, 
Mass.,    where    her   girlhood    days   were 
passed.     Her  father  was  William   A.   Iline,   a 
native  of  England,  and  her  mother  was  Hannah 
Putnam,  daughter  of  David  Putnam. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  years  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Edwin  Cook  Clark,  a  native  of  North- 
ampton, Mass.,  where,  after  a  few  years  spent 
in  Jersey  City,  Brooklyn,  and  Southampton, 
they  have  since  lived.  When  the  Civil  War 
began,  they  had  three  children,  the  youngest 
only  eleven  months  old.  While  unable  to 
leave  her  home  to  engage  in  work  for  the  .sol- 
diers, she  resolved  to  perform  her  share  of  duty 
in  the  great  crisis  of  the  nation.  She  opened 
her  house  as  a  rendezvous  for  all  who  desired 
to  aid  the  Union  cau.se,  antl  it  was  continually 
thronged  with  people  who  were  zealous  in 
working  for  the  volunteers.  Mrs.  Clark  con- 
tinued her  efforts  until  the  close  of  the  war, 


and  felt,  when  peace  was  declared,  that  the 
"boys  in  blue"  no  longer  needed  her  aid.  It 
was  not  long,  however,  before  she  realized 
that,  though  the  conflict  was  ended,  the  suf- 
fering it  caused  remained.  Her  patriotic  work 
was  continued,  and  when  W.  L.  Baker  Post, 
No.  86,  G.  A.  R.,  was  organized  at  Northamp- 
ton, Mrs.  Clark  entered  heartily  into  plans  for 
its  success.  She  was  the  first  President  of 
W.  L.  Baker  Relief  Corps,  auxiliary  to  Post 
No.  86,  which  was  instituted  May  13,  1885, 
and  she  was  re-electeil  two  succe.ssive  years. 
At  the  Department  Convention  in  1887  she 
was  chosen  a  delegate  to  the  National  Con- 
vention in  St.  Louis,  and  has  since  partici- 
pated in  .several  National  Conventions.  In 
1888  she  was  cho.sen  by  the  Department  Coun- 
cil to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  office  of  Department 
Chaplain,  was  re-elected  to  the  position  by  the 
annual  convention  in  1889  and  again  in  1890. 
On  account  of  severe  illness  Mrs.  Clark  retired 
from  active  work  the  following  year,  but  in 
1892  accepted  the  office  of  Department  Senior 
Vice-President,  and  upon  the  expiration  of  its 
term  was  nominated  for  the  highest  office  in 
the  gift  of  the  convention.  Mrs.  M.  Susie 
Goodale,  Past  Department  President,  pre- 
sented her  name  as  follows: — 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  place  in  nomination 
Mrs.  Emily  L.  Clark,  who  has  many  qualifi- 
cations for  the  position.  First  of  all,  she  has 
a  heart  filled  with  love  for  humanity,  and  very 
few  are  the  days  when  .some  poor  wounded  soul 
does  not  seek  and  find  comfort  beneath  her 
sheltering  roof.  In  all  this  she  is  seconded 
by  her  .soldier  husband.  Again,  she  is  a  pioneer 
in  the  order,  and  has  servetl  you  faithfully 
as  Department  Chaplain  and  Senior  Vice- 
President.  I  believe  her  to  be  in  every  way 
qualified  for  the  position." 

Mrs.  Clark  was  unanimously  elected,  and 
upon  assuming  the  duties  of  her  office  gave 
special  attention  to  the  interests  of  the  corps 
throughout  the  State.  Though  living  one 
hundred  miles  from  Department  headquarters 
in  Boston,  she  was  on  duty  there  several  days 
each  week.  A  summary  of  her  work  was  given 
in  her  address  to  the  convention  of  1894,  over 
which  she  presided  with  grace  and  ability. 
During  the  year  she  travelled  more  than  twenty 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF  NEW   ENGLAND 


471 


thousantl  miles,  and  visited  seventy-two  corps, 
besides  attending  many  camp-fires,  receptions, 
anniversaries,  and  fairs.  Three  corps  were  in- 
stituted during  lier  administration,  making 
a  total  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  corps 
under  her  charge.  She  aimed  to  encourage 
all  in  the  noble  work  in  which  they  were  engaged. 
Mrs.  Clark  issued  nine  general  orders  and  two 
circular  letters,  huntlreds  of  copies  of  which 
were  mailed  to  ilifTerent  sections  of  the  coun- 
try. Referrmg  to  her  personal  work,  she  said: 
"  I  have  written  more  than  twelve  hundred 
letters,  answered  innumerable  questions,  and 
endeavored  to  instruct  and  encourage  all  who 
asked  for  advice.  The  many  personal  letters 
I  have  received,  expressing  appreciation  for 
help  given,  will  be  to  me  a  storehouse  of  pleas- 
ure in  the  coming  years,  when  I  shall  have 
leisure  to  again  read  these  words  of  commenda- 
tion." 

Mrs.  Clark  visited  the  Soldiers'  Home  in 
Chelsea  several  times  during  her  atlministra- 
tion,  and  issuctl  an  appeal  to  corps  in  general 
orders  to  furnish  some  of  the  new  rooms  in  the 
annex.  She  also  expressetl  an  interest  in  hav- 
ing the  Department  of  Massachusetts  creditably 
represented  in  the  National  Woman's  Relief 
Corps  exhibit  at  the  Workl's  Fair,  and  a  lib- 
eral contribution  was  sent  by  her  order  for  this 
object.  In  reporting  the  results  of  the  year's 
work,  she  referred  to  the  thousands  of  callers 
she  had  met  at  headquarters  and  to  the  mutual 
benefits  thereby  received.  Upon  retiring  from 
the  office  of  Department  President,  Mrs.  Clark 
was  appointed  Councillor  on  the  staff  of  her 
successor.  She  also  aided  Corps  No.  18  of 
Northampton  by  accepting  an  appointment 
as  secretary,  and  has  continuetl  her  active  in- 
terest in  the  corps.  Mrs.  Clark  served  as  Na- 
tional Chaplain  pro  tern,  at  the  National  Con- 
vention at  Boston  in  1890,  at  Indianapolis  in- 
1893,  and  was  unanimously  elected  to  this 
office  at  the  National  Convention  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  September,  1901. 

Her  kindly  interest  in  the  welfare  of  others 
and  her  cheerful  manner  have  made  her  pop- 
ular with  all  classes  of  people. 

Her  husband,  Edwin  C.  Clark,  was  identified 
with  the  business  interests  of  Northampton. 
In  April,  1861,  he  assisted  in  recruiting  Com- 


pany A  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Massachusetts 
Regiment,  and  was  conmiissioned  Second  Lieu- 
tenant. He  served  at  Roanoke  Islam!,  New- 
bern,  ami  in  other  campaigns  under  General 
Burnside.  Lieutenant  Clark  resigned  his  com- 
mission and  returned  home  in  1862,  when  he 
re-enlisted  in  the  Fifty-second  Massachusetts 
Regiment,  receiving  a  commission  as  First 
Lieutenant.  He  subsequently  accepted  a  com- 
mission as  Quartermaster.  This  regiment 
took  part  in  General  Banks's  expedition,  and 
performed  active  duty  at  Baton  Rouge,  Barry's 
Landing,  and  Port  Hudson.  Captain  Clark, 
who  had  received  this  title  by  brevet,  remainetl 
with  his  regiment  until  it  was  mustered  out  of 
service  in  the  fall  of  1863. 

He  was  highly  esteemed  by  the  citizens  of 
Northampton,  and  could  have  been  the  first 
Mayor  of  the  city,  had  he  cared  for  the  office. 
He  was  treasurer  and  superintendent  of  the 
Northampton  Street  Railway  Company  for 
several  years,  and  held  other  positions  of  trust. 
His  death  occurred  May  10,  1898. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Clark  had  two  sons  and 
two  daughters.  Itla  B.,  the  eklest  child,  born 
July  18,  1852,  married  Joseph  Carhart,  presi- 
dent of  the  State  Normal  School  of  North  Da- 
kota. They  have  three  sons  and  seven  daugh- 
ters. Edwin  Cook  Clark,  born  January  3, 
1856,  is  suijerintendent  of  the  extensive  elec- 
tric railroatl  of  Northampton,  and  receives  the 
largest  salary  of  any  superintendent  in  Massa- 
chusetts hokling  a  similar  position.  He  mar- 
ried Mona  Fogel,  of  Northampton.  They  have 
three  children.  Mary  A.  Clark,  born  October 
28,  1860,  married  Emlyn  V.  Mitchell,  of  Hart- 
ford, Conn.  They  have  four  children.  Will- 
iam A.,  born  March  2,  1868,  a  prominent  busi- 
ness man  of  Northampton,  in  1897  marrietl 
Alice  R.,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  George  W. 
Johnson,  of  Brookfield,  Mass. 


HULDA    BARKER    LOUD    was    born 
September  13,  1844,  in  East  Abing- 
ton,   now   Rockland,   Mass.,   being   a 
daughter    of    Reuben    and     Betsey 
(Whiting)   Loud.      She    attended    the    public 
schools  of  that  town,  and  was  graduated  from 
the  high  school  in  1862.     Becoming  a  teacher 


472 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


the  same  year,  she  continued,  with  the  exception 
of  three  years,  to  teach  for  twenty-two  years, 
most  of  the  time  in  East  Ahington.  She  was 
principal  of  a  grammar  sciiool  for  hfteen  years, 
receiving  most  of  the  years  the  same  salary 
as  that  paid  men  holding  a  similar  position. 
This  came  as  the  result  of  her  arguments  with 
the  school  committee  regarding  the  question 
of  equal  rights,  the  members  of  the  conunittee 
being  convinced  that  she  had  justice  on  her 
side.  Miss  Loud  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Rockland  School  Board  in  LS87,  and  .served 
in  that  capacity  until  LS90. 

From  LS72  to  LS7r)  she  was  a  speaker  in  the 
woman  suffrage  cause,  performing  able  .service 
for  this  movement  by  her  convincing  argu- 
ments and  earnest  manner.  In  1S84  a  new 
paper  was  starteil  in  Rockland,  and  an  invita- 
tion extendetl  to  Mi.ss  Loud  to  become  its  edi- 
tor. She  named  the  pajjcr  The  Independent. 
Five  years  later  she  purchased  the  entire  prop- 
erty connected  with  the  paper,  including  the 
job  printing  as  well  as  the  publishing  busine-ss. 
The  paper,  which  is  devoted  to  social  and 
political  reform,  continues  to  be  successfully 
conducted  by  Mi.ss  Loud,  who  is  sole  proprietor. 
In  her  opening  editorial  in  1889,  after  the 
paper  came  into  her  hands,  she  announced 
that  she  had  gone  into  the  newspaper  business 
with  the  .sole  purpo.se  to  help  save  the  world, 
and  her  ways  of  saving  it  would  appear  in  fut- 
ure editorials.  The  Independent  is  an  eight-page 
paper,  and  she  has  averaged  a  page  of  editorials 
each  week.  As  a  ])ublisher  she  has  shown 
excellent  business  ability,  and  the  articles  from 
her  pen  are  in  harmony  with  the  name  of  her 
paper.  She  is  a  womaii  who  has  the  courage 
of  her  convictions,  and  fearlessly  denounces 
unjust  measures.  The  Independent  represents 
the  highest  principles,  and  is  supported  by 
people  who  have  the  interests  of  the  public 
at  heart.  The  fact  that  she  has  continued  in 
its  management  for  .so  many  years  proves  that 
her  efforts  are  appreciated. 

Miss  Loud  represented  the  National  Assembly 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  at  the  Wonian's  Inter- 
national Congress,  held  in  Washington,  D.C., 
in  March,  1888,  aufl  addressed  the  congress 
upon  the  subject,  "  Women  in  the  Knights  of 
Labor."     Her    addresses    have    been    received 


with  enthusiasm,  but  home  life  is  more  con- 
genial to  her  than  public  life,  and  she  prefers 
newspaper  work  to  the  lecture  platform.  In 
1891  she  adopted  two  grand-nephews,  and 
had  a  hou.se  built  for  them  near  her  old  home. 
The  eldest,  Ralph  Powers,  was  fataly  injured 
by  falling  from  his  bicycle  in  1898.  His  brother 
Carl  was  graduated  from  the  Rockland  High 
School  in  June,  1903. 


ELEANOR  BALDW^IN  CASS  was  born 
in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  less  than  thirty 
years  ago.  She  is  the  daughter  of 
Charles  F.  and  Mary  (Gilbert)  Baldwin. 
Her  maternal  grandfather,  Robert  Gilbert, 
was  an  Irishman.  One  of  her  paternal  an- 
cestors, Jean  Gieto,  who  was  a  Frenchman, 
left  Paris  at  the  time  of  the  commune  (1789- 
94)  and  came  to  America.  He  attained  the 
great  age  of  one  hundred  and  six.  The  family, 
it  may  be  said,  is  noted  for  longevity  and  ath- 
letic ability. 

Eleanor  Baldwin  was  graduated  from  the 
grammar  and  high  schools  of  Charlestown, 
later  taking  the  regular  counse  at  Dr.  Sargent's 
Normal  School  and  a  special  course  of  instruc- 
tion at  Emerson  College,  Boston.  She  stud- 
ied French  and  German  with  private  tutors 
and  took  voice  training  under  .some  of  the  lead- 
ing teachers  of  New  England. 

She  was  married  to  John  William  Ca.ss  in 
1900,  and  is  the  mother  of  one  child. 

With  her  hu.sband's  encouragement  Mrs. 
Cass  has  continued  her  work  of  teaching  and 
lecturing,  which  she  enthusiastically  enjoys. 
She  instructs  at  the  Durant  Gymnasium,  and 
also  has  many  private  pupils  in  physical  cult- 
ure and  fencing,  of  which  art  she  is  perfect 
mistress. 

Her  lectures  deal  mostly  with  the  "balance 
of  mind  and  body."  Though  she  has  been 
often  lieard  at  the  Somerset,  the  Tuileries,  and 
Vendome  in  Boston,  she  is  far  better  known 
in  New  York  and  Newport.  Her  first  lectures 
were  given  at  Newport.  These  led  to  the  for- 
mation in  Newport,  by  Mrs.  Cass,  in  1897,  of 
a  fencing  club,  which  was  the  first  club  of  its 
kind  for  women  in  the  country.  Mrs.  Cass 
has  lectured  before  some  of  the  most  fashion- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


473 


able  and  representative  women  in  the  country. 
Though  still  a  young  woman,  she  has  won 
phenomenal  success  in  her  chosen  work.  She 
goes  in  society  a  great  ileal,  and  is  a  great  favor- 
ite in  Newport,  being  a  very  clever  entertainer. 
She  is  an  expert  horsewoman,  plays  a  fine  game 
of  tennis,  and  makes  a  good  partner  at  golf. 
She  has  but  little  time  for  social  and  club  life, 
but  is  intelligently  alive  to  all  movements  which 
tend  to  elevate  American  womanhood.  She 
is  an  earnest  advocate  of  simple  and  hygienic 
living. 


A  GNES  BEARCE  DAY,  whose  maiden 
/  \  name  was  Agnes  Bearce,  was  born  in 
JTjL  Calais,  Me.,  September  21,  1867.  Her 
parents  were  Byron  A.  Bearce  and 
Ella  F.  McDougall  Bearce,  the  latter  belong- 
ing to  one  of  the  best  known  Scottish  families 
of  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick,  anil  directly 
descended  from  the  famous  clan  McDougall  of 
Scotland.  Agnes  Bearce  in  her  girlhood  at- 
tended the  public  schools  of  Lewiston,  and  was 
graduated  from  tlie  high  school  in  1883.  She 
was  married  in  Boston,  September  12,  1903,  to 
Holman  F.  Day,  of  Auburn,  Me. 

Mrs.  Day's  artistic  impulses  came  to  her 
early  in  life.  She  was  first  drawn  to  china 
decorating,  and  displayed  so  nuich  talent  that 
after  a  course  of  study  with  local  teachers  she 
went  to  New  York  and  pursued  her  calling  in 
some  of  the  best  keramic  stutlios.  While  there 
her  work  shown  at  the  Waldorf-Astoria  ex- 
hibit attracted  much  favorable  notice.  She 
has  also  studied  with  well-known  Boston 
artists,  and  is  recognized  in  the  leading  art 
circles  of  that  city. 

She  began  teaching  in  Lewiston  in  1896, 
and  has  had  classes  most  of  the  time  since  then. 
She  has  given  annual  e.xhibits  of  her  produc- 
tions. The  work  she  has  done  in  water-colors 
antl  oils  during  the  past  few  years  has  re- 
ceived fitting  and  extremely  favorable  notice 
in  high  quarters.  Her  keramic  achievements 
have  been  especially  gratifying  to  her  friends. 
Two  years  ago  the  managers  of  Poland 
Spring  Hotel  solicited  and  placed  a  case  of 
her  work  on  exhibition  for  the  summer  in 
their  widely  known  art  gallery,  to  which  only 


artists  of  recognized  talent  are  admitted. 
Her  designs  have  been  [printed  in  some  of  the 
leading  art  publications  of  the  country. 

P'or  five  years  she  has  held  the  position  of 
superintendent  of  the  Maine  State  Art  Ex- 
hibit, and  for  the  past  four  years  (1899-1902) 
has  had  entire  charge  of  their  annual  exhibit 
at  Lewiston.  Her  duties  comprise  the  col- 
lection of  the  jVictures  and  china  and  all  the 
tletails  of  arrangement,  and  it  is  pleasing  to 
note  that  the  art  exhibit  has  grown  steadily 
under  her  management. 

She  is  a  member  of  the  Murray  Club  of 
Lewiston,  and  has  been  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Society  of  Keramic  Arts  since  1899. 
In  her  religious  faith  she  is  a  Universalist. 
Her  home  is  on  Court  Street,  Auburn,  Me. 


ANNIE  C.  SHATTUCK,  of  Fitchburg, 
/\  Mass.,  a  National  .\ide  in  the  Woman's 
X.  ^  Relief  Corps  and  a  devoted  worker  for 
the  cause  of  patriotism,  was  born  No- 
vember 26,  1851,  at  New  Ipswich,  N.H.,  her 
j)arents  being  \\'illiain  K.  and  Elizabeth  (Stark) 
Hassall.  On  the  paternal  side  she  comes  of  a 
long  line  of  worthy  New  England  ancestors, 
one  of  whom,  Anna  Hassall,  was  massacred  by 
the  Indians,  September  2,  1691.  On  her 
mother's  side  she  is  a  descendant  of  Arcliii)ald 
Stark,  born  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  in  ]&)7, 
who  married  Eleanor  Nichols  iji  Londonderry, 
Ireland,  and  came  to  New  England  in  1720 
with  the  party  of  Scotch-Irish  that  settled 
Londontierry,  N.H.  From  this  pair  Mrs.  Shat- 
tuck  claims  descent  through  Major-general  John 
Stark  (as  a  great-great-grand-daughter)  tlie 
noted  Revolutionary  hero,  who  at  Bennington 
and  on  other  battle-fields  achieved  so  much 
for  the    cause   of    American  independence. 

Annie  C.  Hassall  was  edvicated  in  the  public 
schools  and  at  the  then  noted  Appleton  Acad- 
emy in  her  native  town.  In  1861,  on  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  Civil  War,  when  societies  were 
being  formed  for  the  relief  of  the  soldiers  at  the 
front  and  in  the  hospitals,  her  mother,  who  was 
an  active  member  of  some  of  these  .societies, 
wishing  her  to  aid  in  the  good  work,  taught 
her  how  to  knit.  Although  then  but  a  girl  of 
ten,  she  knit  several  pairs  of  hose,  which,  with 


474 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


comfort  bags  that  she  helped  to  make  and  fill 
and  other  supplies,  were  sent  to  the  brave 
"boys  in  blue."  Among  her  most  treasured 
keepsakes  now  are  some  letters  that  she  re- 
ceived from  one  of  these  soldiers,  who  was 
wounded  and  very  ill  in  the  hospital,  and  who 
on  receiving  one  of  these  comfort  bags  wrote 
to  express  his  gratitude  and  appreciation  of 
the  work  done  by  those  at  home  for  the  sol- 
diers. 

In  1871  Miss  Hassall  became  the  wife  of 
Frederick  D.  Shattuck,  who  had  enlisted  in  the 
Union  army  soon  after  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter,  and  served  subsequently  until  the  close 
of  the  war.  He  is  now  a  member  of  E.  V.  Sum- 
ner Post,  No.  19,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Fitchburg. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shattuck  are  the  parents  of 
three  children,  two  daughters  and  a  son.  The 
son,  Frederick  A.  Shattuck,  was  for  two  years 
and  a  half  a  teacher  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States  government  in  the  Philippines,  where  he 
instructed  the  children  in  the  principles  of 
liberty  and  representative  government,  and 
taught  them  to  love  the  flag  of  the  country 
whence  they  had  received  these  blessings. 
From  the  islands  he  forwarded  to  his  home  in 
Fitchburg  some  valuable  and  interesting  souve- 
nirs, accompanietl  by  letters  containing  9.  record 
of  his  experiences,  with  interesting  descriptions 
of  the  country  and  its  people,  showing  him  to 
be  a  young  man  of  observation  and  keen  in- 
sight as  well  as  literary  ability.  He  is  now 
teaching  in  Tokio,  Japan,  where  he  is  associated 
with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gate,  a  Universalist  mis- 
sionary. 

In  1885  Mrs.  Shattuck  was  initiated  a  mem- 
ber of  E.  V.  Sumner  Corps,  No.  1,  W.  R.  C, 
of  Fitchburg.  After  serving  in  several  offices 
she  was  elected  President  two  successive  years, 
and  has  held  the  oflice  of  Secretary  for  eight 
years.  Since  uniting  with  the  order  she  has 
attended  as  a  delegate  (with  one  exception) 
every  department  convention,  and  has  -served 
continuously  on  important  committees  in  the 
corps  and  the  department.  She  has  efficiently 
performed  the  work  of  an  Assistant  Inspector 
and  Installing  Officer,  besides  attending  to 
numerous  other  duties.  She  has  also  taken 
part  in  many  patriotic  gatherings  in  different 
parts  of  the  State.     She  was  elected  three  years 


in  succession  a  member  of  the  Department 
Executive  Board  at  the  State  conventions,  and 
is  regarded  in  many  quarters  as  a  future  leader 
of  the  Department  of  Ma.ssachusetts. 

Mrs.  Shattuck  has  attended  several  national 
conventions,  and  is  a  National  Aide  the  present 
year  (1904).  She  is  one  of  the  vice-presidents 
of  the  General  Conunittee,  and  also  a  member 
of  the  ICxecutive  Committee  of  Arrangements 
for  the  national  convention  in  Boston.  The 
corps  of  which  she  is  a  member  is  the  oldest  in 
the  country,  the  first  convention  of  the  order 
having  been  held  in  Fitchburg.  There  are  now 
three  thousand  corps  in  the  various  States  and 
Territories  of  the  Union.  Mrs.  Shattuck  was 
the  first  President  of  the  Worcester  County  As- 
sociation of  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  is 
highly  esteemed  in  the  different  posts  and  corps 
in  the  county.  During  the  war  of  1898  with 
Spain  she  was  a  member  of  the  citizens'  com- 
mittee, which  was  composed  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  Fitchburg,  who  held  their  "meetings 
in  the  State  armory  and  formulated  plans  for 
the  relief  of  the  soldiers  of  that  war.  She  also 
attended  the  meetings  of  the  ladies  who  met 
to  carry  out  those  plans,  in  which  she  took  a 
very  active  part. 

Mrs.  Shattuck  was  one  of  the  Vice-Regents 
of  the  Fitchburg  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution,  a  Past  Matron  of  Lady 
Emma  Chapter  of  the  Order  of  the  Eastern 
Star,  and  a  member  of  the  Woman's  Club,  of 
Fitchburg.  She  is  actively  identified  with  the 
work  of  the  LTniversalist  church,  of  which  she 
is  a  member,  and  vice-president  of  the  ladies' 
circle  of  the  church  in  Fitchburg. 

Mrs.  Shattuck  is  a  pleasing  speaker,  and  had 
the  honor  of  delivering  the  Memorial  Day  ad- 
flress  at  her  native  town  this  year  (1904)  by 
invitation  of  the  Grand  Army  Post  of  New 
Ipswich,  N.H.  The  Fitchhuni  (Mass.)  Sentinel, 
in  referring  to  her  address  on  this  occasion,  said: 
"  Her  reference  to  the  purpose  of  the  Grand 
Army,  to  the  origin  of  the  Relief  Corps  antl  of 
Memorial  Day  as  a  nation's  holiday,  and  her 
adtlress  to  each  organization  represented,  were 
all  heard  with  the  keenest  interest,  and  would 
be  heard  again  with  pleasure.  She  seemed  in- 
spired by  her  subject,  and  with  her  clear,  dis- 
tinct   utterance,    her    voice   without   apparent 


MARY  THOMPSON  CHAPIN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


475 


effort  was  easily  heard  in  every  part  of    the 
hall." 

Mrs.  Shattuck  is  a  woman  of  strong  indi- 
viduality and  kindness  of  heart,  generous  and 
hospitable,  a  lover  of  liberty,  of  home.  State, 
and  country.  She  believes  in  striving  each  day 
to  leave  a  record  of  some  gootl  accomplished, 
"some  worthy  action  done,"  and  in  exemplify- 
ing the  true  principles  of  a  Christian  life. 


MARY  ETHERIDGE  THOMPSON 
CHAPIN  (Mrs.  Henry  W.  Chapin) 
was  born  in  Yarmouth,  Me.,  the 
daughter  of  Moses  Wirt  and  Huldah 
Green  (True)  Thompson.  A  girl  of  great 
versatility,  of  talent  and  wide  range  of  affin- 
ities with  artistic  and  intellectual  life,  her 
first  inclination  revealed  itself  in  sculpture, 
and  even  so  great  an  authority  as  Anne  Whit- 
ney recognized  her  genuine  talent  for  the 
plastic  art.  From  her  father  Miss  Thompson 
inherited  her  ardent  love  of  art,  which  was 
destined  later  on  to  play  an  important  part 
in  her  work  for  humanity.  After  graduating 
with  academic  honors,  Miss  Thompson  took 
the  complete  kindergarten  training  course 
under  the  famous  Miss  Garland,  and  in  Cam- 
bridge she  lectured  on  teaching,  taking  the 
head  of  the  kindergarten  established  by  Eliza- 
beth Peabody  and  Mrs.  Horace  Mann.  With 
these  two  ladies  she  lived,  and  to  have  thus 
come  under  the  remarkable  influence  of  Miss 
Peabody  she  has  always  accounted  as  a  sig- 
nificant event  in  her  life. 

In  her  early  youth  she  became  the  wife  of 
Henry  AV.  Chapin,  of  Boston,  who  is  an  official 
in  the  government  service,  and  from  this  time 
Mrs.  Chapin 's  life  began  that  marked  expansion 
which  has  made  her  a  potent  and  beneficent 
factor  in  educational  antl  artistic  life.  In 
special  courses  of  study  in  Radcliffe  College, 
in  travel,  and  in  constant  contact  with  the 
world  of  thought  and  purpose,  she  has  achieved 
a  power  that  she  brings  to  bear  upon  munic- 
ipal life  in  many  tiirections.  In  1897  Mrs. 
Chapin  conceived  the  idea  of  courses  of  free 
art  lectures  for  the  people,  to  be  given  in  the 
Boston  Public  Library:  and,  securing  the 
sympathy   and   consent   of  the   trustees,    this 


movement  was  inaugurated,  and  has  success- 
fully continued,  Mrs.  Chapin  assuming  all  the 
financial  responsibility.  The  beautiful  idea  of 
adorning  school-rooms  with  works  of  art  was 
original  with  Mrs.  Chapin,  and  it  so  conuneniled 
itself  as  to  be  widely  adopted  in  Boston  and 
elsewhere. 

A  member  of  the  famous  Copley  Club,  Mrs. 
Chapin  was  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
selected  to  choose  pictures  for  free  art  ex- 
hibitions for  the  people,  which  were  given  in 
the  South  P]n(l  House  (so  admirably  managed 
by  Mr.  Robert  Wood)  anil  in  several  school- 
houses.  Mrs.  Chapin  is  a  prominent  member 
of  the  New  England  Woman's  Club.  She 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Metaphysical 
Club,  and  also  of  the  Unity  Art  Club,  of  which 
she  has  always  been  the  president ;  and 
she  has  always  been  the  recipient  of  social 
and  scholarly  honors,  among  the  latter  of  which 
is  tlie  unicjue  distinction  of  having  the  star, 
Etheridgea,  discovered  by  Professor  Charlois, 
of  Nice,  in  April,  1892,  named  for  her. 

Through  her  ancestry  Mrs.  Chapin  is  eligible 
to  the  Society  of  Daughters  of  the  Revolution 
and  that  of  the  Colonial  Dames;  and,  though  her 
busy  life  does  not  permit  of  her  active  member- 
ship, she  is  often  a  speaker  at  their  banquets. 
Mrs.  Chapin's  mental  ecjuipment  for  a  public 
speaker  is  enhanced  by  beauty,  charm  and  dis- 
tinction of  presence,  and  a  voice  of  combined 
strength  and  flexibility. 

As  a  lecturer  she  has  made  herself  a  special 
favorite,  and  her  Thursday  morning  "  con- 
ferences," given  in  her  home,  on  the  general 
theme  of  the  art  of  higher  and  nobler  living, 
draw  select  and  enthusiastic  hearers.  Mrs. 
Chapin  is  still  a  young  woman,  and  her  ardent 
buoyancy  of  temperament,  her  fine  poise,  and 
exalted  mental  attitude  combine  to  render 
her  work  and  influence  among  the  beneficent 
forces  of  the  day. 


HELEN    Mackenzie    graves,   a 
successful  business  woman  of  Boston, 
is  a  native  of  Nova  Scotia,  her  birth- 
place and  the  home  of  her  parents, 
David  and  Christina  (Sutherland)  MacKenzie, 
being  in  Pictou  County.     Her  grandparents  on 


476 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


her  mother's  side  were  Angus  and  Isabella  C. 
(Gordon)  Sutherland;  on  her  father's  side, 
John  and  Catherine  (Mcintosh)  MacKenzie, 
all  Scottish  Highlanders,  belonging  to  old  and 
distinguished  clans.  They  migrated  to  Nova 
Scotia  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  History  of  Pictou  County  states 
that  Donald  Mcintosh  and  Angus  Sutherland 
took  up  their  residence  in  the  unbroken  forest 
in  the  year  1813. 

Angus  Sutherland,  the  maternal  grand- 
father above  mentionetl,  was  one  of  the  Suth- 
erlands  of  Sutherlandshire  (in  the  extreme 
north  of  Scotland,  south  of  Caithness),  the 
head  of  which  family  for  many  generations 
bore  the  title  of  Earl,  the  line  at  length  ending 
in  an  heiress,  "Elizabeth  Sutherland,  Countess 
of  Sutherland  in  her  own  right  and  proprie- 
tress of  the  greater  part  of  Sutherlandshire," 
who  married  in  1785  George  Granville  Leveson 
Gower,  the  latter  becoming  in  1833  the  first 
Duke  of  Sutherland. 

The  maternal  grandmother,  Isabella  C, 
wife  of  Angus  Sutherland,  was  the  daughter 
of  Robert  and  Christina  (Arnot)  Gordon.  Her 
father  is  said  to  have  sprung  from  the  same 
stock  as  the  distinguished  British  general, 
Charles  George  Gordon,  known  as  "Chinese 
Gordon" — born  at  Woolwich, England,  in  1833, 
son  of  William  H.  and  Elizabeth  (Enderby) 
Gordon  and  grandson  of  William  A.  and  Anna 
M.  (Clarke)  Gordon-^whose  great-grandfather, 
David  Gordon,  emigrated  from  Scotland  after 
the  battle  of  Culloden,  and  died  in  Halifax, 
N.S.,  in  1752. 

Robert  Gordon  is  believed  to  have  been  very 
nearly  related  to  David  Gordon.  Alexander 
Gordon,  son  of  Robert,  was  a  paymaster  in 
the  Forty-second  Highlanders  (the  "Black 
Watch"),  and  his  brother  Donald  was  band- 
master of  the  same  regiment. 

Helen  MacKenzie  (now  Mrs.  Graves)  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  having  received  a  public  school 
education  in  her  native  place,  came  to  Boston, 
Mass.,  to  enter  upon  the  active  duties  of  life 
on  her  own  account. 

After  various  discouraging  experiences  in 
attempting  to  find  a  position  for  which  she 
was  fitted,  she  secured  employment  in  the 
office   of  a  laundry   machinery   company,   be- 


ginning there  at  the  lowest  round  of  the  ladder. 
She  felt  that  this  was  the  opportunity  for 
which  she  had  been  looking,  and  determined 
to  make  the  most  of  it  by  doing  her  work  well. 
Her  energy  and  faithfulness  soon  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  officers  of  the  company, 
and  they  tlecided  to  make  the  experiment 
of  placing  her  in  charge  of  a  department  of 
the  business  that  had  previously  been  con- 
ducted entirely  by  men  engaged  as  travelling 
agents. 

The  mere  mention  of  employing  a  woman  in 
that  capacity  was  regarded  as  preposterous. 
Nevertheless,  she  began  to  travel  for  the  com- 
pany, and  immediately  proved  herself  capable 
of  doing  the  work  assigned  her  in  a  satisfactory 
manner.  She  installed  steam  laundry  plants 
all  over  the  United  States,  instructing  opera- 
tives in  the  running  of  the  machines,  and 
gained  a  reputation  as  an  authority  in  this 
branch  of  the  business.  It  was  hard,  exact- 
ing, fatiguing  work,  and  after  a  time,  wishing 
to  settle  in  a  permanent  location,  she  accepted 
a  position  as  suj)erintendent  and  manager 
of  one  of  the  largest  steam  laundries  in  the 
East.  This  position  she  held  eighteen  years, 
resigning  it  two  or  three  years  ago  to  embark  in 
her  present  enterprise,  establishing  and  carry- 
ing on  a  steam  laundry  in  the  Allston  district 
of  Boston.  The  "Mayflower  Laundry,"  as  it 
is  called,  has  been  conducted  with  her  usual 
energy,  industry,  and  honesty,  and  with  such 
signal  ability  that  it  is  a  pronounced  success, 
ranking  as  a  first-class  establishment  of  its 
kind  and  a  credit  to  its  proprietor  and  man- 
ager. 

January  16,  1891,  Helen  MacKenzie  was 
married  to  Oliver  B.  Graves,  of  the  firm  of 
Graves  &  Henry,  of  Harvard  Square,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 


AMY  MORRIS  BRADLEY,  educator, 
/\  was  born  September  12,  1823,  in  East 
X  ^  Vassalboro,  Me.  When  she  was  six 
years  old,  her  mother  died,  leaving  a 
large  family  of  children.  Amy  being  the  young- 
est. In  1840  she  became  a  public  school 
teacher,  contimiing  in  the  profession  ten  years. 
During  the   first   four  years  of  this  time  she 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


477 


studied  at  the  academy  at  East  Vassalboro  in 
the  spring  and  fall,  teaching  only  during  the 
sunuuer  and  winter  months. 

In  1844  she  was  principal  of  a  grammar 
school  at  Gardiner,  Me.,  later  on  she  was  an 
assistant  in  the  Winthrop  Granunar  School, 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  and  afterward  in  the 
Putnam  Grammar  School,  East  Cambridge. 
Obliged  on  account  of  bronchial  trouble  to 
relinquish  her  duties,  she  spent  a  winter  at 
the  home  of  her  brother  in  Charleston,  S.C, 
and  during  the  two  years  following  she  was  an 
invalid  at  her  old  home  in  Maine.  She  needed 
a  milder  climate,  anil,  embracing  an  opportunity 
that  came  to  her  unexpectedly,  she  sailed  for 
Costa  Rica  in  November,  1853.  Some  months 
after,  in  San  Jose,  where  among  the  mountains 
her  health  improvetl,  Miss  Bradley  established 
the  first  English  school  in  Centi-al  America. 
This  school  she  conducted  successfully  for  three 
years. 

Owing  to  the  serious  illness  of  her  father, 
who  was  eighty-three  years  old,  she  returned 
to  her  home  in  Maine  in  June,  1857.  Mr. 
Bradley  died  in  June,  1S5S. 

Early  in  1861  she  was  in  the  employ  of  the 
New  England  Glass  Company  at  East  Cam- 
bridge as  translator  of  the  Spanish  language. 

Miss  Bradley  was  thoroughly  j^atriotic,  and 
after  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  she  offered 
her  services  to  the  government  as  an  army 
nurse.  She  began  her  labors  in  September  in 
a  hospital  near  Alexandria,  Va.,  antl  was  soon 
appointed  matron  of  the  Seventeenth  Brigatle 
Hospital.  In  the  spring  of  1862  she  responded 
to  a  call  from  the  Relief  Department  of  the 
United  States  Sanitary  ConnnLssion,  and  went 
with  Miss  Dix  to  Fortress  Monroe.  She  was 
assigned  to  service  on  the  transport  boats,  and 
labored  faithfully  throughout  the  Peninsular 
Campaign. 

Later  in  the  year  she  became  special  relief 
agent  of  the  Sanitary  Conmiission  at  the  camp 
near  Alexandria,  Va.  Regarding  her  work 
here  she  wrote  in  her  diary:  "I  entered  upon 
my  duties  as  .soon  as  the  camp  was  moved  to 
its  present  location,  on  the  ITtli  of  December, 
1862.  The  soldiers  were  in  tents.  No  bar- 
racks had  been  erected.  Many  I  found  sick 
and  stretchetl  on  the  almost  frozen  ground  in 


midwinter,  with  only  a  suit  of  ragged  and  fever- 
soiled  clothes  and  one  army  blanket,  with  no 
nourishment  that  they  could  take,  or  that  was 
suitable  for  sick  men.  .  .  . 

"  Making  out  requisition  in  form,  I  drew 
a  quantity  of  woollen  shirts,  and  on  Sunday 
morning  at  inspection  I  went  with  the  officer, 
and  foimd  in  the  line  of  men  on  that  damp  and 
chilling  day,  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac 
in  midwinter,  seventy-five  with  only  thin  cot- 
ton shirts.  To  these  I  gave  warm  flannels  at 
once,  and  ever  since  the  really  needy  have  been 
supplied.  Then  I  went  through  the  sick  tents, 
and  immediately  after  sought  an  interview 
with  the  commantling  officer,  told  him  my 
plan,  and  asked  for  hospital  tents.  These  were 
at  once  pitched  and  flooretl.  Stoves  were 
placed  in  them,  and  the  sick  collected  and  made 
as  comfortable  as  possible.  A  squad  of  men 
was  detailed  to  assist  me,  and  every  facility 
placed  in  my  power." 

In  recognition  of  the  value  of  her  services 
at  Camp  Convalescent,  the  ability,  faithful- 
ness, and  entire  self-devotion  with  which  she 
performed  the  work  intrusted  to  her  charge. 
Miss  Bratlley  was  presentetl  with  a  handsome 
watch  and  chain,  "a  gift  from  soldiers  to  the 
soldier's  friend." 

Miss  Bradley  received  many  testimonials  of 
regard,  among  them  the  following  from  Mr. 
John  S.  Blatchford,  secretary  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission:  "Your  impaired  health,  incurred 
in  the  performance  of  your  self-imposeil  and 
most  arduous  labors  for  the  welfare  of  our  sol- 
diers, is  observed  by  your  friends  with  solici- 
tude and  regret.  The  service  which  you  have 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  humanity,  antl  the 
influence  you  have  exerted,  resulting  in  untold 
alleviation  and  comfort  to  those  to  whom  you 
have  ministered  in  many  ways  beyond  the  ordi- 
dary  experience  of  women,  are  such  as  to  secure 
to  you  the  lasting  regartl  and  love  of  all  who 
have  known  you  in  your  work.  That  work 
has  been  characterized  by  rare  judgment, 
great  efficiency,  untiring  zeal  and  devotion. 
It  is  above   praise." 

In  1866,  under  the  auspices  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association,  Miss  Bradley  went  to 
Wilmington,  N.C.,  to  teach  jioor  white  children. 
The  following  is  from  an  account  of  her  work 


478 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


published  shortly  after  her  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  January,  1904: — 

She  opened  her  school  on  January  9,  1867, 
in  a  very  small  building,  and  within  a  week  had 
sixty-seven  pupils.  The  condition  of  some  of 
these  was  deplorable.  Miss  Bradley  hafl  liter- 
ally to  feet!  the  hungry  and  clothe  the  poor 
before  she  could  minister  to  their  spiritual  and 
mental  necessities,  meanwhile  establishing  a 
Sunday  .service  in  which  .she  was  teacher,  super- 
intendent, antl  preacher.  The  school  rapidly 
increased  under  her  fostering  care,  and  was 
soon  placed  upon  a  firm  basis.  Through  the 
generosity  of  Mrs.  Mary  Hemenway,  who  had 
been  interested  in  the  undertaking  from  the 
first,  the  field  of  usefulness  was  greatly  enlarged. 
The  corner-stone  of  a  new  building  was  laid  in 
1871,  and  in  1872  the  large,  well-equipped  Tiles- 
ton  School  was  opened  to  the  public,  the  first 
free  public  school  in  Wilmington.  Trained 
teachers  were  brought  from  the  North,  and  so 
numerous  were  the  applications  for  admittance 
to  the  school  that  many  had  to  be  turned  away; 
but  it  was  never  the  poor  who  were  rejected.  .  .  . 
In  five  years  the  school  had  grown  from  a  small 
roomful  of  timid,  half-suspicious,  hungering 
souls  into  a  large,  crowded  school  of  ten  or 
twelve  rooms,  with  all  the  modern  etlucational 
appliances,  for  which  Mrs.  Hemenway  had 
assumed  the  financial  responsibility. 

"Miss  Bradley,  in  spite  of  delicate  health, 
continued  her  work  until  the  summer  of  1891. 
Three  generations  have  arisen  to  call  her  blessed. 
She  was  the  friend,  adviser,  and  helper  of  all, 
in  matters  physical  as  well  as  spiritual.  That 
she  was  endowed  with  the  sterling  qualities 
we  are  wont  to  claim  for  our  New  England 
ancestors  goes  without  .saying.  .  .  .  She  was  an 
ardent  Unitarian,  and  welcomed  warmly  the 
transient  few  who  strayed  into  the  city.  With 
quaint  humor  she  would  say,  'Ah,  now  you 
have  doubled  the  number  of  Unitarians  in 
Wilmington.'  Miss  Bradley  died  in  the  little 
brown  cottage  in  the  school  grounds,  which 
had  so  long  been  her  home.  The  announce- 
ment of  her  death  was  received  in  Wilmington 
with  reverent  sorrow.  .  .  . 

"  The  body  lay  in  state  all  day  Sunday,  Jan- 
uary 17.  The  editor  of  the  Dispatch,  of  Wil- 
mington, thus  spoke  of  her:    'She  was  one  of 


Wilmington's  foremost  citizens,  and  the  magni- 
tude of  her  work  stands  out  to-day  as  an  ever- 
lasting monument.  Miss  Bradley  was  the 
mother  of  public  school  education  in  Wilming- 
ton. .  .  .  Year  by  year  her  influence  grew,  and 
the  aim  of  her  life  grailually  rounded  into 
success.  The  seed  she  planted  over  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago  grew  and  developed  into  one 
of  the  finest  public  school  systems  in  the  coun- 
try. Her  name  will  ever  be  held  in  highest 
reverence  in  this  community.'" 


PAULINE  SAWTELLE  JONES,  portrait 
artist,  the  wife  of  Charles  Willis  Jones, 
lawyer,  of  Augusta,  Me.,  was  born  in 
Old  Town,  Penob.scot  County,  that  State. 
Daughter  of  James  Harvey  Sawtelle  and  his 
wife,  whose  maiden  name  was  Elizabeth  Knowl- 
ton  Chapman,  she  is  descended  on  the  paternal 
side  from  Richard  Sawtelle  of  Groton,  Mass. 
Her  great,  '  great  grandparents,  Jonas  and 
Eunice  (Kempt)  Sawtelle,  .served  through  the 
Revolutionary  War,  he  as  a  private,  she  as  a 
nurse.  Her  maternal  grandfather  was  Nathaniel 
Chapman,  who  served  in  the  Revolutionary 
army  from  1775  to  1780.  He  was  at  the 
Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  antl  was  also  with  Wash- 
ington's life-guard  at  the  crossing  of  the  Dela- 
ware antl  the  surprise  and  defeat  of  the  He.s- 
sians  at  Trenton.  He  married  Sally  Gott,  of 
Starks,  Me. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  very  early  showed 
a  decided  taste  for  drawing  faces.  The  white 
wails  of  the  attic,  the  covers  of  her  school- 
books,  or  any  surface  that  would  take  a  mark, 
was  covered  by  the  chiklish  fingers  with  draw- 
ings in  lead-pencil,  chalk,  or  charcoal,  which- 
ever lay  nearest  to  hand.  The  old  proverb, 
"Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,"  proved 
true  in  her  case  when,  at  the  age  of  eight,  she 
cruslied  the  old-fashioned  flowers  growing  in 
the  garden,  that  she  might  thus  be  enabled  to 
give  a  semblance  of  natural  coloring  to  the 
faces  she  delighted  in.  At  the  age  of  eighteen 
it  became  possible  for  her  to  begin  the  study  of 
art  in  earnest.  Going  to  Boston,  she  became 
a  pupil  of  Mr:  George  A.  Frost  (who  afterward 
accompanied  Kennan  to  Siberia  to  illustrate 
the  latter's  articles  on  that  country),  and  sub- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


479 


sequently  she  studied  with  the  late  Harry  De 
Merritt  Young.  She  also  received  art  training 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York.  She  then 
opened  a  studio  in  Conconl,  N.H.,  where  she 
painted  many  distinguished  people.  Her  work 
soon  began  to  attract  notice,  winning  favorable 
comment  from  art  critics,  brother  artists,  and 
the  general  public,  whenever  exhibited.  Since 
then  she  has  advanced  from  high  to  higher 
planes  of  achievement,  until  now  she  may  be  saiil 
to  have  attained  the  full  maturity  of  her  powers. 
She  prefers  to  work  wholly  from  life,  but  her 
portraits  from  photographs  show  the  same  force 
of  imagination,  complete  technical  mastery  of 
form  and  color,  and  deep  and  sympathetic  un- 
derstanding of  her  subject.  She  is  absorbed  in 
the  personality  of  the  face  she  is  painting,  think- 
ing of  it,  dreaming  over  it,  and  never  satisfied 
until  she  has  transmitted  not  only  the  features 
but  the  very  spirit  of  her  subject  to  the  canvas. 
She  has  receivetl  several  gold  medals  for  the 
excellence  of  her  work,  and  numbers  among 
her  patrons"  some  of  the  most  critical  people  of 
Boston  and  New  York. 

She  has  exhibited  in  New  York  and  Spring- 
field, at  the  Boston  Art  Club,  the  Portland  Art 
Club,  Polantl  Springs  Art  Club.  One  of  her  best 
crayons  is  the  free-hand  portrait  of  Maine's 
distinguished  Senator,  the  Hon.  James  W.  Brad- 
bury, which  elicited  much  favorable  conmient 
at  the  World's  Fair  in  1893.  Two  of  her  minia- 
ture portraits  were  accepted  by  the  Boston 
Art  Club  for  its  sixty-second  exhibition.  One 
of  these  was  of  her  son  Frederick,  the  other 
of  Mrs.  Llewellyn  Powers,  wife  of  Governor 
Powers. 

Among  her  pastels  two — one  of  Dwight 
Carver,  son  of  State  Librarian  Carver,  and  the 
other  of  Robert  Livingstone,  the  little  son  of 
Rev.  William  F  Livingstone  and  his  wife, 
Margaret  Vere  Farrington — stand  out  promi- 
nently as  representative  of  her  very  best  work. 
Another  fine  piece  of  work,  accurate  and  strong 
in  character,  is  her  crayon  portrait  of  former 
President  Geiders  of  the  Maine  Senate,  which 
hung  for  a  time  in  the  capitol,  but  which  has 
since  been  presented  to  Mr.  Geiders  by  the 
Senate.  In  1900  Mrs.  Jones  painted  in  oil  the 
portrait  of  Governor  Powers,  which  now  hangs 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  State  capitol,  and  which 


has  been  described  as  a  characteristic  and  speak- 
ing likeness. 

It  is,  however,  for  her  exquisite  miniature 
work  that  Mrs.  Jones  has  won  the  greatest 
praise;  and  it  has  been  said  that,  if  placed 
side  by  side  with  the  work  of  the  few  really 
great  artists  in  this  line,  they  would  not 
suffer  by  comparison.  Gifted  primarily  with 
artistic  talent,  she  possesses  also  in  a  high  de- 
gree the  power  of  concentration  and  a  marvel- 
lous industry  that,  united,  have  compelletl  suc- 
cess. Mrs.  Jones  is  a  club  woman,  being  a 
member  of  the  Koussinoc  Chapter  D.  A.  R.,  of 
the  Augusta  China  Decorator  Club,  the  Cecilia 
Club,  and  the  Current  Events  Club. 

The  marriage  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jones  occurred 
in  Bangor,  March  11,  1891.  They  have  one 
chikl,  Frederick  Sawtelle  Jones,  who  was  born 
July  6,  1892. 


A  BBY  WILLIAMS  MAY,  the  subject  of 
/  \  this  sketch,  was  born  in  Boston  on  April 
L  \  21,  1829,  and  named  for  her  grand- 
mother, Abigail  Williams  May,  wife 
of  Samuel  May.  Her  parents  were  Deacon 
Samuel  J.  and  Mary  (Goddard)  May.  Her 
father,  who  was  commonly  spoken  of  as 
"Deacon  May,"  was  of  the  sixth  generation  of 
his  family  in  Massachusetts.  The  Rev.  Sanuiel 
Joseph  May,  a  noted  Unitarian  preacher  of 
the  last  century,  was  his  near  relative.  Deacon 
May  and  his  wife  were  at  one  time  parishioners 
of  the  Rev.  John  Pierpont  and  later  of  Theodore 
Parker,  and  were  devoted  advocates  of  the 
abolition  cause.  Mrs.  May  was  prominent 
among  the  ladies  who  hekl  tables  at  the  anti- 
slavery  fairs,  which  were  for  many  years  a 
feature  in  the  social  life  of  Boston.  I  re- 
member Abby  very  well  at  Parker's  meeting. 
From  him  I  learned  something  of  a  European 
trip  which  she  made  in  her  youth.  Her  father 
subsequently  told  me  of  her  devotion  to  a 
motherless  niece,  whom  she  reared  from  infancy. 

Miss  May  had  many  friendships,  but  she  had 
also  great  capacities  for  public  service.  She 
was  singularly  free  from  any  desire  for  personal 
prominence,  but  her  ability  of  mind  and  sound- 
ness of  character  were  recognized  in  all  that 
she   undertook.     When   the   exigencies   of   the 


480 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


Civil  War  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Sani- 
tary Commission,  Miss  May  became  a  leader 
in  the  group  of  patriotic  women  who  in  Boston 
and  Massachusetts  generally  exerted  tiieniselves 
to  send  aid  and  comfort  to  our  soldiers  in  the 
field.  In  a  notice  of  Miss  May  published  soon 
after  her  death  Mrs.  E.  D.  Cheney  says; — 

"She  was  engaged  in  many  philanthropic 
movements,  and  usually  went  to  the  head  by 
a  natural  tendency.  President  of  the  Horti- 
cultural School  for  Women,  vice-president  of 
the  New  England  Women's  Club,  presitlent  of 
the  Massachusetts  School  Suffrage  Association, 
vice-president  of  the  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Women,  and  director  in  other 
institutions,  she  would  seem  to  have  found 
ample  scope  even  for  her  large  powers." 

Miss  May  was  an  ardent  suffragist.  She 
was  also  much  interested  in  dress  reform,  and 
was  active  in  the  movement  which  led  to  the 
improved  system  of  imderwear  for  w-omen  now 
so  generally  adopted  in  this  country.  Her  own 
taste  in  dress  was  simple  and  individual.  She 
would  wear  a  hat  that  shaded  her  eyes,  shoes 
adapted  to  the  shape  of  her  foot,  and  garments 
of  rich  material,  but  of  sombre  color  and  com- 
fortable cut.     Mrs.  Cheney  says  further: — 

"  In  her  later  years  education  became  her 
greatest  interest.  She  was  one  of  the  first 
women  elected  on  the  school  committee  of 
the  city  of  Boston,  and  she  served  on  it  faith- 
fully for  several  years.  When  through  changes 
in  the  manner  of  election  she  was  not  returned 
to  the  board,' the  ileep  disappointment  of  her 
fellow-citizens  led  them  to  petition  for  the 
right  of  women  to  vote  for  the  school  com- 
mittee. She  was  soon  after  appointed  a  member 
of  the  Board,  of  Education.  Her  services  in 
this  position  were  greatly  valued,  especially 
her  oversight  of  the  normal  schools,  in  which 
both  teachers  and  pui)ils  profited  by  her  wise 
counsel  and  warm  sympathy." 

My  own  happiest  iem(>mbrance  of  Miss  May 
relates  to  her  i)articii)ation,  continued  for 
years,  in  tlie  work  of  the  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Women.  This  Association, 
which  is  now  in  some  degree  replaced  by  the 
(General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  was 
accustomed  to  hold  an  annual  Congress  of 
Women  in  widely  distant  parts  of  the  country. 


At  these  meetings,  which  were  continued  during 
a  cjuarter  of  a  century,  the  duties  and  interests 
of  women  were  considered  in  their  most  vital 
relation  to  the  well-being  of  society.  They 
were  often  held  in  cities  where  no  one  of  the 
participants  was  known  by  sight.  On  such 
occasions  Miss  May  would  come  upon  the 
scene  attired  in  her  usual  plain,  rather  color- 
less dress,  wearing  the  broad-soled  shoes  and 
serviceable  hat,  from  the  use  of  which  she 
never  departed.  This  simple  costimie  hardly 
commended  her  to  an  orilinary  assemblage  of 
women.  The  hat,  however,  was  soon  removed, 
its  absence  permitting  a  full  view  of  the  face, 
with  its  cameo-like  profile  and  fine  expression. 
As  soon,  moreover,  as  she  began  to  take  part 
in  the  proceedings,  the  charm  of  her  voice  and 
the  power  of  her  presence  made  themselves 
felt.  All  did  love  to  hear  her  and  to  look 
upon  her. 

In  the  business  of  the  meetings,  which  was 
manifold  and  sometimes  not  without  diffi- 
culties, her  advice  and  influence  were  most 
important,  and  the  "lady  in  plain  clothes" 
showed  herself  as  she  was,  a  great  gentlewoman. 
As  such  and  as  a  most  loyal  and  sympathetic 
friend,  faithful  and  affectionate  in  all  personal 
relations,  she  is  remembered  and  mourned 
by  those  who  had  the  happiness  of  being  her 
fellow-workers. 

Miss  May's  death  occurred  in  Boston  on  the 
30th  of  November,  1888,  before  the  completion 
of  her  fifty-ninth  year. 

Julia  AVard  Hoavk. 


MARGARET  JANE  BUTLER,  whose 
name  has  come  into  prominence  in 
connection  with  charity  and  reform 
work  in  Boston,  was  born  in  Sebago, 
Me.,  a  daughter  of  John  Emery  and  Mary  Ann 
(Farr)  McDonald,  and  is  of  Scotch  descent. 
After  taking  up  her  i-esidence  in  Boston  in  her 
early  womanhood,  Mrs.  Butler  became  inter- 
ested in  the  woman  suffrage  movement,  and 
soon  joined  the  ranks.  She  is  a  fluent  speaker, 
and  her  voice  has  ever  been  raised  in  the  cau.ses 
of  freedom  and  of  philanthropy.  She  is  closely 
identified  with  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  the 
Soldiers'  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  and  was  the  in- 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


481 


corporator  of  a  charitable  organization  known 
as  the  Ladies'  Lyceum  Union.  Her  work  has 
been  wide  and  varied,  and  she  has  been  an  ac- 
tive member  of  the  following  named  organiza- 
tions: Keystone  Chapter,  No.  18,  Oriler  of  the 
Eastern  Star;  Lnproved  Order  of  Red  Men, 
Degree  of  Pocahontas;  Women's  Aiixiliarj' 
Board  to  the  Scots'  Charitable  Society;  Charles 
Russell  Lowell  Relief  Corps,  No.  28;  Ladies' 
Aid  Association  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in  Massa- 
chusetts; Women's  Charity  Club;  the  Progres- 
sive Fraternity;  Mary  Washington  Lodge,  No. 
1,  Daughters  of  Rebekah;  Garret  A.  Hobart 
Assembly,  No.  383,  R.  S.  G.  F. 

At  her  summer  home  in  Maine  numbers  of 
poor,  over-worked  people  have  been  cheeretl 
and  helped  by  all  the  comforts  that  a  good 
hostess  can  furnish,  and  thus  enabled  at  the 
close  of  vacation  to  resume  their  work  with 
renewed  courage  and  more  faith  in  human 
nature.  For  the  past  fourteen  years  she  has 
held  annually  a  May  Festival,  in  which  from 
two  hundretl  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  children 
have  participated,  the  proceeds  being  expended 
in  charity.  This  festival  has  come  to  be  one 
of  Boston's  yearly  attractions,  looked  forward 
to  by  many  as  a  charming  entertainment  with 
a  worthy  cause  for  its  object.  For  a  long  time 
Mrs.  Butler's  efforts  were  ably  seconded  by 
her  husband,  William  S.  Butler,  one  of  the 
successful  merchants  of  Boston.  Mr.  Butler 
died  in  1898,  and  many  a  poor  family  felt 
they  had  lost  a  friend. 

Mrs.  Butler  is  a  Spiritualist,  and  is  one  of 
the  most  successful  clairvoyant  physicians  in 
the  country,  but  has  not  permitted  herself  to 
become  in  any  way  bigoteil  or  narrow-mimled. 
When  her  attention  has  been  called  to  persons 
needing  a.ssistance,  she  has  not  considered 
whether  they  were  Protestant  or  Catholic,  Jew 
or  Gentile,  but  has  ever  been  ready  to  help. 
In  her  own  words,  "I  don't  care  whether  peo- 
ple are  black  or  white,  blameless  or  blame- 
worthy. If  they  are  cold,  I  must  warm  them ; 
if  they  are  hungry,  I  must  feed  them.  They 
are  all  God's  children."  This  sentiment  is 
typical  of  her.  Large  of  heart,  sympathetic 
in  nature,  frank,  fearless,  and  outspoken,  she 
is  emphatically  a  type  of  the  "new  woman" 
that  will  be  blessed  by  the  coming  generation. 


MARIA  MITCHELL,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.— 
Maria  Mitchell,  astronomer  of  world- 
wide fame,  discoverer  of  a  comet  in 
1847,  and  for  more  than  twenty 
years  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  Vassar  College, 
was  a  native  of  Nantucket.  Born  August  1, 
1818,  the  third  child  of  William  and  Lydia 
(Coleman)  Mitchell,  she  grew  to  womanhootl 
in  her  island  home,  where  she  long  remained 
an  iidiabitant,  on  every  clear  evening  repairing 
to  the  observatory  on  the  roof  of  the  house  to 
sweep  the  heavens  with  a  telescope. 

On  the  paternal  side  she  was  grand-daughter 
of  Peleg,  Sr.,  and  Lydia  (Cartwright)  Mitchell, 
and  on  the  maternal  side  grand-daughter  of 
Andrew  Coleman,  who  was  a  great-grandson 
of  John  antl  Joanna  (Folger)  Coleman.  This 
remote  ancestress,  Joanna,  was  a  daughter  of 
Peter  Folger  and  sister  to  Abiah  Folger,  who 
married  Josiah  Franklin  and  was  the  mother 
of  the  illustrious  Benjamin  Franklin.  Peter 
Folger  emigrated  from  Norwich,  England,  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  in  1663  settled 
in  Nantucket,  where  he  became  a  citizen  of 
prominence,  being  a  teacher,  surveyor,  clerk 
of  the  court  and  recorder,  and  "the  scholar 
of  the  conununity." 

Of  Richard'  Mitchell,  who  came  from  the 
Isle  of  Wight  and  was  the  progenitor  of  the 
Nantucket  family  of  this  name,  Maria  was  a 
descendant  in  the  sixth  generation,  the  ances- 
tral line  being:  Richard,'  who  married  Mary 
Wood;  Richard,^  born  in  1686,  who  married 
Elizabeth  Tripj);  Richard,^  who  married  Mary 
Starbuck;  Peleg/  who  married  Lydia  Cart- 
wright;  and  William,^  the  father  above  men- 
tioned, who  married  Lydia  Coleman. 

\Mlliam  Mitchell  and  his  wife  belongetl  to 
the  Society  of  Friends.  Mr.  Mitchell  was  a 
man  of  scholarly  tastes  and  attainments,  a 
teacher  by  profession,  afterward  cashier  of  a 
bank.  He  served  as  a  member  of  the  State 
Senate,  as  one  of  Governor  Briggs's  Council, 
and  for  a  long  time  as  one  of  the  overseers  of 
Harvard  College.  His  favorite  science  was 
astronomy. 

Maria  Mitchell  in  her  early  years  attended 
schools — first  public  and  then  private  schools — 
taught  successively  by  her  father  and  the  Rev. 
Cyrus  Peirce,  an  educator  of  high  repute,  best 


482 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


known  in  later  days  as  the  first  principal  of 
the  first  normal  school  in  New  England. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  Miss  Mitchell  became 
assistant  in  Mr.  Peirce's  school  in  Nantucket. 
This  was  succeeded  for  a  time  by  a  private 
school  of  her  own;  and  after  that  she  served 
for  nearly  twenty  years  as  librarian  of  the  Nan- 
tucket Athenaeum,  doing  much  to  direct  the 
taste  in  literature  of  the  Nantucket  youth  of 
the  period.  She  herself,  as  stated  by  her 
sister,  Phebe  Mitchell  Kendall,  compiler  of  her 
"Life,  Letters,  and  Journals,"  which  is  the 
source  of  the  information  that  follows,  was  an 
inveterate  reader. 

The  original  investigations  in  astronomy, 
pursued  by  her  with  ardor  from  girlhood  up 
to  the  time  of  her  professorship,  had  for  their 
most  notable  result  the  discovery  on  October 
1,  1847,  of  a  telescopic  comet.  For  this 
discovery  she  received  in  1849  from  King 
Frederic  VH.  of  Denmark  the  gold  medal  which 
had  been  offered  by  his  father,  Frederic  VL, 
in  1831.  For  nineteen  years  she  acted  as 
computer  for  the  American  Nautical  Almanac. 
In  1865  she  accepted  the  chair  of  astronomy 
at  Vassar  College,  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y.,  becom- 
ing also  director  of  the  oljservatory.  From 
this  time  on  until  her  resignation  at  Vassar  in 
January,  1888,  on  account  of  failing  health, 
she  was  an  important  factor  in  the  movement 
for  the  higher  education  of  women,  a  work  into 
which  "she  threw  herself,  heart  and  soul,"  for 
its  sake  giving  up  "  in  a  great  measure  her 
scientific  life."  Her  father,  with  whom  after 
her  mother's  death  she  had  lived  in  Lynn, 
spent  four  happy  years  with  her  at  Vas.sar, 
his  death  occuring  in  1869.  Although  Professor 
Mitchell's  resignation  was  not  accepted,  she 
declined  the  offer  of  a  permanent  home  at 
Vassar,  and  returned  to  Lynn,  where  she  died 
June  28,  1889. 

She  was  a  member  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Arts  and  Sciences;  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  of  Philadelphia;  the  New 
England  Women's  Club;  the  New  York  Soro- 
sis;  and  the  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Women,  of  which  she  was  the  president  in 
1875  and  1876.  Referring  to  the  two  annual 
congresses  of  the  Association  held  during  her 
official  term,  one  of  its  founders  says  of  Miss 


Mitchell:  "She  is  remembered  with  especial 
affection  by  those  who  were  with  her  on  these 
occasions.  Her  tact  and  ability  as  a  presiding 
officer  were  remarkable,  and  her  judgment  re- 
garding the  matter  to  be  presented  to  the 
public  was  very  valuable.  At  the  congress 
held  in  Philadelphia  in  the  centennial  year  it 
was  desired  by  some  that  the  meeting  should 
be  opened  with  prayer.  Mi.ss  Mitchell  decided, 
to  the  general  content  of  the  assembly,  that 
a  few  minutes  should  be  devoted  to  the  silent 
prayer  of  the  Friends." 

She  was  three  times  the  recipient  of  honorary 
degrees,  the  third  being  the  LL.D.  conferred 
by  Columbia  College  in  1887. 

She  made  two  trips  abroad,  the  second  in 
the  summer  of  1873,  when  she  went  to  Russia, 
visiting  St.  Petersburg  and  other  cities  and  the 
government  observatory  at  Pultowa.  While 
a  true  lover  of  her  own  country  as  pre-eminently 
the  land  of  freedom  and  self-government,  she 
looked  for  and  saw  the  good  in  other  lands. 
As  she  expressed  it:  "We  travel  to  learn; 
and  I  have  never  been  in  any  country  where 
they  did  not  do  something  better  than  we  do 
it,  think  some  thoughts  better  than  we  think, 
catch  some  inspiration  from  heights  above  our 
own — as  in  the  art  of  Italy,  the  learning  of 
England,  the  philosophy  of  Germany." 

Her  faith  in  the  coming  woman  led  her  to 
write,  "  When  the  American  girl  carries  her 
energy  into  the  great  questions  of  humanity, 
into  the  practical  problems  of  life,  when  she 
takes  home  to  her  heart  the  interests  of  edu- 
cation, of  government,  of  religion,  what  may 
not  be  hoped  for  our  country!  " 

M.    H.    G. 


ELIZABETH  HELENA  SOULE,  a 
teacher  of  ilramatic  art,  was  born  in 
Pownal,  Me.,  being  the  daughter  of 
Daniel  and  Mary  True  (Merrill)  Soule. 
Her  father  is  said  to  have  been  a  lineal  descend- 
ant of  George  Soule,  who  came  in  the  "May- 
flower" in  1620,  also  a  descendant  of  the  Rev. 
John  Wheelwright,  an  English  divine  who 
came  to  this  country  a  few  years  later,  and 
who  founded  the  town  of  Exeter,  N.H. 
The  Soule  luie  of  descent,  partially  verified, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


483 


has  been  thus  given:  George'  Snule,  "May- 
flower" pilgrim,  1620,  married  Mary  Becket, 
who  came  in  the  "Anne"  in  1621.  John^  Soule 
married  in  1678  Esther,  daughter  of  Samuel 
Nash  and  widow  of  Sanmel  Sampson,  who  was 
killed  in  King  Philip's  War.  She  was  John 
Soule's  second  wife.  Moses^  Soule,  born  1684, 
died  1751.  Barnabus,*  born  1707,  married  1737 
Jane  Bradbury,  daughter  of  Jacob'  Bradbury 
(William^  Thomas')  and  wife,  Elizabeth  Stock- 
man. (William^  Bradbury  married  Rebecca 
Wheelwright,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Wheel- 
wright.) Moses^  Soule,  born  1788,  married 
Nancy  Hewes  in  1760.  John"  Soule  married 
Lois  Carter.  Daniel'  Soule  marrieil  Mary  True 
Merrill,  they  being  the  parents  of  Elizabeth 
Helena'  Soule. 

According  to  a  statement  appearing  as  a 
quotation  in  a  brief  genealogy,  the  Merrills 
(from  whom  Miss  Soule  is  tlescended  through 
her  mother)  are  sprung  from  the  Huguenot 
family  of  De  Merle,  who  escaped  from  France 
to  England  after  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  1572. 

Mrs.  Soule's  maternal  line  is  given  on  private 
authority  as  follows:  John  and  Nathaniel  Mer- 
rill came  from  Salisbury,  County  Wilts,  Eng- 
land, and  settletl  at  Newbury,  Mass.,  early  in 
1635,  being  among  the  first  .settlers  of  that 
town.  Nathaniel  married  Susannah  Wilterton. 
He  die<l  in  March,  1654-5.  His  widow  married 
a  second  husband,  named  Jordan.  AbeP  Mer- 
rill, born  in  1644,  married  Priscilla  Chase  in 
1671.  James'  Merrill,  born  January  27,  1689, 
married  about  1715  at  Newbury,  Ma.ss., 
Mary  Adams,  daughter  of  Sergeant  Abraham 
and  Mary  Pettingil  Adams.  She  was  born 
January  16,  1692.  They  moved  to  Falmouth, 
Me.,  about  1738,  and  he  died  in  1758.  Hum- 
phrey* Merrill,  born  January  18,  1718,  marrictl 
Betty  Merrill,  of  North  Yarmo\ith,  Me.,  August 
29,  1741.  He  died  January  1,  1815.  Nathan- 
iel Merrill,  son  of  Humphrey,  married  first  in 
1775  Elizabeth  Davis,  daughter  of  Timothy" 
and  Margaret  Davis.  His  .second  wife  was 
Judith  Brackett-.  Nathaniel"  Merrill  married 
Hannah  True.  Mary  True  Merrill,  daughter  of 
Nathaniel  Merrill,  married  Daniel  Soule,  father 
of  Elizabeth  Helena  Soule. 

Mi.ss  Soule  received  her  education  at  W^est- 
brook  Seminary,  a  noted   Maine  school,   and 


in  Boston,  where  she  attended  the  New  Eng- 
land Conservatory  of  Music,  devoting  herself 
to  the  study  of  oratory.  After  her  graduation 
she  studied  with  Professors  Lewis  B.  Monroe, 
Robert  R.  Raymond,  Alexander  Graham  Bell, 
James  E.  Murdock,  James  Steele  Mar,  and 
others.  She  aimed  to  obtain  the  best  method 
from  each  one  of  these  eminent  instructors. 
Meanwhile  she  served  for  a  few  years  as  prin- 
cipal of  the  Franklin  Evening  School.  That 
position  she  resigned  at  length  for  one  that 
appealed  to  her  more  earnestly — namely,  the 
specialty  for  which  she  had  fitted  herself,  the 
teaching  and  demonstrating  of  elocution  and 
dramatic  art. 

She  refused  many  flattering  offers  to  enter 
the  theatrical  profession,  preferring  to  work 
along  iiidividual  lines.  She  has  been  much 
before  the  public,  however,  as  a  dramatic 
reader,  and  for  several  seasons  was  at  the  head 
of  the  Soule  Dramatic  Company,  which  gave 
entertainments  throughout  the  New  England 
States  and  Canada.  She  has  given  nmch  time 
and  thought  to  the  study  of  Shakespeare,  and 
has  won  success  as  an  exponent  of  Shakespeare's 
women. 

She  has  several  times  presented  the  "Mer- 
chant of  Venice,"  essaying  herself  the  part  of 
Portia,  with  her  pupils  impersonating  the  other 
charact':»rs,  the  production  receiving  high  en- 
comiums from  eminent  critics. 

Many  of  her  pupils  are  filling  important 
positions  upon  the  professional  stage.  Physi- 
cal culture  is  always  a  part  of  her  work  as  a 
teacher,  and  those  who  have  been  instructed 
by  her  are  adepts  in  the  harmony  of  movement 
which  makes  the  art  that  conceals  art. 

Miss  Soule  has  also  accomplished  e.xcellent 
work  as  an  organizer  and  leader  of  Shakespear- 
ian and  other  literary  clubs. 

She  has  recently  entered  the  lecture  field, 
for  which  her  previous  work  has  especially 
fitted  her.  The  .subjects  of  her  lectures  are 
"Mere  Man  and  Mere  W'oman,"  an  entertain- 
ing, humorous  social  study,  "The  Yellowstone 
Park,"  "The  Grand  Canon  and  Salt  Lake  City 
and  the  Mormons."  Her  eloquent  descrip- 
tions are  brightened  throughout  by  frecjuent 
sallies  of  wit. 

The  present  summer  of  1904  she  is  spending 


484 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


in  travel  abroad  for  the  purpose  of  studying 
the  methods  of  the  London  and  Paris  schools 
of  dramatic  art  and  of  obtaining  additional 
material    for  lectures. 

Miss  Soule  is  a  member  of  the  First  Uni- 
versalist  Church  of  Boston,  and  is  an  enthu- 
siastic leader  in  the  work  of  the  Sunday-school. 
She  is  a  member  of  the  Daughters  of  Maine 
Club  and  an  honorary  member  of  the  Boston 
Proof-readers'  Association. 


«  *  ■  *  » 


MARY    F.    EASTMAN    was    born    in 
Lowell,    Mass.     She   was    the    third 
chikl  of  Gardner  K.    and   Mary   F. 
Eastman.     Two   brothers   had   died 
in  childhood.     A  sister,  Helen  Eastman,  who 
was  two  years  younger  than  herself,  and  who 
was  her  lifelong  companion,  flied  in  1902. 

The  Eastman  and  Flanders  families,  from 
which  Miss  Eastman  sprang,  were  both  of 
English  origin.  Their  early  representatives  in 
this  country  were  among  the  sturdy  pioneers 
who  settled  at  Salisbury,  Mass.,  about  1640. 
The  earliest  ancestor  in  America,  on  one  side, 
was  Rodger  Eastman;  on  the  other,  Stephen 
Flanders. 

As  noted  by  the  author  of  "Tlie  History  and 
Genealogy  of  the  Eastman  Family  in  America," 
Mr.  Guy  S.  Rix,  of  Concord,  N.H.,  "Rodger 
Eastman  and  the  other  first  .'ettlers  in  Salis- 
bury and  adjoining  towns  were  Puritans;  and 
undei-  the  tyranny  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts 
many  left  th(>ir  native  country  to  enjoy  civil 
and  religious  liberty." 

The  inunediate  ancestor  of  Rodger  East- 
man was  John  Eastman,  of  Romsey,  County 
Southampton,  England,  who.se  will  was  proved 
in  1602.  A  noteworthy  fact  in  the  other- 
wise conservative  will  of  three  hundred  years 
ago  is  that  his  wife  Anne  is  appointed  by  him 
residuary  legatee  and  executrix.  Consider- 
ing the  very  limited  amount  of  education 
available  to  women  in  those  days,  especially 
in  matters  of  business,  the  trust  woulil  seem 
to  mark  her  as  a  woman  of  superior  education 
as  well  as  of  practical  ability. 

While  the  descendants  of  Rodger  Eastman 
and  his  associates  were  becoming  "townsmen," 
"commoners,"     "freemen,"    and    legislators — 


sturdy  workers  and  men  of  affairs  as  well — 
at  intervals  the  lurid  light  of  conflict  illumined 
thei?  sky.  By  a  wily  foe  their  houses  were 
set  in  flames,  women  carried  into  captivity, 
and  families  scattered. 

When  a  son  of  Rodger  Eastman  dieil,  in 
administration  of  his  estate  "  his  brother  was 
appointed  guardian  of  his  only  son  and  of  his 
mother  Deborah,  who  was  then  in  captivity 
to  the  Indians."  Yet  a  valorous  spirit  pos- 
ses.sed  them,  and  the  settlement  began  to  ex- 
tend into  Connecticut,  along  the  sea-coast, 
and,  in  the  third  generation,  up  the  Merri- 
mac  valley. 

Captain  Ebenezer  Eastman  was  the  first 
settler  of  Concord,  N.H.  He  was  a  man  of 
resolute  courage,  and  had  six  sturdy  sons.  As 
he  had  also  considerable  property,  he  soon 
became  "the  strong  man  of  the  town."  It  is 
of  interest  to  note  that  from  this  simple  Salis- 
bury stock  came  the  intellectual  acumen  of 
Daniel  Webster  and  the  spiritual  vision  of 
John  G.  Whittier. 

Daniel  Webster  was  born  at  Salisbury,  N.H., 
1782.  He  was  the  second  son  of  a  small  farmer 
and  justice  of  the  county  court,  Ebenezer 
Webster.  His  mother  was  Abigail  Eastman, 
fifth  in  line  of  descent  from  Rodger  Eastman, 
original  settler,  ancestor  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch. 

Fifth  in  the  line  of  descent  from  Stephen 
Flanders,  "original  settler"  at  Salisbury,  Mass., 
was  James  Manders,  E.sq.,  of  Warner,  N.H., 
who  was  Mi.ss  Eastman's  great-grandfather. 
He  was  a  piominent  citizen,  and  represented 
his  constituency  in  the  House  and  Senate  of 
New  •  Hampshire  for  twenty-four  consecutive 
years.  His  loyalty  to  conviction  appears  in 
the  fact  that  at  one  period  he  refused  to  take 
the  oath  of  office  to  support  the  Constitution 
unless  he  could  add  the  words  "except  in  so 
far  as  it  recognizes  human  slavery."  This 
tied  the  legislative  body  up  in  a  debate  which 
lasted  three  days,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he 
was  allowed  to  take  his  seat. 

The  same  quality  conspicuous  in  James 
appears  in  his  son  Philip,  the  maternal  grand- 
father of  Miss  Eastman. 

He  was  a  farmer,  and  was  the  father  of  six- 
teen   children.     He   was   held    in    the    highest 


MARY    F.  KASTMAN 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


485 


esteem  for  his  sterling  qualities.  Like  most 
worthy  citizens  of  the  perioil,  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Orthodox  Congregational  church;  but, 
having  read  reports  of  the  doctrines  preached 
in  England  by  John  Murray,  he  pondered  over 
the  new  faith,  and  finally  went  into  his  regular 
church  prayer-meeting  and  said,  "Brethren, 
I  have  seen  a  great  light."  ITe  then  stated  the 
new  belief  of  the  so-called  "  Universalists," 
that  a  loving  God  would,  in  his  own  good  time, 
bring  back  all  sinners  to  himself;  and  he  added, 
"  I  have  reflected  upon  it,  and  I  think  it  may 
be  true."  The  shock  to  his  fellow  church  mem- 
bers, that  so  good  a  man  should  thus  depart 
from  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  was  very  great. 
At  his  funeral,  in  the  presence  of  the  twelve 
surviving  children,  the  minister  extolled  his 
.virtues,  but  said,  "We  don't  know  where  Major 
Flanders  has  gone."  Miss  Eastman's  mother, 
one  of  the  younger  of  the  twelve,  remembers 
the  shock  which  fell  upon  them  at  such  a  decree. 
On  the  next  Sunday,  however,  in  a  funeral 
discourse,  the  same  minister  said,  referring  to 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Flanders  was  member-elect 
of  the  New  Hampshire  Legislature,  "  Brother 
Flanders  will  not  represent  us  in  the  courts 
of  earth,  but  we  know  that  he  represents  us 
in  the  courts  of  heaven." 

The  simple  trust  which  characterized  the 
father  descended  to  all  but  one  of  his  many 
children,  and  the  courage  of  conviction  seems 
to  have  done  so  likewise,  so  that  succeeding 
generations  have  rejoiced  in  any  light  which 
broke  for  them  from  the  clouds  of  error,  and, 
like  him,  they  "were  not  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision." 

In  reading  the  history  of  the  persecutions 
our  Puritan  ancestors  inflicted  on  Quakers, 
Baptists,  and  others  who  did  not  conform  to 
the  strict  rules  of  the  standing  order,  one  can- 
not help  hoping  that  one's  own  kindred  were 
superior  to  the  delusions  and  exempt  from  the 
antagonisms  to  other  faiths  than  their  own  that 
marked  our  Puritan  ancestors.  Miss  East- 
man finds  in  Hoyt's  "Old  Families  of  Salisbury 
and  Amesbury"  something  conhrmatory  of 
her  hopes  as  to  her  own  forbears  in  the  report  of 
a  famous  witch  case: — 

Thomas  Bradbury  was  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent citizens  of  Salisbury — town  clerk,  school- 


master, Representative  in  General  Court  for 
a  number  of  years,  as.sociate  judge,  etc. 
Most  of  the  ancient  records  of  Salisbury  and 
many  of  the  county  were  written  by  him.  He 
dietl  in  1694.  Two  years  earlier  Mrs.  Brad- 
bury, his  wife,  was  tried  for  witchcraft  anil 
ably  and  courageously  defended  by  Major 
Robert  Pike.  She  was  condemned,  but  not 
executed.  A  petition  was  presented  in  favor 
of  Mrs.  Bradbury  with  eighty-seven  signers, 
one  of  whom  was  an  ancestor  of  John  G.  Whit- 
tier,  and  ten  of  whom  were  Eastmans  male 
and  female. 

The  father  of  Mary  F.  Eastman,  Gardner 
Kimball  Eastman,  was  born  in  Boscawen, 
now  Webster,  N.H.  The  "Genealogy  of  the 
Eastman  Family  in  America,"  by  Guy  S.  Rix, 
says  he  was  called  "Bonus."  Her  mother, 
Mary  Flanders,  was  born  in  Warner,  N.H., 
the  daughter  of  Philip  Flanders,  one  of  the 
sixteen  previously  mentioned  in  this  sketch. 
She  was  an  earnest  student,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion appealed  to  an  older  cousin  and  her  brother 
to  clear  the  mysteries  she  found  in  studying 
interest  and  "the  rule  of  three."  They  replied 
that  they  were  ashamed  of  a  girl  that  wanted 
to  study  interest.  She  became  a  successful 
teacher,  and,  if  not  the  first,  she  was  among 
the  first  to  be  thought  competent  to  teach 
and  control  the  tall  youth  of  a  winter  school 
in  her  native  town.  Her  later  teaching  was 
in  Charlestown  and  Somerville,  Mass. 

Shortly  after  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Eastman 
they  came  to  the  young  city  of  Lowell,  where 
their  four  children  were  born,  and  where  Mr. 
Eastman  passed  a  long  business  career.  He 
also  represented  his  constituency  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature  in  his  younger  years, 
but  later  was  too  avowed  an  abolitionist  to 
represent  any  party  of  the  time. 

In  speaking  of  her  home  life  Miss  Eastman 
says:  "In  our  homo,  while  we  lived  in  the 
practical  and  real,  we  lived  also  in  the  ideal. 
We  lived  in  a  (luiet  way,  but  in  the  most  pro- 
gressive ideas  and  leading  movements  of  the 
time.  I  think  of  nothing  which  marks  the 
advanced  thought  and  outreach  of  our  later 
times  which  my  mother's  thought  and  desire 
did  not  foreshadow,  except  the  great  work  of 
organization,    especially    that    among   women, 


486 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


which  characterizes  our  period.  By  all  that 
thought  is  "advanced,"  it  tends  to  isolation: 
and  those  who  in  the  middle  half  of  the  last 
century  were  avowedly  of  the  anti-slavery 
and  religiously  unorthodox  type  were  in  so 
far  accounted   peculiar  people. 

"I  well  recall  tiiat,  when  a  little  girl,  the 
wonder  to  nie  was  that,  while  our  associates  went 
only  to  fine  halls,  where  were  music  and  gayety, 
we  children  were  taken  up  into  strange  halls 
in  second  stories,  where  few  and  mostly  elderly 
people  were  gatheretl,  to  listen  to  sad  tales  of 
oppressed  peoples  far  away,  where  once  I  re- 
call the  speaker,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
who  stootl  on  steps  from  which  he  tokl  us  that 
men,  women,  and  children  had  been  sold  like 
cattle.  In  later  years  I  looked  back  upon 
these  meetings  and  knew  that  the  'upper 
chambers'  in  which  master  spirits  are  called 
to  meet  their  disciples  were  not  all  in  the  far- 
back  centuries,  and  that  I  had  been  privileged 
to  look  into  a  face  illumined  by  the  Christ 
spirit." 

In  the  prevalence  of  organization  to-day, 
notably  that  of  women,  all  this  is  correcting 
itself  and  working  for  the  advancement  of 
humanity  to  a  degree  far  beyond  our  ken. 

"  My  parents  were  Universal ists,  but  were 
not  church  members.  As  president  of  the  one 
sociological  movement  of  the  church  at  the 
time,  the  ladies'  sewing  society,  my  mother 
was  asked  why  she  and  my  father  did  not  join 
the  church.  Her  reply  was,  "Do  I  not  work 
as  cordially  with  you  as  if  I  did?"  Being  far- 
ther pressed,  she  said,  "To-day  I  am  with  you 
in  your  fundamental  beliefs,  but  I  don't  know 
where  I  shall  be  to-morrow.  There  is  much 
yet  to  learn,  and  I  am  mentally  and  spirit- 
ually on  the  inarch,  and,  if  I  join  you,  you  will 
want  to  hold  me  back;  so  I  must  be  free  of  any 
bonds,  that  I  may  follow  my  leading  without 
hindrance."  Later  on,  however,  she  with 
a  very  few  women  friends  formed  an  organi- 
zation for  discussion  or  formal  debate  of  the 
leading  questions  of  the  day.  So  far  as  I  can 
ascertain,  •  this  was  the  first  organization  of 
the  sort  in  the  city  of  Lowell. 

My  sister  and  I  were  the  younger  members. 
My  sister  was  of  an  artistic  temperament  anrl 
a  deep  spiritual  nature.     While  self-distrustful 


to  shyness,  a  strong  dramatic  instinct  had 
its  way,  and  drew  her  first  upon  the  platform 
as  a  reader,  by  preference  of  Shakespeare, 
where  she  was  received  with  distinguished 
favor.  She  one  day  surprised  the  family  by 
saying,  "  I  shall  never  do  justice  to  the  author, 
the  art,  or  even  to  myself,  until  I  can  lose  my- 
self in  a  single  character."  This  finally  led 
to  some  months'  study  under  W.  H.  Sedley 
Smith,  of  the  Boston  Museum,  and  her  debut 
under  Manager  Ellsler,  in  Cleveland,  OJiio, 
in  the  part  of  Juliet,  and  an  offer  of  a  week's 
engagement  in  the  parts  of  Parthenia,  Bianca, 
Evadne,  and  Juliet,  which  followed  her  debut 
in  Boston.  William  \\'arren,  who  observed  her 
critically  from  the  floor,  said  to  her  friends: 
"  Anything  I  can  do  for  that  young  lady  I 
am  ready  to  do.  She  will  succeed."  And 
she  did.  But,  alas,  her  delicate  constitution 
seemed  to  be  threatened  by  the  strain  insep- 
arable from  her  strenuous  art;  and,  to  allay  the 
anxiety  of  her  mother,  she  surrendered  this 
art,  to  which  every  instinct  of  her  nature  called 
her,  as  she  would  have  buried  a  lost  love.  She 
died  in  1902.  In  connection  with  this  beauti- 
ful life  Miss  Eastman  says: — 

"  I  count  it  first  of  all  chiefest  of  felicities 

To  have  a  spirit  poised,  and  calm,  and  whole, 
And  next  in  order  of  felicities 

I  hold  it  to  have  walked  with  such  a  soul." 

Miss  Eastman's  education  in  earlier  girl- 
hood was  received  mainly  in  the  public  schools 
of  Lowell,  whose  limitations  were  supplemented 
at  the  same  time  by  instruction  in  j:)rivate  classes 
in  drawing,  painting,  horseback  riding,  dancing, 
and  later  in  the  Lewis  gymnastics.  The  public 
course   ended   with    the   excellent   high  school. 

So  far  as  careful  investigation  by  Miss  East- 
man could  go  some  years  since,  she  concluded 
that  to  Lowell  belongs  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  city  in  the  whole  country  to  open  a  high 
school  for  girls  as  well  as  boys.  General 
Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  of  the  first  class,  and 
well  remembered  Miss  Eastman  as  his  one 
girl  classmate,  of  whom  he  kept  track  for 
some  time. 

It  was  with  poignant  grief  to  the  family  of 
Miss  Eastman,  as  well  as  to  herself,  that,  when 
the   high   school   course   of   instruction  ended, 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


487 


Harvard  and  other  colleges  tiiat  welcomed  the 
boy  graduates  barred  their  doors  against  girls. 
Therefore  the  unfortunate  girl  was  compelled 
to  accept  the  resources  of  a  seminary  for  young 
ladies. 

An  eager  desire  for  the  most  fundamental 
mental  training  obtainable  by  girls  led  her,  on 
the  advice  of  a  favorite  teacher,  to  enter  a 
State  Normal  School  at  West  Newton.  There 
she  fount!  what  she  sought  as  to  quality  of 
instruction.  This  pledged  her  to  the  work  of 
teaching,  which  was  altogether  congenial  to  her. 
Directly  after  graduating,  she  was  invited  to 
take  charge  of  the  high  school  at  South  Brook- 
field,  Mass.  After  two  years  she  accepted 
a  position  in  the  Boston  High  and  Normal 
School,  where  she  remained  several  years. 

When  Arttioch  College  in  Ohio  opened,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  great  educator  and  states- 
man, Horace  Mann,  he  urged  Miss  Eastman 
and  a  classmate  at  the  normal  school  to  enter 
as  pupils.  Notwithstanding  their  high  esteem 
for  Horace  Mann,  the  parents  of  Miss  Eastman 
felt  that  Ohio  was  too  far  away.  After  she 
had  become  a  teacher.  President  Mann  invited 
her  to  come  as  instructor  in  the  preparatory 
classes  of  the  college,  and  she  went  to  a  most 
interesting  work,  with  mature  pupils,  most  of 
them  by  many  years  her  seniors.  She  had  a 
class  of  very  interesting  and  loyal  students. 
Here  she  remained  till  near  the  close  of  Horace 
Mann's  noble  life. 

Antioch,  like  Oberlin,  which  preceded  it, 
opened  its  doors,  without  restriction  of  race 
or  sex,  something  hitherto  unprecedented  in 
history.  But  while  Oberlin  gave  to  women  a 
motlified  course,  presuming,  it  seems,  on  only 
limited  capacity  in  the  female  brain,  or  limited 
need  that  the  sex  should  be  much  educatetl, 
Antioch,  grown  bolder  and  wiser,  and  with 
Horace  Mann  at  its  head,  offered  the  same  cur- 
riculum to  all. 

Says  President  George  L.  Gary,  professor  at 
Antioch  and  later  President  of  the  Meadville 
Theological  School,  "In  the  light  of  the  expe- 
rience of  the  last  forty  years  it  need  harilly 
be  said  that  the  women  who  responded  to  this 
welcome  needed  to  have  no  concession  made  to 
their  imagined  inferiority." 

He  finely  depicts  Mr.  Mann  in  these  words: 


"The  most  striking  characteristic  of  Mr.  Mann'.s 
nature  was  his  ethical  passion.  ...  To  feel  that 
a  thing  was  right,  either  for  himself  or  others, 
was  a  challenge  to  its  performance  or  to  its 
earnest  defence,  if  nothing  else  was  possible, 
which  he  never  allowed  to  go  unheeded." 

To  a  young  teacher,  close  association  with  so 
noble  a  nature  as  Horace  Mann,  and  with  those 
his  fine  instinct  ilrew  around  him,  may  well 
be  counted  high  privilege.  Miss  Eastman 
counts  especially,  among  the  many  recognitions 
which  she  has  so  generously  and  so  gratefully 
received,  one  from  President  Horace  Mann, 
made  shortly  after  her  withdrawal  from  An- 
tioch College: 

Minister  Sarmiento,  Representative  of  Buenos 
Ayres  to  the  United  States,  advised  President 
Mann  of  the  desire  of  his  government  to  im- 
prove its  schools  by  the  introduction  of  the 
most  approved  methods  in  use  in  the  United 
States.  He  also  asked  him  to  suggest  a  suit- 
able person  to  conduct  such  a  work.  Presi- 
dent Mann  wrote  to  Miss  Eastman,  to  ask  if 
she  would  meet  Minister  Sarmiento  to  con- 
sider with  him  the  undertaking  of  such  a  work. 
Miss  Eastman  felt,  however,  that  more  matu- 
rity and  wider  experience  than  she  possessed 
at  the  age  of  twenty-five  were  required,  unle.ss 
a  considerable  time  could  be  allowed  for  due 
preparation;  nor  woukl  her  family  consent  to 
the  wide  separation  involved  in  her  going  so 
far  from  home. 

On  returning  to  Lowell,  she  was  given  charge 
of  the  girls'  department  of  the  high  school, 
numbering  about  two  hundred  pupils.  After 
several  years  in  this  position  she  was  invited 
to  Meadville,  Pa.,  as  principal  of  a  young  lathes' 
seminary,  endowed  by  the  benefactions  of  the 
esteemed  Huidekoper  family.  During  seven 
years  of  her  stay  here  she  was  the  happy  sharer 
of  the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alfred  Huitlekoper. 
One  evening  at  a  reception  at  the  Unitarian 
Divinity  School  a  group  fell  into  a  conversation 
which  leil  to  some  consideration  of  woman 
suffrage.  After  the  party  was  over,  the  stu- 
dents met,  and  voted  to  invite  Miss  Eastman 
to  give  her  views  on  the  subject  more  fully  in 
their  chapel,  and  appointed  a  committee  to 
extend  the  invitation.  A  fine  audience  gath- 
ered, and  this  was  her  first  public  address. 


488 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


On  returning  to  Massachusetts  she  was  in- 
vited by  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone  to  deliver  the  address 
in  New  England.  This  inaugurated  a  work 
of  many  years  throughout  the  country  and  its 
adjacent  provinces  that  was  prosecuted  from 
the  platform  and  occasionally  from  the  pulpit. 
This  work  proved  of  the  deepest  interest  to 
Miss  Eastman,  antl,  judging  from  the  unani- 
mous tone  of  audiences  and  press,  her  listeners 
found  it  no  less  so.  It  soon  became  an  open 
question  with  her  whether  to  abandon  the  con- 
genial educational  work  for  that  of  the  plat- 
form. She  reminded  her  mother,  who  was 
naturally  chary  of  her  daughter's  reputation, 
that  in  advocating  an  unpopular  cause  she 
should  pass  out  of  the  accustomed  sphere  of 
general  sympathy  and  probably  meet  criti- 
cism and  even  misrepresentation,  and  asked  her 
if  she  could  bear  it.  Her  mother  felt  most 
keenly  the  need  of  service  along  the  line  of  the 
new  departure,  and  replied,  in  the  brave  spirit 
of  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  "  It  will  be  hard, 
but  I  can  endure  even  that  better  than  I  can  bear 
to  have  you  reach  my  age  and  feel,  as  I  do, 
that  I  have  seen  all  my  life  the  great  harm  to 
both  men  and  women  which  this  non-repre- 
sentation of  women  works,  and  yet  have  done 
nothing  to  correct  it."  In  this  the  mother  was 
mistaken,  for  within  the  limits  of  a  private 
sphere  she  had  valorously  and  with  rare  in- 
fluence championed  the  cause  of  equal  rights 
and  opportunities,  in  which  she  had  the  sym- 
pathy of  her  husband.  The  world  was  kinder 
to  her  daughter  than  she  had  dared  hope, 
for  these  heroic  souls,  Lucy  Stone,  Susan  B. 
Anthony,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and 
Mrs.  Livermore,  and  their  cotemporary  peers, 
with  a  dignity  and  a  sweetness  befitting  their 
cause,  turned  the  sharpest  point  of  their  op- 
ponents' steel. 

From  the  platform  she  spoke  along  the  lines 
of  reform  in  way  of  "Equal  Suffrage,"  "Prog- 
ress in  the  Aims  and  Methods  of  Education," 
"Rights  and  Wrongs  of  the  Indians,"  "Duties 
of  Government,"  "Literature,"  "Travel,"  and 
other  miscellaneous  topics. 

Miss  Eastman  could  scarcely  have  received 
more  encouragement  than  she  did  in  her  public 
career,  whether  from  her  audiences,  the  press, 
or  from  the  leaders  of  thought  throughout  the 


country.  Her  arguments  were  always  logical 
and  given  with  candor.  That  she  had  the 
faculty  of  captivating  her  audience  is  abun- 
dantly shown,  but  it  was  accomplished  by 
no  meretricious  arts  or  display. 

The  Lawrence  American  said,  "  Miss  East- 
man's address  displayed  the  thinking,  philo- 
sophic i)Ower  of  analysis  of  John  Stuart  Mill, 
while  the  earnestness  of  her  manner  proved 
clearly  the  earnestness  of  her  sentiments." 

The  St.  Louis  Globe  said:  "Miss  Howe  ad- 
dresses you.  Miss  Eastman  talks  to  you. 
With  a  subtle  and  effective  sarcasm  she  laughs 
you  out  of  your  prejudices.  She  reasons  with 
you.  With  an  eloquence  that  stirs  your  blood, 
she  rouses  you  from  your  apathy;  and,  having 
said  all  this  and  much  more,  she  leaves  the 
platform,  while  the  audience  applauds  her  to 
the  echo." 

The  Pittsburg  correspondent  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati Commercial  said :  "  Miss  Eastman  is 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  largest-brained  women 
in  America.  A  clear,  logical  thinker  and  a 
woman  of  scholarly  training,  she  has  thought 
out  for  herself  the  questions  with  which  she 
deals,  and  she  hits  the  nail  on  the  head  every 
time. 

"I  did  not  say  she  was  a  ' ^rai'C  woman ' :  she 
is  one  of  the  brightest,  merriest  women  alive. 
I  said  she  was  a  grand  woman,  and  I'd  like  to 
say  it  again." 

Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson,  in  an  article  on 
"How  to  Speak,"  after  expressing  the  great 
delight  to  his  ear  of  listening  to  a  perfectly 
tlistinct  and  clear-cut  utterance,  says,  "If 
you  wish  to  know  what  I  mean  by  a  clear  and 
satisfactory  utterance,  go  to  hear  Miss  East- 
man speak."  Again  he  says:  "She  is  a  thinker, 
not  a  mere  agitator.  She  always  has  something 
fresh  to  Say,  and  her  talk  is  up  to  the  day." 

Wendell  Phillips,  after  listening  to  one  of 
her  speeches,  commented  on  her  "  words  of 
eminent  wisdom." 

Mrs.  Howe  contributes  her  word  for  the  pub- 
lishers of  this  book :  "  Miss  ICastman  is  a  woman 
of  superior  culture  and  abiUty,  eloquent  with 
pen  and  tongue.  Her  interest  in  public  ques- 
tions has  made  her  gifts  available  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  community  in  which  she  has  long  had 
her  home.     She  ^^as  always   been   an   ardent 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


489 


advocate  of  woman  suffrage.  She  was  a  valued 
officer  of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Women,  a  pioneer  company  wliose  wide- 
spread labors  did  much  to  render  possible 
the  general  federation  of  women's  clubs,  which 
now  embraces  every  State  in  the  Union." 

Of  Miss  Eastman's  success  in  the  pulpit  let 
Robert  Collyer  speak,  in  the  spirit  of  many 
another: — 

De.\r  Miss  Eastman: 

I  want  to  thank  you  for  the  sermon  you  preached 
in  Unity  the  other  Sunday.  It  went  to  the  heart  of 
the  whole  congregation.  I  have  not  spoken  to  a  man 
or  a  woman  who  is  not  of  my  mind — that  it  was  one 
of  the  best  .sermons  we  have  ever  heard  about  the 
immortal  life.  Permit  me  to  say,  too,  that  I  believe 
you  can  do  great  good  as  a  preacher  of  the  eternal 
truth;  and  I  trust  you  will  give  this  no  secondary 
place  in  your  life,  but  will  think  of  the  pulpit  as  your 
true  place.     I  am  sure  you  will  be  welcome. 

Miss  Frances  Willanl  wrote  her  after  one 
of  her  speeches  made  in  Illinois: — 

My  dear  Mary: 

Our  good  Dr.  Jutkins,  who  has  just  called,  says  he 
heard  you  with  great  pleasure  in  Lexington,  Ky., 
years  ago,  and  that  "your  brightness  was  not  worn 
like  a  jewel  on  a  dark  garment,  but  encompa.ssed  you 
like  a  luminous  atmosphere." 

Isn't  that  a  nice  one?    Too  good  to  keep. 

Ever  thine, 

Frances. 

Of  herself  Miss  Eastman  says,  looking  back 
over  her  past  life  and  writing  in  the  retirement 
of  her  plea.sant  home  in  Tewksbury,  Mass.: 
"  I  seem  to  myself  to  have  lived  a  life  very 
like  that  of  other  New  England  girls  and 
women,  to  whom  came  fortunate  parentage, 
neither  poverty  nor  riches,  and,  being  of  New 
England  birth,  the  best  opportunities  the 
world  had  to  offer  to  its  tlaughters  in  the  way 
of  education  and  association,  albeit,  in  view  of 
the  exclusion  of  my  se.x  from  its  colleges,  but 
a  tithe  of  the  education  which  the  eager  girl  of 
that  period  hungered  for.  .  .  .  When  some  one 
asked  me  recently  where  I  got  my  education, 
with  the  colleges  closed  against  me,  I  ought 
to  have  said,  'At  home.'" 

That  her  life  has  been  one  of  large  and 
powerful  influence,  especially  in  connection 
with  work   for   the    advancement   of    woman, 


those  familiar  with  her  career  best  know; 
and  those  who  have  been  privileged  to 
meet  her  in  these  later  years  best  know  in 
what  high  degree  she  retains  her  powers  of 
thought  and  clear,  forceful  expression,  and  that 
natural  charm  of  manner  that  has  always  been 
one  of  her  most  noticeable  characteristics. 


GERTRUDE    QUINLAN,   actress,   was 
born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  February  23, 
1880.     She  is  a  daughter  of  Michael 
Charles  and    Ellen    (Barret)   Quinlan 
and  the  fifth  in  a  family  of  seven  girls. 

Michael  C.  Quinlan,  her  father,  was  a  school- 
master in  Ireland,  his  native  country.  Since 
he  came  to  the  United  States  and  settled  in 
Boston,  he  has  lived  in  retirement,  engaging 
in  no  active  occupation. 

Miss  Quinlan  was  graduated  at  the  Franklin 
Grammar  School  in  Boston  in  1892,  and  during 
the  school  year  of  1893  she  attended  the  Girls' 
High  School  in  that  city.  From  the  age  of 
four  years  she  has  sung  in  various  church  and 
charity  concerts,  and,  knowing  that  she  pos- 
sessed a  natural  and  exceptional  soprano 
voice,  she  determined  in  her  early  years  to 
cultivate  that  gift  and  make  it  her  means  of 
livelihood,  whether  it  did  or  did  not  win  her 
a  reputation  in  the  operatic  world. 

Handicapped  at  the  outset  by  a  lack  of 
means  to  pay  for  the  training  necessary  to 
the  most  perfect  voice  and  the  added  difficult}' 
of  overcoming  the  prejudices  of  father  and 
mother,  not  to  mention  other  relations,  who 
held  certain  rigid  opinions  about  a  public  career, 
and  that  career  the  stage,  for  one  of  their  own 
kin,  Miss  Quinlan  at  twenty-three  years  of  age 
is  a  striking  example  of  what  may  be  accom- 
plished by  determined  effort  o£  will.  Having 
finally  gained  the  reluctant  consent  of  her 
parents,  with  her  mind  centred  upon  a  certain 
goal,  she  entered  the  chorus  of  the  Castle 
Square  Opera  Company,  singing  at  the  Castle 
Scjuare  Theatre,  Boston,  in  May,  1895.  She 
remained  there  one  year,  entering  into  the 
hard  work  of  learning  the  score  of  a  new  opera 
each  week,  and  rehearsing  one  for  the  follow- 
ing week,  while  singing  in  two  performances 
daily,  with  such  courage  and  enthusiasm  that 


490 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


she  was  very  often  taken  from  the  chorus  and 
given  some  small  part,  only  one  or  two  lines, 
yet  an  honor  for  a  girl  not  sixteen  and  with 
only  a  few  months'  experience. 

In  May,  1896,  she  accompanied  the  Castle 
Square  Opera  Company  to  Philadelphia,  and 
sang  with  them  at  the  Grand  Opera  House  for 
a  year  and  a  half.  While  there  she  became 
understudy  to  Miss  Clara  Lane,  and  was  often 
called  upon  to  sing  her  rAles  without  so  nuich 
as  a  rehearsal  to  give  herself  confidence. 

Miss  Quinlan's  first  appearance  in  New  York 
was  at  the  American  Theatre,  January  17,  1898. 
in  "The  Lily  of  Killarney,"  taking  the  part  of 
Anne  Shute.  During  the  following  summer 
she  played  one  of  the  two  principals  in  "Red, 
White,  and  Blue,"  a  war  drama,  with  Mr. 
Raymond  Hitchcock,  creating  the  character  of 
Hetty  Hall,  a  little  American  girl,  the  com- 
pany making  a  tour  of  the  small  cities  around 
New  York. 

This  was  followed  by  "Shenandoah"  at 
the  Academy  of  Music,  where  she  character- 
ized Junie  Buckthorne,  the  General's  daughter, 
until  in  the  summer  of  1901  she  rejoined  the 
Castle  Square  Opera  Company  at  the  Stude- 
baker  Theatre  in  Chicago,  111.  She  sang  in 
Chicago   two  seasons. 

Miss  Quinlan  has  sung  in  over  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  operas,  and  has  played  all  the 
principal  soubrettc  parts  in  the  same.  She 
made  her  first  distinct  success  as  Broni  Slava 
in  the  "Beggar  Student,"  and  became  an  es- 
pecial favorite  as  Pitti  Sing  in  the  "Mikado" 
while  in  Chicago.  She  is  also  a  piquant  come- 
dienne, and  with  her  pretty  voice  and  pleasing 
stage  manner  has  made  astonishing  progress 
toward  marked  fame  since  her  appearance 
in  the  comic  opera,  "Tarantella,"  as  Junie,  in 
1901. 

•  The  next  year  she  was  given  the  part  of 
Annette  in  the  cast  of  "King  Dodo,"  and  dur- 
ing the  season  of  1902-1903  she  pleased  every 
one  as  Chiquita  at  the  Tremont  Theatre  in 
Boston  and  Wallack's  Theatre,  New  York. 

She  has  always  been  under  the  management 
of  the  Castle  Scjuare  Opera  Company,  and  has 
rendered  them  several  important  services, 
which  naturally  advanced  her  in  their  estima- 
tion and  in  her  profession. 


Once  in  Philadelphia,  while  "The  Princess 
Bonnie"  was  being  sung,  Kitty  Clover  lost 
her  voice  in  a  most  unexpectetl  manner,  and 
coukl  not  sing  a  note.  Miss  Quinlan  imme- 
diately grasped  the  situation,  and,  although 
in  student  costmne,  came  to  the  front  of  the 
stage,  and,  placing  her  arms  around  the  voice- 
less songstress,  sang  the  solo,  transposing  the 
words  to  give  proper  meaning  to  her  rendi- 
tion. Another  time,  in  "Mignon,"  the  prima 
donna,  who  sang  the  part  of  Filina,  did  not 
answer  her  cue,  and  after  a  hurried  search 
could  not  be  found.  Miss  Quinlan  stepped 
into  the  gap,  singing  the  lines  to  perfection, 
and  again  saved  the  evening.  This  latter 
act  proved  to  be  her  emancipation  from  the 
chorus. 

Miss  Quinlan  is  not  a  member  of  any  societies 
or  clubs,  but  a  most  devoted  parishioner  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  church.  Her  voice  has 
had  constant  care  and  cultivation  since  the 
day  she  first  entered  the  chorus.  It  has  been 
trained  under  Franklyn  Smith,  of  Boston, 
Mr.  Frederic  Bruegger,  of  Chicago,  and  Mr. 
Karl  Brenneman,  of  New  York. 


CLARA  MARCELLE  GREENE  (Mrs. 
Wyer  Greene),  author,  a  native  of  the 
Pine  Tree  State,  residing  in  Portland, 
was  born  in  Bucksport,  and  was  there 
reared  and  educated,  being  successively  pupil 
and  teacher  in  the  seminary  at  that  place. 
From  childhood  she  has  been  a  lover  of  books, 
and  many  a  student  acknowledges  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  her  for  her  wise  advice  and  direc- 
tion as  to  their  choice  of  books.  She  relin- 
quished the  cares  of  the  school-room  when  she 
became  the  wife  of  a  Portland  merchant,  Mr. 
Wyer  Greene,  and  has  since  resided  in  that 
city.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Greene  have  a  son  and 
daughter,  the  latter  a  fine  musician.  For  a 
number  of  years  there  have  appeared  in  sev- 
eral magazines  stories  and  verses  from  Mrs. 
Greene's  pen  that  show  marked  talent.  A  vol- 
ume of  her  poems,  published  a  few  years  ago, 
was  received  with  favor.  Her  health,  never 
robust,  has,  however,  at  times  made  literary 
work  impossible  for  her.  Mrs.  Greene  is  a 
member  of  some  of  the  literary  clubs  in  Port- 


REPRESEiNTATlVE   WOMEN   OK   NEW   ENGLAND 


491 


land,  and  numbers  among  her  acquaintance 
several  prominent  New  England  authors.  The 
poet  Whittier  spoke  favorably  of  her  talent. 
A  Christmas  story  entitled  "The  Children," 
published  in  Christian  Work,  1902,  and  a  serial 
illustrating  the  laws  governing  a  wife's  dower, 
which  was  run  in  the  Portland  Transcript 
several  years  ago,  show  with  what  fine  sym- 
pathy she  understands  the  inner  nature  of 
women  and  children,  and  with  what  nicety 
she  depicts  their  individual  traits  of  character. 


HARRIET  STANLEY  LAMBARD,  of 
Augusta,  Me.,  well  known  for  her  con- 
nection with  philanthropic  work,  was 
born  in  that  city,  April  24,  1837.  Her 
father,  George  Washington  Stanley,  was  a  native 
of  Attleboro,  Mass.,  but  spent  most  of  his  life 
in  Augusta.  Her  mother,  in  maidenhood  Mary 
Dearborn,  was  a  native  of  Winthrop,  Me. 

Harriet  Stanley,  as  a  child,  was  a  pupil  in 
private  schools  of  Augusta,  going  later  to  Boston 
and  Belmont  for  further  training.  When  in 
her  teens  she  attended  the  Congregational 
Female  Academy  in  Augusta.  Although  her 
family  were  Unitarians,  she  became  an  inter- 
ested attendant  of  the  Episcopal  church,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen  joining  St.  Mark's,  of  which 
she  is  still  an  active  member.  In  1SS4  she  was 
married  to  Thomas  Lambard.  Mr.  Lambard 
died  in  1892.  Since  his  death  Mrs.  Lambard 
has  resided  at  her  home  on  A\'inthrop  Street, 
having  as  members  of  her  household  a  niece 
and  nephew.  She  enjoys  society,  but  does 
not  care  for  clubs.  Much  of  her  time  is  given 
to  travel.  She  is  fontl  of  journeying  in  her 
own  country,  and  claims  that  not  for  scenery, 
health,  or  pleasure  need  the  American  go 
abroad. 

Since  the  establishment  of  the  Old  Ladies' 
Home  in  Augusta,  Mrs.  Lnmbard  has  been  on 
its  Board  of  Managers,  and  she  is  now  holding 
the  office  of  Vice-Presitlent.  When  Augusta's 
City  Hospital  was  incorporated,  and  the  Hos- 
pital Aid  Society  was  formed,  Mrs.  Lambard 
was  elected  President.  In  that  capacity  she 
faithfully  served  until  1901,  when  she  resigned. 
As  a  willing  helper  and  most  generous  donor, 
her  name  will  always  be  associated  with  the 


institution.  In  its  few  years  of  existence  this 
hospital,  at  the  State  capital,  has  a  record  that 
places  it  among  the  most  useful  and  most  ad- 
mirably conducted  institutions  of  its  kind  in  the 
State.  When  it  was  first  opened,  in  1897,  the 
work  was  carried  on  in  a  rented  building, 
but  in  1900  the  closing  of  the  Girls'  School  at 
St.  Catherine's  Hall  gave  the  directors  an  op- 
portunity to  purchase  a  building  well  adapted 
to  hospital  recjuirements.  "It  is  a  large  and 
noble-looking  structure,  built  in  the  beautiful 
old  colonial  style  of  architecture,  and  situated 
on  an  elevation,  which  secures  not  only  the 
sanitary  advantages  that  come  from  perfect 
drainage,  but  sunshine  and  pure  air."  It 
commands  a  superb  view  of  the  Kemiebec 
valley,  and  is  an  ideal  home  for  the  sick.  Its 
equipments  are  all  modern  and  first-class,  the 
staff  able  and  the  directors  may  well  claim 
that  "there  is  not  a  hosj)ital  in  the  country 
that  is  contlucted  on  broader  lines  or  with  a 
more  sincere  ilesire  to  meet  fully  and  fairly 
all  possible  needs  of  the  public  it  serves." 


LILLIAN  NORTON  (Madame  Nordica) 
was  born  in  Farmington,  Me.,  Decem- 
_^  ber  12,  1857,  the  daughter  of  Edwin 
and  Amanda  E.  (Allen)  Norton.  Her 
maternal  grandfather,  the  Rev.  John  Allen,  was 
known  everywhere  as  "Camp-meeting  John," 
such  gatherings,  in  several  hundred  of  which 
he  took  part,  having  a  peculiar  charm  for  him. 
He  was  an  interesting  and  original  preacher, 
and  was  distinguished  for  his  wit  and  ready 
repartee.  He  served  as  chaplain  in  the  Maine 
House  of  Representatives  in  1879  and  1881. 
Madame  Nordica's  mother  was  a  woman  of 
broad  intelligence  and  marked  executive  ability. 
Christian  graces  adorning  her  character. 

As  a  bit  of  old  New  Englaml  history  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  Nordica's  great-grand- 
father, Nathaniel  Hersey,  was  in  1777  taxeil 
for  his  "faculty,"  with  four  other  citizens  of 
the  town,  who  were  regarded  as  possessing 
marketl  business  capacity. 

W'hen  Lillian  Norton  was  but  a  child,  her 
parents  removed  to  Boston.  She  inherited 
from  both  father  and  mother  a  talent  for  music, 
and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  she  began  the  culture 


492 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


of  her  voice  with  Professor  John  O'Neil  of 
Boston,  continuing  under  his  instruction  until 
she  went  to  Europe.  In  Milan,  where  she 
studied  under  San  Giovanni,  she  was  given  her 
stage  name  of  "Giglia  Nordica,"  the  Italian 
for  "Northern  lily."  Under  Giovanni's  teach- 
ing she  prepared  herself  for  opera,  making  her 
debut  as  Violetta  in  the  opera  of  "Traviata." 
Her  first  engagement  of  importance  was  at  St. 
Petersburg,  where  she  sang  for  two  seasons, 
achieving  a  brilliant  reputation.  From  that 
city  she  went  to  Paris,  where  she  appeared  as 
Marguerite  in  "Faust,"  at  the  Grand  Opera 
House.  After  sii\ging  there  several  months, 
she  married  Mr.  Frederick  A.  (Jower,  and  soon 
retired  from  the  stage. 

After  Mr.  Gower's  death  in  1884,  she  appeared 
again  in  opera  at  Covent  Garden,  London,  and 
in  all  the  principal  opera  houses  of  Europe  and 
America.  Up  to  this  time  Nordica  had  con- 
fineti  herself  to  French  and  Italian  roles,  but 
during  a  visit  to  Bayreuth  in  1893  she  was 
asked  to  create  the  role  of  Elsa  in  "  Lohengrin," 
and,  learning  the  German  language  in  five 
months,  made  her  appearance  at  the  end  of 
that  time.  She  elicited  much  enthusiasm,  and 
it  was  a  season  of  triumph.  Her  repertoire 
now  embraces  forty  operas  and  all  the  stand- 
ard oratorios.  She  is  best  known  in  Wag- 
nerian parts.  In  the  United  States  she  has 
appeared  in  grand  opera  several  seasons. 

She  speaks  fluently  all  the  languages  in  which 
she  sings.  Personally  she  is  a  woman  of  much 
charm  and  magnetism,  as  well  as  beauty.  She 
has  a  gracious  manner,  and  is  especially  loyal 
to  her  old  friends. 

She  married  a  few  years  ago  Herr  Zoltan 
Dome. 

She  takes  an  interest  in  her  native  State,  and 
from  time  to  time  visits  her  birthplace. 


CHARLOTTE  AUGUSTA  BRIDGES 
LEE,  for  some  twelve  years  or  more, 
until  her  death  on  December  24,  1903, 
a  resident  of  Auburn,  Me.,  was  born, 
brought  up,  and  educated  in  New  York  City, 
being  a  daughter  of  Charles  and  Harriet  (Her- 
vey)  Bridges.  On  September  11,  1866,  she 
married  Stephen  Lee,  and  subsequently  resided 


at  different  times  until  1890  in  New  York  and 
Brooklyn.  The  family  then  removed  to  Au- 
burn, Me. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lee  had  two  children,'  Herbert 
Stephen  and  Edith  Enmia,  both  born  in  Brook- 
lyn, N.Y.  Mrs.  Lee  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
gregational church.  She  was  a  director  in  the 
Women's  Christian  Association  and  the  Social 
Settlement,  and  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
philanthropic  work  in  which  these  organiza- 
tions are  engaged.  She  served  acceptably  as 
president  of  the  Auburn  Art  Club  and  of  two 
literary  societies,  Sorosis  and  the  Literary 
Union  of  Lewiston  anfl  Auburn. 


MARY  ABBY  FELTON  WHIT- 
MARSH,  Ph. G.— While  in  Ger- 
many the  woman  druggist  has  been 
a  familiar  figure  for  years,  in  Amer- 
ica she  is  an  exceptional  person.  To  one 
woman  who  chose  this  vocation  a  large  share 
of  success  has  come,  and  it  will  be  interesting 
to  glance  at  her  history.  Her  maiden  name 
was  Mary  Abby  Felton  Stiles.  In  1873  she 
became  the  wife  of  Daniel  Webster  Whitmarsh, 
of  Middleboro,  Mass. 

Slie  was  born  in  Barre,  Worcester  County, 
Mass.,  August  22,  1853,  the  daughter  of  Joseph 
Henry  and  Mary  Amelia  (Felton)  Stiles.  Her 
father,  a  native  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  died  in 
1862.  He  was  the  son  of  Henry  and  Avis 
(Williams)  Stiles  and  a  lineal  descendant,  sev- 
enth generation,  of  Robert'  Stiles,  of  Rowley 
Village  (now  Boxford,  Mass.),  who  married  in 
1660  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John'  Frye,  of 
Andover.  From  Robert'  and  Elizabeth  the 
line  continued  through  Timothy^  and  Hannah 
(Foster)  Stiles;  Jacob^  and  Sarah  (Hart well) 
Stiles,  of  Lunenburg;  Captain  Jeremiah*  and 
Mary  (Sanger)  Stiles,  of  Keene,  N.H.;  Jeremiah, 
Jr.,^  and  Abigail  (Bridge)  Stiles,  of  Worcester; 
to  their  son  Henry,"  above  mentioned. 

The  maternal  grandparents  of  Mrs.  Whit- 
marsh were  Nathaniel"  and  Abigail  H.  (Bowker) 
Felton;  and  the  Felton  ancestry  is  traced 
back  through  Nathaniel,^  Nathaniel,*  Ebenezer,' 
Nathaniel,^  to  Nathaniel'  Felton,  the  immigrant 
progenitor,  who  came  to  Salem,  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony,  in  1633,  and  who  married  Mary 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN  OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


493 


Skelton,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Skelton, 
the  first  minister  of  Salem. 

Mrs.  Mary  A.  Stiles  was  for  years  a  teacher. 
Her  daughter,  through  her  influence  early  in- 
terested in  good  reading,  was  educated  in  the 
schools  of  Barre  (attending  successively  a  dis- 
trict school  and  the  high  school)  and  at  Pierce 
Academy  in  Middleboro  (co-educational),  then 
one  of  the  leading  secondary  schools  of  New 
England. 

Two  subjects  have  always  held  Mrs.  Whit- 
marsh's  attention,  natural  history  and  materia 
medica.  In  studying  the  latter  she  grew  more 
and  more  attracted  toward  that  branch  of  sci- 
ence, and  in  the  fall  of  1896  she  entered  the 
Massachusetts  College  of  Pharmacy.  After 
one  year's  hard  study — the  rules  of  the  school 
necessitating  four  years'  actual  experience — 
Mrs.  Whitmarsh  decided  that  such  experience 
should  be  in  an  establishment  of  her  own. 
Accordingly  she  fitted  up  a  new  store  with  fine 
equipments  at  Geneva  Avenue,  Dorchester,  to 
which  during  the  ensuing  year  she  gave  her 
entire  time  and  attention.  In  1899  she  re- 
sumed her  stutlies,  dividing  her  hours  between 
school  and  her  place  of  business.  She  was 
graduated  in  1901,  receiving  her  diploma  for 
having  satisfactorily  finished  the  general  course. 
Since  that  time  she  has  been  absorbed  in  her 
rapidly  growing  business.  She  is  a  popular 
woman  in  her  community,  and  is  alike  re- 
spected for  her  ability  and  integrity. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whitmarsh  have  always  at- 
tended the  Congregational  church.  For  clubs 
she  has  no  time,  although  in  sympathy  with 
their  work;  and  her  duties  make  her  but  an 
irregular  attendant  at  the  Daughters  of  Re- 
bekah  Lodge,  of  which  she  has  been  a  member 
for  several  years.  Mr.  Whitmarsh  is  a  skilled 
{)attern-maker  in  iron  work. 


VINA  BOYNTON  PEAKES,  of  Boston, 
is  an  energetic  business  woman  who 
has  achieved  success  in  the  field  of 
insurance.  The  necessity  of  earn- 
ing her  owm  livelihood  came  about  through  the 
death  of  her  husband.  After  turning  over  in 
her  own  mind  the  few  profitable  occupations 
that  offered  honorable  employment  for  women, 


she  decided  upon  insurance,  and  accordingly 
studied  the  methods  employed  by  men  in  the 
presentation  of  that  subject,  striving  in  par- 
ticular to  acquire  a  direct  and  business-like 
manner.  Her  efforts  were  successful,  and, 
step  by  step,  she  has  advanced  from  her  early 
beginnings  until  to-day  she  stands  as  one  of 
the  leading  women  insurance  underwriters 
of  Boston,  which  city,  it  may  be  said,  has  the 
only  association  of  women  underwriters  in 
the  world.  Mrs.  Peakes  is  an  independent 
agent,  not  being  connected  with  a  women's 
department.  She  approves  of  the  admis- 
sion of  women  to  all  professions  and  all  suita- 
ble lines  of  business,  ami  takes  great  pleasure 
in  noting  the  success  they  are  achieving  in 
their  various  undertakings. 


BOSTON  WOMEN'S  EDUCATIONAL 
AND  INDUSTRIAL  UNION.— From 
the  present  plane  of  woman's  activity 
in  affairs  it  is  difficult  to  appreciate 
the  courage  and  prescience  of  a  small  band  of 
women  who  in  1877,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  Harriet  Clisby,  organized  the  Boston 
Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union 
"  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  fellowship  among 
women  in  order  to  promote  their  educational, 
industrial,  and  social  advancement."  Dr. 
Harriet  Clisby  was  elected  President,  Miss  M. 
Chamberlin  Secretary,  and  Mrs.  S.  E.  Eaton 
Treasurer.  These  officers,  with  four  directors, 
adopted  a  constitution  whose  foimdation  was 
so  broad  and  deep  that  during  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century  the  Ihiion  has  always  found  an 
open  door  for  any  work  that  "advanced  the 
Interests  of  women." 

"A  union  of  all  for  the  good  of  all,"  there 
was  in  its  inception  a  deep  vein  of  ethical  pur- 
pose, a  tremendous  initial  impulse  of  faith, 
religious  fervor,  and  enthusiasm.  It  was  born 
in  the  days  of  few  organizations  and  of  limited 
opportunities  for  women.  The  force  of  self- 
expression  was  beginning  to  stir,  but  had  to 
force  its  way  against  the  inertia  of  conserva- 
tism. 

In  the  faith  of  the  founders  of  the  Union 
appeared  a  regenerating  force  to  touch  the 
commimity  to  higher  life.     The  Union  came 


494 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


into  the  world  hampered  by  no  preconceived 
methods  for  future  development:  it  simply 
stood  ready  to  respond  to  the  opportunity 
for  service.  This  very  lack  of  definiteness, 
this  plastic  form,  was  at  the  outset,  and  con- 
tinues to  be,  a  source  of  strength,  insuring  a 
sensitive  response  to  the  needs  of  the  hour. 

Constant  through  all  these  years,  the  Union's 
ideal  has  been  the  uplift  of  women  through  the 
character-building  forces  of  association  and  re- 
sponsibility; throvigh  the  inspiration  and  privi- 
lege of  service. 

"The  Union  aspires  to  be  that  common 
meeting-place  where  every  woman  stands  on 
the  same  level,  and  must  therefore  look  straight 
into  the  eyes  of  every  other  woman,  seeing  the 
essential  thing — character  apart  from  material 
or  social  conditions — a  ground  so  level  that 
there  can  be  no  looking  up  or  looking  down, 
where  the  permanent  bond  is  that  spiritual  one 
which  blesses  him  who  gives  and  him  who 
takes." 

The  successful  progress  of  the  Union  has 
been  uniform.  While  rich  only  in  ideals,  its 
financial  credit  was  early  secured  by  a  rigid 
adherence  to  a  very  primitive  rule  of  "  keeping 
absolutely  out  of  debt."  The  Union  has  never 
asked  help  to  meet  an  obligation  already  in- 
curred. 

At  the  outset  the  work  itself,  not  yet  grown 
to  unwieldy  proportions,  was  well  adapted  to 
claim  the  interest  of  volunteer  committees, 
whose  living  spirit  and  enthusiasm  in  those 
early  days  was  priceless;  and  they  accom- 
plished what  paifl  workers,  untouched  by  their 
tire,  could  never  have  done,  in  laying  for  the 
l^nion  deep  and  lasting  foundations. 

The  magnitiide  of  the  changes  in  conditions 
which  have  necessitated  changes  in  methods 
is  indicated  in  the  following  figures:  In  1879 
the  assets  of  the  Union  were  about  one  hundred 
dollars,  with  no  paid  workers.  In  1904  the 
assets  are  two  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand, 
five  hundred  and  eighteen  dollars,  with  a  pay- 
roll of  one  hundred  and  one.  In  the  In- 
dustrial Departments  alone  the  change  is 
enormous.  To-day  (1904)  the  Union  presents 
the  unique  spectacle  of  a  business  that  em- 
ploys about  seventy-five  paid  workers,  with 
annual    receipts  of  one   hvmdred  and  twenty- 


four  thousand,  seven  hundred  and  forty-seven 
dollars,  the  whole  practically  distributed  to 
producers. 

The  Educational  Department  has  charge  of 
the  Perkins  Lecture  Course,  where  each  year 
varied  and  valuable  lectures  are  given  free  to 
L^nion  members,  and  of  other  methods  of  in- 
struction calculated  to  stimulate  intelligent 
thought  and  a  high  standard  of  work;  and 
each  year  it  adopts  such  industrial  class 
work  as  shall  best  "help  women  to  help  them- 
selves." 

The  ethical  side  of  the  Union  work  has  fairly 
kept  pace  with  the  other  departments.  The 
Committee  on  ]']thics  has  during  the  past  two 
years  aroused  an  interest  which  has  resulted  in 
an  Association  for  Promoting  the  Interests  of 
the  Adult  Blind  in  Massachusetts. 

In  the  Employment  Department  is  conducted 
the  work  of  the  Domestic  Reform  League, 
whose  object  is  to  emphasize  the  business 
relation  of  employer  and  employee,  and  to 
promote  by  careful  investigation  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  present  conditions  and  to  suggest 
possible  readjustments. 

The  Business  Agency  receives  applications 
for  all  employments  other  than  domestic  ser- 
vice— as  book-keepers,  stenographers,  nurses, 
attendants,  governesses,  etc. 

The  Protective  Committee  investigates  claims 
for  wages  unjustly  withheld  from  women,  and 
gives  much  needed  counsel  and  advice  on  legal 
matters.  The  Befriending  Committee  gives 
friendly  advice,  sympathy,  and  aid  to  all  women 
who  come  to  th(>m  in  perplexity  or  need.  The 
province  of  the  Social  Extension  Committee  is 
to  provide  facilities  for  the  comfort  and  con- 
venience of  I'nion  members  and  to  express  the 
genuine,  democratic  Ihiion  spirit  of  fellowship 
and  good-will.  And  thus  an  ever-lengthening 
vista  of  opportunity  for  service  lies  open  before 
the  Boston  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union. 

The  present  officers  (1904)  are:  President, 
Mrs.  Mary  Morton  Kehew;  Secretary,  Miss 
H.  I.  Goodrich;  Trea.surer,  Mrs.  Helen  Peirce; 
with  four  \'ice-Presidents  and  twelve  Direc- 
tors. There  is  a  membership  of  twenty-five 
hundred. 

264  BoYLSTON  Street,  August,  1904. 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


495 


DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  REVO- 
LUTION, COMMONWEALTH  OF 
MASSACHUSETTS.—  This  patriotic 
society  was  organized  in  Boston  on 
February  26,  1894,  its  certificate  of  operation 
being  granted  February  28,  1894. 

Its  objects  are  to  keep  alive  among  its  mem- 
bers and  their  descendants,  and  throughout 
the  community,  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  men 
and  women  who  achieved  American  inde- 
pendence; to  collect  and  secure  for  preserva- 
tion the  manuscript  rolls,  records,  and  other 
documents  relating  to  the  war  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  provide  a  place  for  their  pres- 
ervation and  a  fund  ior  their  purchase;  to  en- 
courage historical  research  in  relation  to  such 
Revolution  and  to  publish  its  results;  to  pro- 
mote and  assist  in  the  proper  celebration  of 
prominent  events  relating  to  or  connected  with 
the  war  of  the  Revolution;  to  promote  social 
intercourse  and  the  feeling  of  fellowship  among 
its  members,  and  "  to  provide  a  home  for 
and  furnish  assistance  to  such  as  may  be 
impoverished,  when  it  is  in  its  power  to 
do  so." 

Any  woman  shall  be  eligible  to  membership 
in  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution  who  is 
above  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  of  good  char- 
acter, and  a  lineal  descendant  of  an  ancestor 
who  (1)  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, a  member  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, or  a  member  of  the  Congress,  Legislature, 
or  General  Court  of  any  of  the  colonies  or 
Scates;  or  (2)  rendered  civil,  military,  or  naval 
service  under  the  authority  of  any  of  the  thir- 
teen colonies  or  of  the  Continental  Congress; 
or  (3)  by  service  rendered  during  the  war  of 
the  Revolution  became  liable  to  the  penalty  of 
treason  against  the  government  of  Great  Britain; 
provided  that  such  ancestor  always  remained 
loyal  to  American  independence. 

The  initiation  fee  is  two  dollars,  yearly  dues 
three  dollars.  Fifty  dollars  paid  at  one  time 
constitutes  life  membership. 

March  17  is  the  day  appointed  for  the  an- 
nual election  of  officers.  The  first  State  regent 
was  Mrs.  Sara  White  Lee;  treasurer,  Mrs. 
Kate  H.  W.  Wead;  secretary,  Mrs.  Susan  L. 
Stedman.  The  present  board,  elected  March 
17,  1904,  is:  State  regent,  Mrs.  Adeline  F.  Fitz; 


vice-regent,  Mrs.  Maria  W.  Daniels;  recording 
secretary,  Mrs.  W.  Anna  Heckman;  correspond- 
ing secretary,  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Nichols;  treas- 
urer, Mrs.  Eleanor  B.  Wheeler;  registrar,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  P.  Holbrook;  librarian,  Mrs.  Mabel 
E.  Priest;  historian,  Mrs.  Alice  M.  Granger. 
During  each  year  regular  and  special  meet- 
ings of  the  society  are  held  and  pilgrimages 
are  made  to  historic  places.  Thirty-one 
branches,  known  as  chapters  in  Massachu- 
setts, join  in  the  work  of  the  State  Society  and 
also  carry  on  special  work  in  their  several 
localities,  marking  graves  of  Revolutionary 
soldiers,  and  giving  to  schools  the  best  books 
on  the"  Revolutionary  period  and  pictures  of 
important  events  ami  persons  connected  with 
the  early  history  of  the  republic. 

Eight  students  have  been  assisted  by  pay- 
ment of  atlmission  fees  to  Hampton  Univer- 
sity, four  scholarships  have  been  given  to 
Berea  College,  and  two  Boston  boys  have  been 
supported  at  the  George  Junior  Republic. 

Pictures  ami  busts  have  been  given  to  Paul 
Revere  School.  The  work  for  the  Massachu- 
setts Volunteer  Aid  Association  and  Cuban 
educational  fund  is  particularly  worthy  of 
mention.  Through  the  untiring  efforts  of 
Mrs.  Alexander  M.  Ferris,  of  Newton,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  State  regent  and  chapters,' 
Massachusetts  sent  a  large  contribution  for 
the  monument  at  Valley  Forge,  which  was 
dedicated  in  October,  1901,  by  the  General 
Society,  Daughters  of  the  Revolution.  The 
General  Society  has  its  headquarters  at  156 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City;  the  State  So- 
ciety, at  the  Colonial  Building,  Boylston  Street, 
Boston. 

The  special  work  of  the  society  during  the 
past  year,  undertaken  at  the  suggestion  of 
Mrs.  Adeline  F.  Fitz,  then  vice-regent,  was  the 
raising  of  funds  for  a  memorial  tablet  to  be 
placed  in  the  Boston  Public  Library.  The 
plan  was  '  successfully  carried  out,  and  on 
May  3,  1904,  while  the  General  Society,  by 
invitation  of  the  State  Society,  was  hold- 
ing its  annual  meeting  in  Boston,  a  bronze 
tablet,  the  work  of  the  artist,  C.  W.  Harley, 
placed  in  the  music  room  of  the  library,  was 
imveiled  in  the  presence  of  an  appreciative 
audience. 


■196 


REPRESENTATIVE   WOMEN   OF   NEW   ENGLAND 


The  tablet  bears  this  inscription : — 

The  Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts,  in  grateful  recognition  of  patriotic  verse 
and  song,  commemorate  these  names: — 

William  Billings,  father  of  American  psalmody. 

Oliver  Holden,  author  of  "Coronation." 

John  Howard  Payne,  who  wrote  "Home,  Sweet 
Home." 

Samuel  F.  Smith,  who  wrote  "America." 

Francis  S.  Key,  author  of  "The  Star-spangled  Ban- 
ner." 

.George    F.  Root,  who  wrote    "The  Battle  Cry   of 
Freedom." 

Julia  Ward  Howe,  author  of  the  "Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic." 

Mrs.  Howe  is  the  only  living  member  of  the 


group.  There  is  a  rule  forbidding  the  use  of 
the  name  of  a  living  person  on  any  memorial 
erected  in  the  library.  But  the  circumstances 
were  deemed  such  as  to  warrant  the  breaking 
of  the  rule  once. 

The  presentation  speech  was  a  neat  address 
delivered  by  Mrs.  Adeline  F.  Fitz,  and  the  gift 
was  accepted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  De  Nor- 
naandie  on  behalf  of  the  library  trustees. 

The  veil  was  removed  by  Miss  Minnie  Scott, 
great-grand-daughter  of  William  Billings,  au- 
thor of  the  "Colonists'  Rallying  Song." 

The  audience  arose  en  nuifise  and  applaudeil 
when  Mrs.  Howe  was  presented  and  recitetl 
her  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic." 


INDEX. 


BIOGRAPHICAL. 


A 

Achorn,  Ada  A.     .....  346 

Agaasiz,  Elizabeth  C.      .     .     .  5 

Allen,  Mary  E 187 

AndrewB,  Judith  W 118 

Anthony,  Stisan  B 369 

\thorton,  Mary  A 416 

\ylbg,  Cora  B 150 


B 


'bailey,  Anrja  M.  L.    . 

432 

c?ailey,  Hannah  J. 

365 

Biiley,  Mercy  A.    .     . 

151 

S  iker,  Julia  M.      .     . 

154 

jKildwin,  Ella  L.  T.   . 

239 

jia-ker,  E.  Florence    . 

110 

Flarn^jp?,  .Anna       .     . 

241 

Barton,  Cl^ra    .     .     . 

295 

Rules,  Try'phosa  D.    . 

311 

Bei  dy,  Heien  C.     .     . 

272 

Beeman,  EfiJosephine  C 

447 

IJpLiis,  Caroline  A.      . 

449 

Benedict,  Harriet  E. 

235 

Bsnneson,  Cora  A. 

326 

Bigi.low,  Abbie  A. 

214 

Bijgdow,  Clara  P.  .     . 
Blackwell,  Alice  Stone 

441 

406 

lil'!)dgett,  AdJiiide  N. 

332 

BoU  Ki;-bot(a  E.      . 

255 

•  PAOK 

Boothby,  Adelaide  E.      .     .     .  170 

Borden,  Bertha  V 81 

Boston  Women's  Educational 

and  Industrial  Union       .     .  493 

Boj'den,  Sarah  J 169 

Bradbury,  Eliza  Ann      .     .     .  434 

Bradley,  Amy  M 476 

Brazier,  Marion  H 433 

Brown,  Knuna  E 131 

Brown,  Eva  M.      .....  408 

Brown,  Fanny  C 142 

Burnham,  Mary  S 458 

Butler,  Margaret  J.    .     .  -. .     .  480 


C 

Cade,  Salome  T 212 

Cahill,  Eliza  B 82 

Calkins,  Adelaide  A.  H.       .     .  163 

Capron,  Sarah  B 203 

Carver,  Mary  C.  L 141 

Cass,  Eleanor  B 472 

Chamberlin,  Harriot  A.  .     .     .  374 

Chapin,  Mary  E.  T 475 

Chapman,  Anna  D.  H.    .     .     .  381 

Chapman,  Mary  A.  W.    .     .     .  419 

Chase,  Adelaide  F 347 

Cheney,  Ednah  D 7 

Clark,  Carro  M 393 

Clark,  Emily  L 470 

Clark,  Susie  C 366 


Cobb,  AJmeda  H. 
Cobb,  Eunice  H.  W. 
Cook,  Evelyn  T.    . 
Cooke,  Harriette  J.  . 
Crane,  Sibylla  A.  B. 
Curry,  Anna  B. 


PAGE 

140 
136 
288 
175 
348 
388 


D 

Dana,  Olive  E 27.8 

Darlingtone,  Nina  K.      .     .     .  453 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution, 
Commonwealth  of  Massachu- 
setts        495 

Davis,  Delilah  S.    .     .    ,     .     .  237 

Day,  Agnes  B 473 

Deane,  Mary  G 268 

Delano,  Ellen  V 360 

Dickerman,  Sarah  A.  P.      .     .  233 

Dix,  Dorothea  L 423 

Dixon,  Sarah  A 242 

Doherty,  Helen  1 201 

Drake,  Stella  E.  P.     .'    .     .     .  412 

Dyer,  Clara  L.  B 378 

Dyer,  Julia  K 126 


E 

Eastman,  Mary  F. 
Elliot,  Emily  J;      . 


484 
SO'' 


498 


indl:x 


Elliot,  Mary  E. 
Einersoii,  Alice  \V. 
Evans,  Clara  H.  15. 


PACK 

305 
201 
220 


F 

Fales,  Mary  J.  P 225 

Faxon,  Grace  H 294 

Faelteii,  Marie  D 79 

Fenwick,  Minnie  L 254 

Fessenden,  Susan  B.  S.    .     .     .  391 

Fielding,  Sarah  E 264 

Fields,  Annie 382 

Fisher,  Lucy  H 234 

Fitz,  ;  "  line  F 406 

Flint,  Harriet  X 123 

Fogg,  Ellen  M 160 

Foster,  Abby  K 22 

Foster,  Edna  A 211 

Foster,  Elizabeth  B.        ...  469 

Foster,  Harriet  W 279 

Fowle,  Elida  R 84 

Frazar,  Mae  D 293 

Frissell,  Seraph 292 

Frothingham,  Eugenia  B.    .     .  321 

Frye,  Eunice  N 46 

'^ulton,  Sarah  B 339 

.^•"uller,  Sarah 219 

Fuller,  Sarah  E 355 


UHlpui,  h;iil^ara 
Gary,  Clara  E. 
Geddes,  Alice  S.     . 
Gifford,  Augusta  H. 
Gilman,  Hannah  E. 
("lilinan,  .lulia  R.    . 
Gilman,  Mary  L.    . 
Gilsou,  Helen  L.     . 
Goddard,  Alice  M. 
Going,  Maria  W.    . 
Goodale,  Mary  S-  ■ 
(iossc,  Elisabeth  S.  M 
Gould,  l^lizabeth  P 
(irant,  Anna  Florence 
(iraves,  Helen  .M. 
Greely,  Emma  A. 


354 

109 
145 

43 
173 
173 
444 

08 
387 
331 

50 
442 

11 
377 
475 

57 


(ireeiic,  Clara  M.    . 
Greene,  .Mary  A.     . 
Greene,  Sarah  1'.  .M. 
Griswold,  Kate  E. 


H 


Hale,  Sarah  J.        .     . 
Hamilton,  Julia      .     . 
Hamilton,  Margaret   . 
Hartwell,  Effie  M.  F.  X 
Hatch,  Lavina  A.  .     . 
Hawley,  Annie  .\. 
Hayward,  Elizabeth  E. 
Hazen,  Fanny  T.   . 
Heald,  L.  Isabel     .     . 
Hecht,  Lina  F.       .     . 
Higginbotham,  Helena 
Hill,  Eliza  Trask    .     . 
Hitchcock,  Caroline  H. 
Hodgkins,  Louise  M. 
Holbrook,  Isabel  X. 
Howe,  Julia  Ward 
Hoyle,  Katherine  L. 
Hoyt,  Jane  W. 
Hoyt,  Martha  S.    . 
Hunt,  Augusta  M. 
Hyde,  Ethel      .     . 


PACE 

490 
37 

262 
44 


407 
206 
301 
147 
114 
108 
362 
466 
167 
334 
465 
230 
421 

97 
150 
401 
183 

87 
251 
450 

95 


James,  Lucy  M 249 

Jameson,  Lucy  A 99 

Jewett,  Sarah  Orne    ....  428 

Jones,  Calista  R 148 

Jones,  Fannie  M 425 

Jones,  Pauline  S 47S 


K 

Kent,  Georgia  T 120 

Kimball,  Mary  Elizabeth     .     .  222 

Kinney,  I'/Uiiice  I) 200 

Kirby,  Mary  C.  W 273 

Kirk,  Lucy  A.         .....  250 

Knapp,  Roselth   A 380  1  Nottagc,  Addie  A 


Knowles,  Mary  E. 
Kotz.schmar,  Mar}'  A. 


Lambard,  Harriet  S. 
Laughton,  Marie  W. 
Lawrence,  Lillian 
Lee,  Charlotte  A.  B. 
Leighton,  Annie  H.  S. 
Lincoln,  Mary  J.  B.    . 
Livermore,  Mary  A.   . 
Loud,  Hulda  B.      .     . 
Lowe,  Martha  Perry 
Lyman,  Dorcas  H. 


pai;k. 

93 
253 


491 
437 
324 
492 
411 
35 
4.30 
471 
420 
135 


MacBride,  Marion  A.       ...  425 

Mace,  Frances  L 342 

MacGregor,  Ellen  B.             .     .  162 

MacGregor,  Mary  E.       ...  162 

Magennis,  Margaret  J.     .     .  ■  .  385 

Mann,  Martha  E.  F 339 

Mattoon,  Laura  A.  G.     .     .     .  317 

May,  Abby  Williams       .     .     .  479 

McHenry,  Mary  S 72 

Merrill,  Anne  E 236 

Merrill,  Estelle  M.  H.           .     .  37f 

Merritt,  Salome 299 

Miller,  Ida  L.  F 30«{ 

Mitchell,  Elizabeth  W.    .     .     .  34 9 

Mitchell,  Maria 4f  I 

Moore,  Ella  Maude     ....  395 

Morey,  Ellen  B 28Z 

Morton,  Deborah  N.        ...  4AO 

Moulton,  Loui.se  Chandler   .     .  t4 

Murray,  Annie  G SO 

MullV.rd,  Helen  C 181 


N 

Xason,  Emma  H. 
Xewcll,  A.  Elizabeth 
Xewell,  Ophelia  S. 
Norton,  Lillian 


209 
414 
4N, 
4!)1 
3i2 


IXDlvX 


() 


Oilh,  Ntrs.  L.  10. 
().s"i)()il,  111  la  II. 


Q 

Quinlan,  Gertrude 


R 


I  J' I 
I'M 


Itiiliri'Ndii.    Mice  K. 

l!ip|llll^nli.     \lllii('    A. 
Korku. ,n,l,    l.rll.-l     |-.    II       . 

KiiHiii.  .lciM-|iliiiic'  Si  .   I'lcrii 
Kus.>cll.  CcoiLiia  .\.      . 
Ku.-^cll.  .Iiili.-i   .\.   I'..      . 

liUsl,    .\lllll!-    ('(lllliduC 


7(i 
l.'.T 


r 


I'ackiuxl,  Helen  X.      .     . 

ISf) 

Packaid,  Lizzie  A. 

.■^r.s 

Paikcr,  S.  .\giies    . 

14:{ 

I'aiklimst,  Mary  ,1. 

Cil'i 

I'.nlin^toii,  Liira  (_'. 

■Ji) 

I'ealxMly,  IClizahelh  1'.     . 

)o:{ 

IVakes,  \-ina  H.      .     . 

hi:; 

IViuleif-ast,  KUa  W  . 

:5.-.l 

I'erkiii.s,  Annie  S. 

41(1 

I'erkiii.s,  Sarah  A. 

l.'.T 

I'ukett,  Rebccea  A.   . 

I.VJ 

I'ii.sbui y,  Anne       .     .     . 

2S(i 

Pope,  Grace  AtwoocI       .     . 

350 

Porter,  Florence  C.     .     .     . 

24fi 

Posse,  Rose  M 

105 

Pott<>r,  Isabella  A.      .     .     . 

291 

Prang,  Marj'  D.  H.     .     . 

40 

Proctor,  Edna  Dean        .     . 

438 

Piirington,  Louise  C.       .     . 

74 

Putnam,  Mary  P.        ... 

171 

489 


Ralph,  Harriet  A.       .     . 

.    2ir, 

['lichard.son,  Ellen  A. 

.     21K 

Hieker,  Katheriiie  M. 

.     344 

Ripley,  limma  J.  M. 

S'S 

Roache,  Josephine      .     . 

.     287 

Sali-iliiii  \  .  I  Irii  iiiile   r 
Sanliiii  II,  I  lilllrllii.i    I' 
Saiibiiiii,   Kale 
Secilt.   1,111  \    .1. 
Shallurk,  Annie  C.      . 
Sini|i-~iiii.   Ilaiiiel    P-    . 
Sniilli,   11(11.1   Pasiiiin 
Sniilli.  Liiuw,'  lluin|i!n-e 
Soule,  lOlizabedi  H.     . 
.South wick,  .Jessie  K. 
Spanldiiif;,  La\ina  .1. 
Spofldid,  Harriet  P.    . 
.Sjjooncr,  Flureiice  G. 
?prague,  .\iin  .M.  ^L   . 
Stanley,  Augusta  \V. 
Steeves,  .Mice  .\L    .     . 
Ste\'ens,  Lillian  M.  X. 
Stone,  Ellen  Maria 
Stone,  Lucy       .     .     . 
Sutherland,  Evelyn  G. 
Swain,  Eleanor  L. 


Talbot,  Sarah  E.    . 
Thoma.s,  Cliarldtte  .1. 
Tibbells,  |-;ivini  .\. 
Todd,  Mabel  Lomnis 
Tiiwne,  Clara  F. 
Turner,  Lizabeth  .\. 


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W  adsuiii'lli,  I. lie  S. 
Walden,  Pauline  .1. 
Widker,  .leiiiiie   P. 
Walton,  lOleela  X.  L. 
Ward.  May  Alden 
Warren,  Harriet  V.  M. 
Weber,  Flore n-e  ( •.     . 
Wellington,  L\ilia  (1. 
Wellington,  Sarah  ('.  .'. 
Wentworth,  Carolina  W 
Wetherell,  Luerelia  H. 
Whitaker,  Alice  E.  W. 
White,  .\rnienia  S. 
Whitmarsh,  Mary  A.  .S. 
Whitney,  Adelaide  D.  T 
Whitney,  Anne      .     . 
Whiton,  Ella  C.  R.     . 
W^iggiii,  Kate  Douglass 
Wilkin,  Matilda  .J.  C. 
Williams,  Elizabeth  Orr 
Windsor,  Sarah  S.       .     . 
Winslow,  Helen  .M.     .     . 
W^oodburj',  Ida  S.  \'. 
W^ooUej',  Emma  M.    .     . 


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Elizabeth   .     31'' 


PORTRAITS 


Agassiz,  'i'^lizalith^t' 
Anthoiiy.  Husan  H. 
\ylmi',  Cora  B.      . 
}iail  ;y>  Anna  M'  L. 
Bat^is,  Tryphof     D. 
^riile^>on,  Con  A. 
pigelow,  Abbi     \. 
. Sigelow,  Clara  P. 
Boit.  "Eliznlxtli  E. 
ftjyJcn,  Sarah  J.  . 
gro'-ni,  Fannie  C.  . 

tk-p.rv,iVlv^  E.  T. 
Ck5<i,Acfe(Mde  F. 

Cll^rk,  Cmio  ivi. 

Cobb,  Almeda  H. 
'i>ac  \  {rvgtone,  Nina  K. 

IXi.\c\no,  Ellen  V. 
]X;V\fe<"^J,  Helen  1. 

pf  c- Ve^  Stella  E.  P. 

tavhTOi-in,  Mar)'  F. 

Eini;rs(>ii,  Alice  W. 
Faelten,  Ma-ie  D. 
Faxon,  Grace  B.    . 


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347 
393 
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305 
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79 
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{'"ciiuick,  Mniiiic  L. 
Fwlici ,  Lur-y  li. 
Fil/,,  AilelMie  F. 
Mnil.  H;irnot  \.    . 
Foster,  Harriot  \V 
( larv,  Clara  E. 
(lilniaii,  Mary  L.    . 
(lil.son,  Helen  L.    .     .     . 
(Iiaiil,  Anna  Florence 
Greeley,  Ennna  A.      .     . 
Hartwcll,  Effie  M.  F.       . 
Heald,  L.  Isabel    .     .     . 
Hecht,  Lina  F.       ... 
Hitehroek,  Caroline  H.    . 
Howe,  Julia  Ward      .     . 
Hoyle,  Katherine  L.  . 
Hoyt,  Martha  S.    .     .     . 
Kimball,  Mary  Elizabeth 
Kinney,  Eunice  D. 
Kirby,  M.  Clara  .     . 

Meiritt,  Salome      .     .     . 
Morey,  Ellen  B.      ... 
iMoultoii,  Louise  Chandler 
Parkhurst,  Mary  J.     .     . 
Partington,  Lura  C.    .     . 


254 
234 
400 
123 
279 
109 
444 
68 
377 
57 
147 
167 
334 
421 
401 
182 
■^1 
222 
266 
273 
299 
282 
14 
06 
29 


Penderjiasl,  Ella  W. 
P(M'kiii.':,  .\nnic  S. 
Potter,  I-iabellri  A. 
Praiig,  -Maiy  1)   H 
Ralph,  Harriet  A 
Robinson,  Angle  A.     . 
Russell,  Georgia  .\. 
Rust,  .Annie  Coolidjie    *, 
Sanborn,  Guhehna  P. 
Smilii,  Dora  Baseoin 
Stanley,  Augusta  M. 
Steeves,  /Vlice  M    .     . 
Sutherland,  Evelyn  G. 
Talbot,  Sarah  E.    .     . 
Thomas,  Charlotte  J. 
Walker,  Jennie  Patrick  . 
Walton,  Electa  \.  L. 
Ward,  May  Alden       . 
Wellington,  Lydia  G. 
Wellington,  Sarah  C.  F. 
White,  .\inienia  S. 
Williams,  Elizabeth  Orr 
Woolley,  Emma  M.     . 


IVVdK 

351 
446 
291 

40 
216 
157 
383 

89 
100 
227 
128 
285 

32 
314 
119 
318 
247 

47 
177 
132 
134 

62 
210 


This  book  is  a  preservation  facsimile. 

It  is  made  in  compliance  with  copyright  law 

and  produced  on  acid-free  archival 

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which  meets  the  requirements  of 

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Preservation  facsimile  printing  and  binding 

by 

Acme  Bookbinding 

Charlestown,  Massachusetts 


2007 


BOSTON  PUBLIC  LIBRABY 

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